In lieu of racing, I find new challenges to beat myself into a pulp #holdmybeer
 |
The Plan
The plan was to start the first run at 6am Friday morning which means that my run schedule would look like this for the next two days:
- Day 1
- 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm
- Day 2
- 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm
Easy, right? Except it might have done me some good to really think this through instead of diving headfirst. The kicker here is the logistics of it all as in:
- Start at X-time - say the run takes 45-minutes (not fast but not terribly slow)
- Time remaining: 3-hours and 15-minutes - you need to shower, right? (please say yes)
- Time remaining: 3-hours (assuming you shower fast-ish), you need to eat, right? (you better)
- Time remaining: 2.5-hours (assuming you can figure it out quickly) you need to rest, right)
- Time remaining: 2-2.5 hours of rest - do you have a job? family? obligations? (probably)
You can see where I am going with this. Say you can actually rest for 2 to 2.5 hours (it rarely happened for me). The hateful part of this is after getting comfortable and getting some rest, let's assume you fell asleep especially for the late-night or early morning runs, that now you need to get up and wake up, gear up and go run another 4+ miles. This is where this challenge is deceivingly gnarly. The fatigue, both mental and physical (but mostly mental) starts to creep in and destroy you. It puts bad thoughts in your head of not being able to complete the challenge. Thoughts like ... "but I'm so warm and comfortable laying here". No one is holding a gun to my head to do this in the first place, right? No one except yourself and the pure and simple fact that YOU will know that you failed and YOU are the only one in control of completing the challenge. Can you live with failure?
Day One
Remember the plan to start at 6am? Laying in bad the night before I decided to rip the bandaid off and start at 2am for the simple fact that it meant my last run would be at 10pm Saturday night and once that is completed I could eat and pass out for all of Sunday if I wanted to (which I didn't of course). A 2am start also meant that Friday was going to be a long and tough day. I still have a job and obligations to the great company that employs me and I wasn't about to let them down and just take the day off because I wanted to sleep in between the runs.
 |
| Miles: 4.24, Time 00:50:23 (I hate the treadmill) |
2am (man that got here fast and oh BTW ... I did not sleep a wink but let's do it!!)
The first run was completed on the Dreadmill of Horrors (no I do not like it one bit Sam I Am). I also had Zwift (a computer program I can display on a TV that shows me running) running in the background because I need all the motivation and distractions I can find when on the treadmill.
 |
| Miles: 4.34, Time: 00:47:17 |
6am (At least I got about an hour of rest, so I'm good ... let's crush it!!)
This was the one and only run that I ran trails. After this run, I decided that, while I absolutely LOVE to run trails and always prefer trails over the roads, the ups and downs were too much stress on my already injured left ankle for me to continue running trails. All outdoor runs would, therefore, be on the roads in my trusty and rather comfortable Hoka ONE ONE Clifton 6 shoes. Right after getting cleaned up I logged in to work because I wanted to be sure and get all my hours in and with two runs being done midday and only a 1-hour lunch break, well, I did what I needed to do to ensure I did not miss a beat with work.
 |
| Miles: 4.51, Time: 00:41:17 |
10am (finished a remote meeting, got geared up, flew out the door ... this isn't so bad)
My 9-10am meeting ended a bit early because my co-worker, in Europe, was experiencing some internet problems with his service provider. For me, it meant that I could start the third run as scheduled. I was still hopped up on my beloved Christopher Bean Coffee, been digging the Jamaican Me Nuts blend, so my energy level was still at full throttle and because I had committed myself to run roads as a way to reduce climbing, climbing seems to aggravate my left ankle, this run went pretty quick(ish).
 |
| Miles: 4.36, Time: 00:40:17 |
2pm (got a meeting in an hour but I can run this in 40-minutes easy and shower. No worries.)
I ate lunch earlier than usual, around noon, so that my stomach had time to digest my daily lunch salad. I like to eat around 1 or 1:30 as it seems to make the afternoon go by much faster. Oh, and it's snowing or raining or whatever it is that Ohio happens to be dumping on us at the moment. Time to pull out the rain Jacket.
 |
| Miles: 4.72, Time: 00:50:17 |
6pm (hmmm, I'll wait for dinner after the run. I'm getting a little tired now. Been a long "day")
Oh good, it's snowing ... just perfect for this little adventure. Thanks Ohio for ... being Ohio. The upside to the snowy, wet weather is that I got to test my Patagonia Rain jacket, again. It works really well and is super comfortable!! Thanks to Vince Rucci from Vertical Runner for the recommendation!!
 |
| Miles: 4.08, Time: 00:41:17 |
10pm (I should be heading to bed now .. but I need to what?? Run 4+ miles in the cold and rain??)
I think I ate too much. I started feeling bloated and just generally uncomfortable but in hindsight, I don't think it was the food. I think it was a lack of fluids. Running 4-ish miles doesn't take long and therefore I was not bringing any nutrition with me on any of the runs. Unfortunately, I wasn't drinking a ton after each run either and I believe the bloating feeling was my body telling me that I was getting very dehydrated. I also had yet another chance to use my rain jacket. Meh. I hope the weather gets better for tomorrow. Oh and for this run ... hill repeats cuz ... why not?
