Next race: The Wall

Well, I did it. I signed up for another race. I couldn't stand sitting around all winter waiting for the Mardi Gras Marathon, which is a full 2 months after my most recent marathon, the pretty awful Thunder Road in Charlotte. So I signed up for The Wall, a 30k the last weekend in January. Much like last year, I signed up for this race while out of shape and sick, thinking it would be an incentive. I think last year this is the race that nearly killed me. I was extremely injured - like, every part of my body - and got a bad bacterial infection after. This might have been related to running 18+ miles in bitter cold wind in capris and layered cotton T-shirts, since I didn't own any cold weather running clothes last year.
This is a picture of the course last year AFTER THE FINISH. At the start it was darker, colder, and bleaker. And the bridge looked even more like a torture instrument.

Just seeing this picture from last year gives me knee pain.

Now, I've come a long way running since last year. For one thing, I have two working knees as opposed to one knee and one water balloon full of tiny daggers. For another, I bought running tights. Take that, cold weather! I also have a few more long runs under my belt, by which I mean I've done a couple of marathons. I don't really do that well on the long runs if they aren't a race... which is precisely why I'm running The Wall.


This year, I have a few goals for The Wall.
1. Stay with the pack. Last year a large group of runners started early, allowing the state championship competitors to start together. I started late and ended up stranded right in the middle between the fast people and the slow people. Zero wind protection and zero companionship.
2.Start strong. I had only one long run under my belt last year and wasn't sure how to pace myself; combined with the rough head-wind I started out extremely slowly.
3. No Wall at the The Wall. I thought there was course support last year (because the flyer said there was) but there was only water. Or I was so slow there was only water left when I got there. My blood sugar plummeted. This year I'll bring Gu!
4. Beat my time from last year. Hahahahahaha! If I don't beat last year's pathetic time of 2:55 it means I walked it.

What's your next race? Do you use races for long runs? Have you ever had a horrible, terrible running experience and then willingly chose to recreate it? Hee hee.

Mardi Gras marathon launch, long run, and Tony Bennett

- If you're in New Orleans the MGM launch party is going to be hosted by Varsity Sports/Brooks and will be at City Park. There's a costume run at 5:30 and I hope give aways. Free stuff is my favorite!
- Today was another long run Thursday. I decided to squeeze it in this morning. Then I decided not to. Then I was forced to. Whatever, it's a long story, click my dailymile widget to read it. I don't feel like typing it twice. The second segment of the run was tough: Although the temperature had dropped 12 degrees from when I started (not making this up), there was a gusty wind and I was struggling against it for much of the run. Also it kind of sucks to think you're finished, then have to go back out. Boo.
Once I got home, I had some apple cider since I'm out of club soda (my favorite post-run drink). Then I ate the world's most enormous egg burrito. It was huge. It had potato, red pepper, scallions, cilantro, avocado, salsa, cheese, and THREE eggs. I could barely roll it. It needed Spanx for food. (Did anyone see the SNL Spanx for babies skit?) Actually I'm still staring at it because I can't get the rest of it down. I ate about 2/3 and now it's acting all smug, like it won some kind of bet. Geez.
Lately I've been eating eggs a lot after I run. I wonder why? Are they easy to digest? A fast meal for a hungry runner? A good source of protein? Or am I just too lazy to make a real lunch?
- Tonight we have a date night! We're going to a Tony Bennett concert. In preparation we've been listening to Tony Bennett all week, and it's making David all romantic. On Tuesday he brought me flowers!
What do crave/eat after a long run?
and
Do long runs scare you? No matter how many 20's I run, every time I leave the house for one I have a "What am I thinking? Humans can't run this far!" moment. Then I get over it. But it strikes momentary terror into my well-conditioned heart. How about you?

