Long Run - When it hurt to stop running

Finally accomplished a good long run on Monday. Yes Sunday's are meant for long runs yet I had to get it in when I could as Sunday turned into rest day due to a knee ache. Yet let me rewind as I owe a "catch up".

I realized I am off my schedule by a week so last week was actually week 19 of my schedule and last I blogged I did 3 miles on Tuesday (6/3) which was really supposed to be 4 miles on the schedule. So Wednesday (6/4) called for 7 miles which I actually did - yet I did on Thursday (6/5) on the treadmill after work  as Wednesday I did not take the opportunity to run in the morning and could not do 7 miles during lunch or after work as I wanted to.

Though the below status pic shows a bit over 4 miles, this is because at 3.25 miles the cleaning guy at the gym decided to vacuum around my treadmill and pulls the plug out and my treadmill stops!!!!! ... So I had to fight ever nerve in my body which said call it a day and plugged the treadmill back in and continue to run.  This was actually a great metaphor for me as to how during many times in the marathon it will feel like everything is against you to continue to run and you have to actually FORCE yourself to continue. I am use to this feeling just from training yet it never gets old and feels so "worth out" when you are done. So I got back on the treadmill and completed 7  miles by starting all over....yet felt great...exhausted - yet great.

Friday I did not make up Thursday's run and decided to rest and follow schedule as my goal was to really get my weekend runs done. By working out in anyway I would have jeopardized that as in the past when I worked out on Friday I did not work out on Saturday.

So Saturday (6/7) I did go out for a run and completed the called for 7 miles. I ended doing 7.5 as I ran to my front door yet last half mile was a slower jog. I usually try and have a bagel with peanut butter before a run that is more than 6 miles and a bit of water. I did have a really bad knee ache though after the run and my time for new sneakers has come. at 9.33 my goal is to really start following my pace closely and get in some race paced runs and speed training in as I have longed talked about.

With that knee pain on Sunday and working out the aches out from the 7 miler on Saturday I did not run on Sunday and decided I would do the called for 14 miles for this day on Monday (6/9) instead of cross train - the start of Week 20.  So Sunday's long run called for 14 miles and doing that on a Monday was going to be challenging as the morning was out as I could not spend 2+ hours before 6 am like I use to do and get ready for work and really could not pull this mileage of at lunch - that why Sundays are best for long runs. 

So after work I came home and really wanted to get on the road by 6pm yet with different after work duties that needed to be accomplished I got out the door at 7pm.  I knew I would be racing daylight so I started on my endeavor to do 14 miles. I ran to Matthew Henson park where one loop of the park gives me about 2.5 miles staring from my house then another 3 miles withe every additional loop. So goal was to do 4 loops counting the in and out from my house to give me 14 miles. Yet by the loop 3, darkness was falling and I was kicking myself for loosing that hour. As much as I love the long runs and getting to the point where it actually hurts to STOP running and feels good to continue running- I did not want to risk running in darkness in the park so I had to call it a day at 11.36 miles.

Tuesday(6/10) called for 4 miles which I was unable to do as I had to wrap up a project at work and could not get out for lunch as I usually like to do this distance on my lunch break. I wanted to do the run after work yet just could not pull it off.  Today is Wednesday (6/11) and I plan on doing the called for 7 miles after work on treadmill and though knee is feeling a lot better with the rest from yesterday I would rather do this run on a soft track and go for speed with some speed drills in between.

Looking forward to completing tomorrow's workout - 4 miles and Saturday 10K race. Plan on following schedule with a 15 mile run on Sunday.

In transformation and consistency,

Yvonne