Running Chick

The weather was looking awesome for Friday, so I took the afternoon off (yay, 35 days of vacation in the bank) to get my 9 miler in.

I actually thought about my nutrition and hydration needs a bit longer than 10 minutes before heading out the door, so I felt confident with one bottle of water, one bottle of water/Gatorade mix and a Gu.

I felt great until around mile 5, then things started to go downhill.  My legs didn’t feel like going anymore, and my brain didn’t feel like convincing them to go. I struggled through the last three miles, doing more walking than running, and when I was running, it was mostly shuffling. I was able to finish running, but I’m pretty sure it was only because my body knew it was all going to be over soon.

This same thing happened on my 8 miler the other week, so I’m pretty sure that’s my body telling me that I’m doing too much too soon. I tend to ignore my body most of the time, but in the spirit of trying new things, this time I decided to cut back a little.

Oh, and not to take credit for this idea all on my own, I was inspired by a few comments from my Facebook friends who, when I mentioned that I ran 8 miles, said (paraphrasing):

“Wow, eight miles already? That’s pretty quick!” and

“Eight miles! What are you training for?”

It occurred to me that I’m NOT TRAINING FOR ANYTHING HELLO and there’s not really any sane reason that I should be pushing myself so soon. It’s not like I’ve been injured for the past 16 months or anything. Duh.

Of course, my crazy insane multiple-times-over Ironman friend said “Good job, keep it up!”.  Yeah, I’m chosing to ignore her.

I’m going to take all of this week off and focus on yoga/pilates/strength training and then pick back up next week, but I’m going  to keep things short and sweet. I’ll keep it at 3-ish during the week and peak at maybe 5-6 on the weekends.

My miles for last week were 13 @ 10:35.

Six miles into my eight mile run this morning, I bonked. It wasn’t a huge bonk, but it was enough to turn those last two miles into a real struggle. It’s clear that I’ve completely forgotten how to properly fuel and hydrate for anything over five miles.  I was carrying two bottles of a Gatorade & water mix and a pack of sport beans. I took swigs from my bottles every two miles and at four miles I ate some beans. I probably should have forced myself to eat the entire package, but I only ended up taking four or five of them, which wasn’t enough to keep me going. Actually, I really should have taken a gel with me instead of the beans for more calories. Ah well, live and learn.

I came home and my legs were doing a fair amount of complaining so I decided to hop into an ice bath. Fill the tub up with 4-5” of water (enough to cover the legs), climb in and get accustomed to the cold, then dump an entire bag of ice over yourself. The first 30 seconds are pretty unpleasant, but you quickly acclimate. It helps if you have a giant mug of hot coffee and are wearing your warmest sweatshirt. I stuck it out until the ice melted (around 15 minutes) then took a hot shower. My legs felt so much better!

So, the mileage report for this week:

Monday – 3 miles @ 10:17

Wednesday – 3.5 miles @ 10:19

Saturday – 8 miles @ 10:32

Total – 14.5 miles @ 10:26

We’re spending the rest of the day doing amateur radio stuff for Lake Superior Performance Rally. Our shift starts in Kenton at 7:00 and ends sometime in the wee hours of the morning. We’re stationed at the mid-point of one of the stages so we should really see some action.

This time when I heard the squeaking, I just picked up my camera and waited. Spencer's getting better, there was no gore to clean up afterwards.

Simon, he's all meh, whatever.

My flower garden is quickly becoming a Northern Short-tailed Shrew graveyard.  There’s three there now - one from a couple of weeks ago, one I found dead in the driveway last week and this one - resting their eternal rest. I don’t even want to think about how many more could turn up.

I’ve been doing some reading on the little rodents. They mostly eat bugs (hello, spiders in my basement), but their saliva is toxic. The toxin is used to paralyze whatever critter they catch and is not harmful to humans or other animals. Apparently they are super aggressive, too, which would explain all the screeching I hear when Spencer pounces. They also eat up to three times their weight daily (HELLO SPIDERS IN MY BASEMENT). Ugly little things, though.

Dead rodents aside, I knocked off 3 miles at a 10:16 average pace tonight. I have no idea what got into me, especially since my legs were feeling a bit tight & heavy after Saturday’s long run.