My pal Ricky Jackson

This morning I got to hang out with hall of famer Ricky Jackson. Now THAT'S what I call a work meeting!
***
Long run debate: I have a half marathon on Saturday. I work on Sunday but I have this Thursday and Friday off. But Friday I have a morning work meeting. Then I work all next week and leave for vacation the week after. The first weekend of vacation I have a marathon (What is wrong with me, ruining a perfectly good vacation with a 26 mile run?). Therefore, I need to get a 20 miler in this week, but I can really only do it Thursday morning or Friday afternoon, unless I run the race on Saturday and follow it with an additional 7 miles.
What's the call here? When should I squeeze in my 20?

Guest post....a FIRST TIME TWENTY MILER!

This post is from Abbi at Higher Miles, a blog that catalogs her amazing journey from running her very first 5k to a full marathon...in one year. Her blog also has a club that I am very jealous of. It is called "Distance Dreamers" and it is a group of runners who are doing their first marathon and have banded together to share encouragement, tips, and training tricks. I am not eligible to join. This makes me pout. But if you're up to your first marathon, you better get over to Higher Miles and check these dreamers out.
Abbi and I discovered that we were both running the Freedom's Run marathon in Shepherdstown WV this coming October. Since our training plans are similar, we thought it would be fun to share our first twenty-miler recaps. Mine was way back when, and it sucked. Abbi's was this weekend, and it was...well, read for yourself!

It’s Abbi, from Higher Miles. Grace and I are training for the same marathon, Freedom’s Run at the beginning of October. Several weeks ago, I posted her first 20-miler recap. I was scheduled to run my first 20-miler last week…but it didn’t happen. Since I am new to training for a marathon and somewhat new to running in general, it seemed like the increase of miles was starting to catch up with me. I was starting to get pains that didn’t seem like they were just normal minor aches from being tired. They seemed to be pains that could get potentially worse if I continued to push it. So, I didn’t. I skipped the long run last week and threw a few small fits about it.
This week I had to work out of town but was able to spend the week at my parents house to avoid hotel living. This gave me access to a park, literally in their back yard for my mid-week runs. I worked crazy hours, ate way too many meals at restaurants but still managed to get in some 5-milers throughout the week and the runs felt 100 times better. I started to feel much better about skipping the long run over the weekend and am sure it was the right decision.
On Friday, I made my way back home and caught up on some much needed sleep. On Saturday, I headed out for another short 5-6 mile run and was feeling good about the idea of 20 miles the next day.
After another good night of sleep, I woke up around 6:00 AM Sunday morning and started getting ready to head out for the run. I wasted some time gathering up my G2, GU Chomps, shoes, headband, mp3 player, etc. Soon enough, it was time to head out.
And, the rest of the run? To be perfectly honest, it was completely uneventful. No major aches or pains, no breakdowns, no stomach pains…nothing. Just three and a half hours of solid, slow running. No stops, no breaks. The time went by surprisingly fast. I did get kind of lost once but that just made a couple of miles go by a little quicker. I went a new direction, as I usually do for the long runs, and did not end up where I thought would. In fact, I kept hitting a major road no matter what street I turned down and I really couldn’t believe I could be that close to that road!
There were no angry dog run-ins, just a few that didn’t really like me running past their front yards, but they stayed in their fenced in yards. No wildlife encounters – I usually run into a few deer in some of the quiet areas or see a group of wild turkeys in a field, but not today. No creepy people, just people going out to their mailbox to pick up the morning paper and a few walkers enjoying the beautiful day.
The weather was perfect, a breezy 60 degrees. I felt great the whole way. I only wished I had remembered my sunglasses since it was beautiful, sunny morning. I rarely looked at my watch but started glancing at it more often as I neared the 20-mile mark. Once again, it just made me realize how much is mental and about how I set myself up for the run. For all these long runs, it’s always the last mile when I start wanting to be finished but I know I could have gone further if I had planned for it.
Nothing better than a successful attempt at 20 miles! After an ice bath, some chocolate milk, a big bowl of cereal and a wonderful shower, I spent some time lounging around before I decided I was still starving and in the mood for something ‘soft’. Yeah, that’s sounds weird, but it’s what I wanted. I decided to head Bob Evans of all places and proceeded to order an open-faced hot turkey sandwich, a salad and pumpkin pie. The waitress may have thought things were a little odd as I kept ordering things and ate every single placed in front of me while my husband just had this little salad, but it worked and satisfied my craving.
I’ve been a happy camper the rest of the day and 20 miles was a definite success. Freedom’s Run – I’m getting ready!
WOW - inspirational from a girl who just ran her very first 20-miler, right?! That makes me want to go grab my shoes and run twenty right now!
Read more about Abbi's training at her blog, Higher Miles.

