I woke up this morning, at 5:30, on my day off to run 14 miles. I think only crazy people do that. And only crazy people look forward to it. And I was looking forward to it all week. I ate breakfast, even though its so hard for me sometimes to eat that early in the morning, and started hydrating with water.
I had hoped to be out of the house around 7 am, but I did reset my alarm this morning from 5 am to 5:30, so I ended up leaving the house around 7:45 am.
It was cool in the morning, with clouds, so that helped keep the temperature cool for longer. I was kind of upset when I left, because my husband did not go with me, and I had wanted him to, so he could carry the Gatorade while riding his bike. But I got over it, and had a nice run. I had to do a 7 mile loop twice, and it was good.
I felt good and strong through out the whole thing. I did have some pain in my right leg - in the ankle and knee, but overall, it was great.
Around mile 12, I realized that I was still going strong, and was close to making my time goal, of under 3 hours. I knew I wouldn't make it, but that I was close. And I didn't care. I felt so good, I was smiling! I kept a smile on my face for the remaining 2 miles, and just felt good. I laughed at myself, because I never thought I'd feel GOOD after going 12 miles, and that was like I only have 2 more to go? I think I felt the "runners high" this time. I've felt great during runs before, but never on a run THIS long. Especially after that bad 12 mile run a few weeks ago. It was awesome. I felt so happy. And still do!
I wish I could explain in better words what this run did for me. It was exactly what I needed, and was perfect. I kept up with my intervals the whole time of 3:1 (run/walk) and actually skipped the last one because I was almost home, and wanted to finish strong, and finish it running. The sun came out, and it did heat up a bit, but I kept myself hydrated, focused on what I was doing, and had fun. I saw some deer, and a bunny. One of the deer was a fawn! :) So cute!
My time was 3:04:01. My disaster 12 mile run a few weeks ago? 3:01:00.
I love running, myself, everything. I love being happy, and feeling like this. Its amazing to feel like this. I remember being so sad, depressed, unhappy, fat, and just overall like shit. And I no longer feel that way. And *I* did that for myself. I'm putting myself back together, and making myself better.
What I did to make this a wonderful awesome run (this next part is more for me, so I can remember what I did... so its kind of boring ;)) :
The night before:
I had 2 servings of pasta for dinner.
I had about 6 hours of sleep (I would have liked more though)
Day of:
Breakfast - 1 serving of oatmeal, with raspberry yumberry yogurt mixed in, 2 pieces of light bread, 1 tbs I cant believe its not butter, and tbs of Jif Natural PB. I started drinking a lot of water as soon as I woke up as well.
15 mins before I left:
Took 1 Imodium, and had 1 Strawberry Banana Power bar gel, as well as 600 mg of motrin at some point in the AM
While I was running:
I brought along 100 g of Haribo Gummy Bears, and ate most of them.
I drank a total of 6 tbs worth of Gatorade
and at the half way point, I had another Strawberry Banana Power bar gel
So yeah, I should probably try to follow something similar for my next long run, and hopefully it will be just as good!!
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