Thursday, March 06, 2008

Hansel and Greta Long Run

Except instead of a bread crumb trail I left a trail of snot. Now, with the collective Ewwwwwww . Seriously, there is a 25 mile route from Marietta to Historic Roswell and back marked with snot.

Gross, but I got 'er done!

It was a tough course today with lots of rollers. But it was a solid, strong run (despite the sinus issues). Legs, calves, feet felt pretty fresh. New shoes are awesome! It did get a bit ugly and uncomfortable in mile 23-24 when I had to run on the soft shoulder of the road because there was no sidewalk. It hurt and slowed me down. Generally by those last miles I like to tuck head and pound it out. The uneven terrain made that impossible.

Temperature was 45 when I started and about 70 when I finished. Changed three times before I left. Dressing for long runs has become a bit of a science experiment. Finally settled on sleeveless technical shirt, skirt, ball cap and over the calf compression socks. Out of all the runners I saw today I was the most under dressed but nevertheless I still got quite toasty in that final hour. Ended up tying the shirt to my sports bra and ran like that. Was still hot even then. Definitely not acclimated to the heat anymore. Last fall when I was doing long runs in 80-90 degree weather 70 would have have felt down right Arctic. Going to be screwed if it is hot again this year at ING.

Time came in around an 3 hours 45 minutes. Give or take. I was gone a little less than 4 hours. I am guesstimating the time by subtracting 15 minutes for the 3 times I stopped and the various traffic lights I had to wait at (about 4 major ones). My stops were: At mile 9 to pee and refill the water bottle. At mile 16 for another pee break (really more to keep an eye on hydration than out of necessity), buy Gatorade and throw away snotty mittens that had served well as a Kleenex. I stopped the last time at mile 20 to buy water and ice and have a GU. (For what it is worth this is how I do all my long runs. At this point I know I can run a marathon straight through. Subtracting time doesn't pad the run for me. Time spent running is time spent running.)

Currently I have slight sinus headache and am worried that I will be sick come tomorrow and unable to finish my planned workouts. But at the very least I am pleased to have gotten the monster run done and am looking happily at that taper sitting on my horizon.

7 comments:

  1. left a trail of snot

    LOL!! if you only knew who my bike ride went yesterday :-D

    Nice run, chica! I have ordered up perfect running record this year for ING. I want you to PR at least up to mile 23 ;-)

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  2. I meant weather, not record :-(

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  3. Good job on getting it done Ms Natalie! Running with sinus problems is difficult.

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  4. How come just 23? Why not the whole 26.2? Besides I did the whole PR until mile 23 last year (was on set for a 3:32) when I hit Peachtree and did the death march. I swear, one of these days I am going to conquer Peachtree.

    Charlie, Thanks. We all have our weaknesses and mine are sinus/respirtary infections and calf issues. Oh well. Still pushing forward.

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  5. How is your calf doing? Did the compression thing work for you on the run? Is your calf getting better? No more unusual swelling I hope!

    Charlie

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  6. Calf did not bother me at all on the run. In fact since I switched shoes I have had no issues. I've only run in them 4 times so who knows if this will continue. Part of the calf problem is fatigue. Joe told me that the calf muscles sometimes take longer to repair themselves from a run--or soemthing along those lines.

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  7. LOL! That's what I was humoruosly refering to... the final 3.2 mile uphill torture/grind session. Of course I want you to PR the whole thing. That goes without saying :-)

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