Long run not-really-fail

This post is in a rush because I came back from my long run to a text message telling me to get into work an hour and a half early for a follow-up conference call. So I kind of have to eat some lunch and get moving.
This morning's run turned out to be not so bad. The worst part was that I had to cut it short, to just 20 miles - my goal was 22 because I feel like I need to hit the wall and keep going a few times before this race. However, I got up so late this morning (I started my run around 7:45! Sun had been up for an hour!) that I wanted to make it home in time to finish packing for my trip to see my sister before work. As it turns out, that was a smart choice, because otherwise I would be rushing to make that conference call.
So, here's the stats:
Distance: 20 miles
Time: 2:51:53 (I am nothing if not consistent; last 20 miler was 2:51:27!)
Pace: Um, quick math in head, um, 8:35?
Shoes: New Balance lightweights. I wanted to try them out and they were definitely light and fast; I didn't feel any knee pain but the jury is still out until tomorrow (wait until I stand up for 9.5 hours then sit in a car for 8.5).
Fuel: Oatmeal. It rocks. I brought a Gu with me; didn't need it. I also brought some energy chews which I pitched. More on the chews later. I'm trying to get my little brother to write a blog review on them since he eats them for runs over 20 miles.
Hydration: I brought gatorade, but with the sun up the heat was kind of getting to me. I took multiple water breaks, which affected my time. I did stop my watch while in Rite Aid for 2 fill-ups.
Crappy part: So last night, in anticipation of this run, I took a 7.5 mg meloxicam. Meloxicam is an NSAID, like ibuprofen, but it targets musculoskeletal inflammation. My knee has been aching and puffy lately so I thought it was a good idea. The only problem is that the drug doesn't do much for certain other prostaglandins, ie, the ones that cause uterine cramps. I couldn't add in ibuprofen, or I'd overdose and shut my kidneys down (esp during times of near dehydration like long runs!). So that left me with crazy pain. The same thing happened to me during the Mardi Gras marathon and I almost couldn't finish. This time I actually had to stop and beg for drugs from a park worker. He scrounged up a tylenol, thank goodness, but waiting for him to find me something set me back on time. Hence the early finish.
Great part: Before the cramps set in, I was running an 8 to 8:15 pace with no problem; I kept it up until mile 15 when I started feeling like a man was beating me to death with a baseball bat from the inside out. Also great is that there was absolutely no "wall" in site. I felt comfortable stopping at 20 because I knew I wouldn't hit the wall even at 22, 24...hopefully 26! Besides cramps, I felt great in every other way. And my time was good even with the set backs (although I felt it should have been faster than last time since I was in my lightest shoes).
Ok, off to work to save the world, one flu shot at a time. By the way, if you live in Nola, I'll hook ya up. I give the most pain-free shots this side of the Mississippi.
Q for you:
I am sending hubby to pack us lunches for tomorrow's road trip. Ideas?

Long run FAIL prediction

I predict I'm about to go suck it miserably on my long run. Here's why:
1. I changed my work schedule around and dumped an important conference call on a colleague JUST so I could do this long run, so it's certain to fail.
2. The hubby forgot to turn the alarm on so I'm an hour and a half behind schedule.
3. I'll still be running past 10 am....major heat.
4. Pouring rain possible.
5. Cramps. (I don't even warn you when it's TMI anymore!)
6. Despite my injury-free training, my knee and shin are bothering me.
7. I have a bad attitude.
See you later to recap all this whining with tails of the real thing!

Running weather! And a running review.

