Worst Run Ever!

Last week, ShoeMoney and I were in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania.  My weekly long run was a 16 miler and I hammered it without any problem.  We were there for a wedding.  Since the Nike Plus is so handy for charting miles, I brought that along to track my progress.  Unfortunately, I somehow “lost” the ram chip among my luggage and couldn’t find it among all my stuff.  So I ran by time-not by the Nike Plus.    I did went up and down the streets, racking up the miles until I had run for 3.5 hours-which I figured was about right for 12 minute miles, plus potty breaks.

We came home and I continued a pretty good streak, hitting all my mileage goals for the short runs for this week.  I am starting to feel worn down and tired but I just kept pushing it.  Today, I got up about 7 am for the planned 16 miler, my long run of the week.  This is the last 16 miler and then I bump up to 18 for the next two weeks before starting to taper for the marathon.  I choked, big time.

I did pretty well the first 11 miles but I felt down, tired and wiped out before I even hit the ten mile mark.  I started to really struggle about mile 12, started walking and running a little and then kept walking.  I was going around Holmes Lake at that point and a group of high-school runners were going around the other direction.  They looked all chipper and fit and just made me feel all old and weak.  I had developed a corn on my toe earlier in the week and now it was killing me.  I could feel some blisters popping up too.  I was just hurting-all of me was hurting.  Plus I had to go to the bathroom and there was none in sight.

I mostly walked to the corner of 70 and Pioneers and went into the gas station.  I used the bathroom.  Sitting felt great-I could rest, finally!  But I had two miles to go to get home.  There was no way I was going to call Jeremy to come and get me so it was either walk it or run it but I had to do it.  I bought and drank a Gatorade and headed home. 

I ran the last mile.  I just forced myself to do it.  I counted to 100 and then counted to 100 again and then my Nike Plus was telling me I had 400 meters to go so I just kept running until I was done.  The whole thing took me about 4 hours.  Even then, I had another 1/2 mile to walk to get home.  My feet were killing me.  When I took off my shoes, the blisters were worst then I imagined.  I hobbled to the shower and can barely walk much more than that. 

I started to think about what happened today.  I really go scared because I realized that if today had been race day-I think I would have given up with ten miles left to go.  I don’t know how I could have done another 10 miles today.  I have 5 more weeks to prepare-and this is crunch time.  I am not screwing up now so I better fix whatever went wrong today.

So what went wrong?  I think I failed to prepare for today’s run well and next week, I am going to pay attention to these key items:

1)  I got up a little later than planned, by 10 am it was pretty hot which made my run even harder.  An hour earlier would have made a big difference.

2)  I wore uncomfortable high-heels last night to dinner.  So this morning, my feet were already hurting from with blisters starting from last night.  My feet need rest and comfort from here on out.

3)  I did not practice my mental techniques to keep myself in a positive state of mind about the run.  Instead I let myself get anxious and upset about the coming week (which is going to be difficult) and other life stresses.  I did not use my mantra, I did not replay my “positive running tape” in my mind.  I basically lost it mentally.  At one point I even cried a little because I was feeling weak and worthless and my run went to shit.  WTF!?  I am MARATHONER and marathoners don’t cry!  I need to set up a chit-chat with my sports psychologist, Brandon and reinforce good mental habits to keep myself focused on positive even when it gets hard.

4) I need to eat and drink better.  I did okay on the hydration.  Drinking plenty the day before the run, puts me on the right track for hydration during the run.  I have been more lax with my diet-just eating too much crap.  I also had a Banzai last night at ShoGun-no alcohol before a run from now on. 

The game plan here is not just to get better everyday but to really improve.  I want to hammer out the first 18 miles of this marathon with no problem.  I can tackle the last six after that.  But I should not be struggling with the first 16-18 miles.  That should be old hat by the time I hit marathon day. 

I was watching a profile on Olympic Skater Christi Yamaguchi today-her coach was talking about how great athletes are forge during the bad times.  Everybody can get through the easy workouts, the easy wins are fun-it is the hard ones, the ones where real struggle takes place that realy growth also takes place.  So I have hit my truly hard weeks, the long ass runs ARE tough-but this is where I earn it.

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