Lousy day yesterday. No, terrible is more like it. I didn't complete the full 19 mile long run. I'm absolutely furious. 3 miles short. After getting home and completing my post-run weigh-in, I am 99% sure the issue was that I was dehydrated, and I didn't realize it until it was too late. I didn’t drink much early on, but that’s not uncommon. I’m afraid today my lack of hydrating cost me. Plus, the front of my left hip was sore near the end too. But I’m also quite sure that was from a complete breakdown of my form as I began to fail, not a “real” injury. Today, my legs feel just fine, hip too.Yesterday caused me to reflect back on some of my habits, and I think I need to do a better of job in two areas:
1) Taking in the necessary calories during my run. For me, the rule of thumb says about 200 cals/hr (Cals/hr = Wt in lbs * Speed in mph * 0.189). That shouldn't be too tough, but again, I didn't get there yesterday. I just lost track of my intake, and it caught up to me.
2) Hydrating sufficiently in the days leading up to the long run. I can get bad about that, especially when I'm cooped up at my desk at home, studying as much as I am now. But I think this is a lesson best learned today, rather than in 4 weeks.
As soon as I got home and showered up, I put down a protein shake, and 3 bottles of Vitamin Water 10, all within the first 90 minutes of finishing my run. Plus I had a great dinner (Italian Skirt Steak w/balsamic onions, served over mashed Cannellini beans with garlic and rosemary, and grilled asparagus). Lots of protein. I ate like a champ, and my weight was back to where I expected it today. I feel infinitely better now. I could have gone back out last night to knock out those last 3 miles. I sure as hell wanted to! Just to make myself feel better about them. But 3 junk miles last night <> 3 miles at the end of that long run. I know. Oh, well.There were other issues that might have led to yesterday too.
1) As you could read in my previous entry, on Thursday, I just didn't feel like running, I quit after 45 minutes, and on Friday morning I decided to run the other 45 minutes, instead of taking the rest day. TAKE THE REST DAY!
2) Saturday I ran my 4 miles considerably faster than I intended to (1:00/mile faster). That was just dumb of me. It's supposed to be an easy run. I just didn't pay attention to my watch to see I overran it.
3) And finally, late on Saturday night I had a couple of beers, a “4th meal” (albeit a small one) at BW3's watching the Carolina/Nova game with some buddies, and did not get to bed until 12:30AM. None of that could have helped either.
None of those things are major sins, I know. But they certainly don't help, and they can add up. I need to be smarter than that. I need to remember what’s important, and make more appropriate choices (food, hydration, rest, etc.) as May 3rd gets closer. And I know that coming up short yesterday isn’t the end of the world. But I have no intention of coming up short at the Pig. And that is why not getting through yesterday's long-run worries me slightly. If I struggle on the 20-miler this weekend, I'll be in panic mode. Just going to try and forget about yesterday, learn my lesson (again), and move on.
1) Taking in the necessary calories during my run. For me, the rule of thumb says about 200 cals/hr (Cals/hr = Wt in lbs * Speed in mph * 0.189). That shouldn't be too tough, but again, I didn't get there yesterday. I just lost track of my intake, and it caught up to me.
2) Hydrating sufficiently in the days leading up to the long run. I can get bad about that, especially when I'm cooped up at my desk at home, studying as much as I am now. But I think this is a lesson best learned today, rather than in 4 weeks.
As soon as I got home and showered up, I put down a protein shake, and 3 bottles of Vitamin Water 10, all within the first 90 minutes of finishing my run. Plus I had a great dinner (Italian Skirt Steak w/balsamic onions, served over mashed Cannellini beans with garlic and rosemary, and grilled asparagus). Lots of protein. I ate like a champ, and my weight was back to where I expected it today. I feel infinitely better now. I could have gone back out last night to knock out those last 3 miles. I sure as hell wanted to! Just to make myself feel better about them. But 3 junk miles last night <> 3 miles at the end of that long run. I know. Oh, well.There were other issues that might have led to yesterday too.
1) As you could read in my previous entry, on Thursday, I just didn't feel like running, I quit after 45 minutes, and on Friday morning I decided to run the other 45 minutes, instead of taking the rest day. TAKE THE REST DAY!
2) Saturday I ran my 4 miles considerably faster than I intended to (1:00/mile faster). That was just dumb of me. It's supposed to be an easy run. I just didn't pay attention to my watch to see I overran it.
3) And finally, late on Saturday night I had a couple of beers, a “4th meal” (albeit a small one) at BW3's watching the Carolina/Nova game with some buddies, and did not get to bed until 12:30AM. None of that could have helped either.
None of those things are major sins, I know. But they certainly don't help, and they can add up. I need to be smarter than that. I need to remember what’s important, and make more appropriate choices (food, hydration, rest, etc.) as May 3rd gets closer. And I know that coming up short yesterday isn’t the end of the world. But I have no intention of coming up short at the Pig. And that is why not getting through yesterday's long-run worries me slightly. If I struggle on the 20-miler this weekend, I'll be in panic mode. Just going to try and forget about yesterday, learn my lesson (again), and move on.
Speaking of the 20-miler, that all-important training run marathoners refer to as the true test of where your training has gotten you…I have a friend who is part of local running club that is going to be running the final 20.2-ish miles of the Pig course on Saturday, and I was invited to join them. I think I just might do that and swap my Sa & Su runs. I wanted to cover the course somehow, prior to race day, and this would be the perfect way to do it. Plus, running with others might be a great way to help me ensure I complete the run. They even plan to have aid stations set up too. Score! And it would get me out running at the same time as the race, i.e. early morning, which I am not crazy about, but will have to start getting in the habit of doing. I think my wife’s family is planning on having dinner out as a group on Friday, so I’ll have to be extra careful.
So here are last week’s totals, and this week’s plan.
Week 12 mileage: 47.79 (3 miles short of plan, from long run)
Weeks 0-12 mileage: 501.35
Week 13 schedule:
M: rest
T: 3x1 CI (7:53/mile), 3x800 SI (3:34/800), yoga
W: WT, 3 miles + 6x100 S
Th: 75-min run, including 6:00-8:00 TUT, yoga
F: rest
Sa: 4 miles, WT
Su: 20 miles
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