Finally, some cool weather for my long run! Of course it fell on a step-back week, darn. Today I ran in 85 degrees, with a heat index of 90. Seriously. I don't think I've run when the heat index is below triple digits since May. It felt amazing! I was supposed to do 12 miles today; I ended up with 13.5 in a fast 1:48, an 8 minute pace on the nose.
This demonstrates what heat will do to you. I can run a 9:30 in the heat and be putting out more effort.
I wanted to go further, but I was getting hungry and thirsty. I didn't bring any fluids with me, relying on water fountains instead, and had 3 GU chomps; I think that despite the cool weather and overcast skies I was sweating enough to have perhaps needed some gatorade before I left. I decided to quit while I was ahead and get home before I got faint.
This run brings up an interesting question. Today I wore my lightweight New Balance which I have totally neglected because they are too narrow and not too padded. I have so much sweat in my Saucony's that I dreaded putting my feet into their dampness, so I went with the NB's. And I feel ok. There is very little cushioning, but I loved the lighter weight. They're a full 3 ounces lighter per shoe! Should I run the marathon in the New Balance (given that I have a few more successful trial runs)? Or stick with the Saucony's?
And now a review of...
ENDOMONDO.
Endomondo is basically a "Garmin" that you can download to your phone.Neat idea, right? Similar to Garmin, you can download your stats and the website has a workout community, etc. I loved the idea - Garmins are hundreds of dollars, but Endomondo membership is completely free. Unfortunately, I simply can't get the program to work. The biggest issue is that the satellite pick up is spotty. Check out this fantastic run of 833 miles completed in ten minutes. Yeah.
If I could find a satellite, I would have addressed the other issue: porting my phone. Not every phone works with an armband - in fact, there isn't one available for my Blackberry. But I heard that you can fit it into a particular generic armband and cut a little hole so you can access the control wheel! For my practice runs, I slipped the phone into a baggie and ran holding it. Obviously this was hard to do, especially while attempting to locate a satellite, but it also wasn't healthy for my phone. It steamed up inside the bag, even though is wasn't sealed, and my phone froze. I had to stop, remove my battery, and let it reboot.
I tried the program four times, with these results:
1. Found satellite after 9 minutes outside. Lost satellite within a minute; timer keeps ticking so your pace is totally off.
2. Never found satellite. Gave up and started running. Even at end of 5 miles still searching for satellite.
3. Found satellite in a few minutes, I started out with high hopes; realize halfway through that I'd lost the satellite again. Discovered that I'd run 833 miles when I got home.
4. Found satellite after over 25 minutes of waiting. Phone froze half a mile in. Gave up.
So...wish I could recommend Endomondo but I can't because of satellite issues. Too bad, it sounded like such a fantastic idea!

Best twenty miler ever!

I'm relaxing after my weekly long run, my sweaty self plunked on a towel chomping toast. I can't believe I just finished twenty miles and I feel this good! I'm having my post-run "not about to barf" snack: whole wheat toast and club soda.
Have I discussed my adoration of club soda*? It is amazing after a run. I crave it while I'm running. The carbonation settles my stomach (for one thing, it neutralizes acid; for another, bubbles stimulate the gut to normal motility to head of cramps), and if you read the bottle most club soda contains potassium and sodium salts. Just what I need after a run! I often drink an entire liter post-run.
My run today was awesome for two reasons:
1. It was fast, 2:51:27. That is my fastest twenty-mile to date.
2. I felt amazing the whole time. I could have done another 6.2 no sweat!
The difference has to do a little with the course: I planned a course in areas I was familiar with, and it included four loops in Audubon park to make sure I was always near a water fountain. There was also way less traffic and stops on this route!
Another difference was the weather: not running in saturated shoes through ankle deep water and mud was so much nicer. And even though it hit the low-90's, I felt like the weather was ok this morning. My educated guess was humidity about 92% early on, then more like 85% later. Not bad at all!
The biggest difference, however, was fuel.
To avoid last week's hypoglycemic drama, I ate two pieces of toast with butter and honey late last night. Then I woke up early and had a cup of coffee and a tiny bowl of oatmeal with leftover cherry-brandy sauce from my book club (brandy at 6 am!). Then I brought with me my new favorite fuel mix: Frozen Vitamin Water Revive with potassium, half a GU from last week, and a small ziploc bag with a few tablespoons of cooked oatmeal! I heavily salted the oatmeal because the Vitamin Water has no sodium. Just lots of potassium.

During the run, I ate the half GU at 45 minutes in, then swallowed some oatmeal every half hour thereafter. I LOVED IT. The reason I brought the salty oatmeal was to make up for the lack of sodium in my beverage, and because I'm getting to the point where I can't stomach sweet stuff while running. It's ok with water, but when I'm drinking a sweet drink it completely grosses me out. The oatmeal was much easier to handle in both taste and effect on tummy, although I did get the sense it was swelling a little in my stomach as I drank! The only drawback is that it's hard to eat. You have to open up the baggie and squeeze some into your mouth, which is way harder than it is with a gel. In order to not make a mess I walked as I ate the oatmeal and washed it down. It gave me a running break and really didn't affect my time much - maybe added 30 seconds for each break. No biggie.

A photo of my heroes!
The only drawback to today's run was that I chose a cotton T-shirt. It was a sticky wet mess in minutes and stuck to my stomach the whole time. Oh,that and the guy who asked for directions right as I left the house, then stepped up close and murmured, "Thank you. You are kind and beautiful," to which I saucily replied, "Yeah, and you're drunk and creepy" before dashing off. Running shoes give me unwarranted bravery!
I guess it's time to go scrape the salt of my face in the shower. I really feel like if I sold the salt I produce running I'd cause the world salt market to plummet, thus leading to third world chaos.
So has anyone had those just wonderful runs that stand out in awesomeness? Do you still remember them, or has one or two rally crappy marathons totally sponged them from your consciousness? Care to share? :)
* Not to be confused with tonic water, which contains quinine and sugars. However, if you have leg cramps, may I recommend tonic water before bed? Diet tonic water if you're a diabetic? That was free from your friendly pharmacist.

20...ugh, gasp, gasp, miles.

I managed a twenty miler in the pouring rain, dehydrated, with low blood sugar, and major stomach cramps. Ugh. Sometimes you just have to run through it!
AND AFTER THAT WAS THE FREAKIN' SAINTS GAME, I am so glad football is back!!!! They lost, but it was close. And it's just pre-season. And Hartley can play basically any position that involve kicking a ball.
Why no long run recap? Especially when it involves paramedics, a salvaged water bottle, and another classic Grace get hopelessly lost move?
Well, because...I'm recapping it over at Abbi's totally cool blog Higher Miles. Abbi is running the Freedom's Run marathon this year, too, and we found each other blogcidentally. Since we're training for the same event, we'll be trading our fist twenty miler stories! Kind of a check up on training. Aren't we too cute?!
Of course I don't know when she's posting the recap because I actually haven't, you know, written it yet. I'm too busy eating everything in the house that is not actually integral to the structure of the building (David is keeping a safe distance from my voracious appetite).
But go ahead and check out her blog anyway, 'cause you'll like it, and then stop back by and read my very blistery run recap!
Back to my food. FYI there is caviar in my keyboard now. Don't ask.

Longish run and why I love Google Maps

What the heck, two posts today. I'm off work :)
Today was a step-back week in marathon training, and boy was I glad to just do ten miles. For some reason my quads have been KILLING me lately, and I rarely get sore muscles. I was also pleased to have a shorter run because I didn't get out of bed. It is SO HARD to roll out of bed at the crack of dawn knowing that it's a day off! So I didn't. I slept in. Then it looked stormy out, so I postponed my run. I made muffins while I waited for the rain to start. That way, I'd be out of the house running while the deathly hot kitchen cooled down (my kitchen A/C is out, remember?). Cle-vah!
Well, I finally got all my gear together at about 10:45 am. I planned to do this route:

only it would be over ten including the run to and from my house. Never fear, Google Maps to the rescue! I always use Google Maps to calculate my actual distance because I don't have a Garmin or other fun toys. This route is amazing because it covers a gigantic section of the city. There are a few problems, though. It goes through high traffic areas with hot cars, construction, and lots of stops for one. That bites. It also has a few blocks of slightly shady areas...crime shady, I mean. Not tree shady. This is a really sunny route. My last problem was water. There are no public fountains along the way. I fixed this by carrying a bottle and sneaking my sweaty self into a Walgreens and a Rite Aid on the route. Tip for other NOLA runners: Rite Aid on St Charles and Louisiana has a cold water cooler by the pharmacy!
I was enjoying my run until I hit the tourist-y section of Canal Street. The weather was surprisingly cool and breezy - not sure the temp, but definitely under 90 (at mid-day!). The sun- and people - came out on Canal, and then, um, I got lost. Somehow I missed St. Charles! I ended up running all the way to the river, then doubling back in confusion, then making some big loop... and finally finding St Charles. Then I promptly ran the opposite way on St Charles until I realized my error. After I hit St Charles I felt like I was almost home (although the stop at Rite Aid was most welcome. My water was all hot by then).
After the run I used trusty ol' Google Maps AGAIN to find out how far I actually went. I really ran 12.2. So much for a ten miler.
Since it's summer, talk to me about your water stops. How often? Do you carry a bottle? Are you insane, like one of my friends, who never drinks on the run (even ten miles)?

Good Morning!

And happy long-run day, haha!
Thanks for all the sweet comments and congrats yesterday on our anniversary. I also loved all the comments about married vs. single life and the special aspects of each. I can relate to all of those, on both sides! Looking back at my wedding pics reminded me that I wanted to do a few posts on my wedding - I was on a very strict budget, both of time and money, yet I pulled off a unique wedding for under $8000 total. This included every single dime we spent, from the rings to the reception. The average New Orleans wedding costs $36,500 (the national average is about $30000) so I feel pretty good about cost. I might put up some posts on saving money without stressing out. If I can get my act together :)
Yesterday the hus surprised me with this Mignon Faget cuff: I love it but I wish he'd quit getting me extravagant gifts when all I gave him was a leftover Christmas card with the verse crossed out and my own message written inside.

So, my long run: I resolutely set the alarm for 5 am this morning, then I checked the weather and saw that it was 90 degrees with 90% humidity basically from 3 am to 7 am. What's the point of even getting out of bed? I ended up getting on the road at a little past 6, maybe 6:10. It was already warm and super muggy, but I was prepared this time: I brought Cliff shot blocks (which are pricey, geez, over $2.50, good thing there are 2 servings in there), gatorade, and a little baggie of sea salt and potassium tablets. I was going to compound my own capsules, but I didn't have time to swing by Castellon pharmacy and pick up some empty capsules. Sometimes I like to play pharmacist.
This run went ok. I was feeling slow and sluggish from the start and I had "heavy legs". This is because yesterday I tried a new workout as my cross train day, and I whomped my thighs.* Plus I forgot my compression hose yesterday at work. But really it was ok; I have super sore stiff quads now but I got through my run well and even picked up the pace for the last few miles. I was a lot slower altogether compared to last week, but I think part of that is my chosen route: going up and down St Charles ave a few times during commuter hours is slow going - lots of traffic turning in front of you and lots of lights. I also had some longer walk breaks because it takes a freaking long time to chew those shot blocks; I tried running and chewing and it was making me queasy so I canned that idea. I had 3 shot blocks and about 13 ounces of gatorade, plus 90 mg of potassium and a highly exact pinch of salt.
My shot blocks review:
Good:
-More portable for spaced calories - you can eat 33 calories at a time instead of trying to squeeze out small portions of GU, then run holding an open GU pack.
-Kind of like eating candy! Yummy!
-Nice, healthy ingredients (I mean, as far as fake foods go).
-It was a pleasant change to chew something instead of swallowing gel.
Bad:
-I could feel them in my stomach, but take that with a grain of salt because I get sick to my stomach a lot when I run.
-After eating them I felt like brushing my teeth for the rest of the run.
Have you tried shot blocks? What's your running fuel?
*If you're wondering, it wasn't some awesome thigh workout. It was a Women's Day ab workout, and I was obviously doing everything wrong since my abs feel fine and my thighs hurt!

It's all about the gatorade!

On my new training schedule, Thursdays are my long run day. Last week I had a really, really bad long run (14 miles). I nearly passed out, I felt sick the whole day, and I had several days of low blood pressure thanks to severe electrolyte loss. Oh, and the cramping? My calves and abs seemed permanently crunched. I was doing so poorly during the run that at mile ten I detoured home and chugged some OJ. That perked me up enough to finish the last four miles without stopping (I'd stopped multiple times throughout the ten miles); my last four miles were under 9 min/mile pace which was good compared to my first ten! When I had sufficiently recovered (like, by Sunday)I tried to analyze the run to see where I went wrong. Here's my list of problems and solutions:
1. Problem: I overheated before five miles. Solution: I started running at about 9:30 am. Too late in the day! I have to start earlier or much later.
2. Problem: My head felt baked by mile two. I had slight burns on my cheeks even with sunscreen. Solution: Wear a white running hat and select a shady route. The route I've been using for long runs starts with a ten-mile back bone; I add loops in Audubon park to increase distance. Unfortunately the ten mile route involves a stretch of shadeless levee that ALWAYS does me in! I think I need to abandon this route for the summer.
3. Problem: Excessive sweating meant excessive electrolyte loss and dehydration. I ate a GU on the way but if I hadn't stopped for juice I think I would have fainted on the trail. There are water fountains along the route in the park, but not for the first 5 miles, or during the distance I ran up St Charles (about another 5 miles). I brought a water bottle with me that I froze prior to my run, but it was completely melted in about 15 minutes. It quickly grew warm (I drank it anyway). If you don't mind a little TMI, I'll tell you that I was so dehydrated post-run that I couldn't produce urine for 12 hours. It was BAD. Solution: Bring gatorade/water mix on the run, bring GU, stop at every fountain, start madly licking the sweat that trickles past the lips.
4. Problem: Tired legs. I stand up 8 hours a day. My feet and legs always hurt! Solution: Wear compression support hose to work the day before a long run. I should be wearing them everyday anyway!
5. Problem: No fuel. I didn't want stomach cramps, so lsat week I didn't eat before the run. Plus I brought a berry GU and I cannot stomach the fruity GU's. Solution: Run earlier, before morning insulin release lowers blood sugar; eat carbs the night before. I hesitate to eat the morning of a run unless I have time for digestion and I usually don't because, hello, love me some sleep! Of course, eating GU helps too.

So, did my planning work? Let's recap:
Problem 1: I did get up earlier and was out of the house by 7:15. However, that's not nearly early enough. The sun was beating down by 8:00 and it was killer hot (Actually there is a heat advisory today until 7 pm and it was 89 degrees with a heat index of 104 by 9:00 am. But it was still better than last week).
Problem 2: I ran all the way down St Charles Ave plus several loops in Audubon this time; there was more shade, but large sections of St Charles are still quite sunny and my lips got a sunburn. I hate lip sunburns. Also I forgot my hat.
Problem 3: This time I brought gatorade and water (3:1 mix) and it made all the difference! Only I ran out about 3/4 of the way through; not sure how to solve this problem (Larger bottle? Stash some in the park?) but I need to because I felt my pace drop once I ran out. I started on water and GU after I ran out of gatorade and I did ok.
Problem 4: I wore the nasty old lady hosiery yesterday and my legs felt good the whole run.
Problem 5: I did eat bread and rice cereal last night but I still started feeling a tad faint during the run. I didn't finish my GU because honestly warm espresso ooze washed down with warm water was making me want to puke. I still need to work on this one.
All in all, I felt great during and after this run; I did 16 miles in 2:18:50, and the only time I turned off my watch was when I dashed into Rite Aid to fill up my water bottle and when I waited an excessively long time to cross at Lee Circle. Sometime I turn off my watch when I stop for water and GU or for crossing busy intersections but in the interests of more accurate time I let it run.
I filled my bottle back up with gatorade for the next long run... I skipped the water this time.

Now since it's my day off I'm going to relax and recover before I have to clean my fridge. I've been putting that off for (I'm ashamed to say it) a month. As a reward I'm hitting the farmer's market later for fresh produce to fill my fresh clean fridge!

Marathon training, re-worked

Eh. I had to re-work all my runs in my marathon training plan. Paperwork, math, thinking, blah.
Here's why: my new work schedule has me working every third weekend. On the other two weekends I go to church. Thus, Sunday mornings runs would have to start at, oh, 4 am (at least once I got to the long ones). Not happening. Even with my old-lady Saturday night schedule of a nice dinner, a book, and early bed - not happening.
However, Thursdays I work either super late, super early, or not at all. So I re-worked my schedule to put my long runs on Thursday - early morning or late afternoon/evening - and my cross train day on Friday. That way I get to go to the Friday kickboxing class which is super duper fun (I did it this morning)!
I also canceled some short runs - 3 or 4 miles - and replaced them with timed hills runs. There is one tiny stretch of levee with two built in hills, so basically the plan is to run that itty bitty stretch of ground over and over again for 40 minutes. I can already hardly contain my excitement. But I'm getting skeered of the hills so I thought it was needed.
Yesterday I brilliantly decided to test out my afternoon run options and went for a 12 miler at 1 pm. It was 97 degrees. That's just the heat. Heat index with the humidity was astronomical. For some reason the Audubon Park area is always hotter than other places (airport, westbank) when the weather guys go over the day's highs and lows; naturally that's where I run!
So anyway. I carried water this time since there are no fountains until about mile 5 and I decided to do a stop-walk-drink-water thing every ten minutes. I knew it would impact my time, but maybe I wouldn't die that way. Unfortunately, ten minutes apart is too much time in this kind of heat. I quickly decided to make that every five, and I stuck to that schedule down Carrollton (no shade), back up Carrollton to the levee (total hell; no shade or breeze; this part of the course is murder), and over the "fly", the riverfront park that leads into Audubon park. Once you hit Audubon there's some breeze and shade so I went back to every ten minutes for water breaks. I left the park and continued up St Charles to General Pershing St and back to the park. At this point, thank you God, a thunderstorm threatened and the sun finally went behind a cloud, giving me a much-needed break from the heat. As I headed back to the park I realized that I was slowing considerably and my muscles felt crampy. I remembered that I hadn't really eaten all day! Between no glucose and no electrolytes (my clothes were sweat-saturated within ten minutes of leaving the house) I was losing energy fast. Thank goodness I had brought a Gu. I gulped it and felt better in moments - enough to pick up the pace for my last loop around the park, completing the 1.8 mile loop in 14 minutes including a water break at the fountain (I HAD to have cold water at this point; my bottle was now quite warm). I made it home in one sweaty disgusting piece and sipped vitamin water for the rest of the afternoon. My head felt like it had been sitting in a crock pot all day and I was a little dehydrated, but I "proved" that I can do long runs in the summer heat. The only problem is that my pace is very very slow in the heat. I did this run in 1:43, which is over ten minutes longer than I ran that distance in the winter. However, since I'm not running this marathon with a time goal, I'm just going to deal with it. While I can sit here today and complain about how slow my time was, the truth is that while I was out there in the heat I could not have gone faster and still have finished. That's all I got, folks! I have to keep in mind that because of thyroid issues I can't adjust my body temperature as efficiently or as quickly as others and I simply won't do as well in temperature extremes. So I'm scaling back my expectations for hot runs.
In other news, my feet and joints were kind of feeling this run. You think it might be time to replace the shoes?

That's the tread at the ball of my foot. Incidentally this is around 600 miles. I have gotten 700 out of Saucony's with less wear. Don't buy Nike!