Day One Total Miles: 26.25 (just barely pulled out a full marathon distance for the day)
Day One Total Time: 4-hour 30-minutes and 48-seconds (pretty sad ... but I'll take it)
Day Two
Remember the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Remember one of the funniest scenes with the guy yelling "Bring out your dead"? Yup, I kinda felt like one of the dead. Man the fatigue was really difficult for me. It took everything I had to get my butt moving, geared up, and run every single time on the second day. I much have mentally quit a dozen times.
 |
| Miles: 4.47, Time: 00:50:18 |
2am (the treadmill, at 2am, cripes ... I'm drained. I could just go right back to sleep. Meh)
This is when the rubber meets the road or treadmill. Do you have what it takes to keep going, get your butt out of bed at an insanely early hour, gear up, have the ability to actually run 4+ miles, and then somehow shower and go back to sleep for another measly 2 hours? My wonderful wife helped with the note she left on the treadmill for me. That was a HUGE motivator and I managed to bust out the early morning dreadmill run.
 |
| Miles: 4.35, Time: 00:45:17 |
6am (Oh My Gosh ... that STUPID alarm is already going off!! Shoot me now!!)
Dang, this is getting tiring. Now I understand why this is a challenge. The fatigue just creeps up on you over time. Mentally you just want to go back to sleep. Physically I was feeling bloated and probably irritable as well. The good thing that was a shining light for me on this second day was that the weather was looking to be MUCH better than yesterday. No snow, no rain, and much warmer temperatures ... well ... later on in the day. For now, I got to enjoy a rising sun as I finished run number eight in the cool but not too terrible temperature of 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Also was met by our rescue beagle, Maggie, doing her post-breakfast business.
 |
| Miles: 4.61, Time: 00:45:17 |
10am (it's that friggin alarm again but at least it's sunny out and a balmy 40* Fahrenheit)
Woo hoo!! The temperatures are warming up finally!! Well, I still wore my Patagonia Houdini jacket which in hindsight was overkill, but I knew it would be a slow pace and I hate being cold. For the next few runs, I did some routing ahead of time and tried to find some ways to make the runs more interesting. This particular run was roughly 2.2-miles to Indigo Lake. What used to be a dumping ground years ago has since been cleaned up, mostly, and offers a wonderful view of the lake where lots of folks gather around to fish or just site see. After this run ... I was down to 3 runs left in the challenge. Sounds easy enough, but it really isn't
 |
| Miles: 4.47, Time: 00:42:18 |
2pm (someone drag me into the road and run me over. Feeling like roadkill, bloated, nasty ... UGH)
I don't understand why I feel so darn bloated. Like ... seriously bloated. I don't recall ever experiencing this in the past, of course, I have never done this type of challenge either. Run, shower, eat, rest, then rinse and repeat. It's just so different. I am used to just working out and being done. Regardless, for this run I headed towards one of the local trails via the road, never actually ran the trail, and then headed back. The one thing I recall most from this run is that I experienced being light-headed and a sense of fogginess. Seriously did not like that feeling at all. Almost like I was getting tunnel vision. Weird. What I suspect was going on was dehydration, which also could explain this heavy, bloated feeling. On the plus side, I got to run in shorts!! Woo hoo!! Too bad I blinded everyone with my pasty white legs.
 |
| Miles: 4.42, Time: 00:44:17 |
6pm (Angie, can you go run for me? I'm not feeling it at the moment and I won't tell. Promise.)
After having a rather crappy 10th run, I decided to do two things to see if I could turn things around. First, I ate nothing before this run and second, I drank more fluids, water mostly. When it was time to get started on this run, I could already tell that I was feeling more like myself. Not bloated and fairly clear-headed other than the general fatigue that had been increasing throughout the day. I had it in my head that I would take a picture of the old herb farm as a way to give me something to look forward to. The river was also looking rather full and the sun was beginning to set and the clouds were slowly rolling across the sky. It was a nice way to end the last run I would have in the daylight.
 |
| Miles: 4.49, Time: 00:47:18 |
10pm (last run, no food since the 2pm run, hangry, thirsty, tired, but ... I run nonetheless)
The final beatdown, man I never thought I would make it to this point. I had originally planned to just go and hike a local trail for fun. It would give me something to look forward to and motivate me to get to this point in the challenge. Then .. the couch happened. I got warm, and cozy, sitting next to my wife enjoying some TV while I was in and out of consciousness. I decided getting into the Jeep to drive to the trailhead could end badly. Additionally, it would take longer (yes, all of about 10-minutes) to get home, shower, and finally eat something substantial. I yet again skipped eating anything before this run because I very much liked NOT feeling like an elephant. Instead, I ran a different loop in my neighborhood development that included the entrance hill, the culdesac that I live on, and the street + culdesac that runs parallel to ours. The route actually forms a letter of the alphabet, which the teenager in me thought was cute, but I will refrain from taking it any further than that other than to say my wife just rolled her eyes when I told her about it. ;-) ALong the way, I ran passed a couple neighbors each out walking their pups and each of the pups was sporting a green neo light. Cool. Now I look like one of the neighborhood dogs out to do my business. My legs were sore, I was tired, and all I could do was constantly glance at my running watch to see the handful of miles tick away. I had planned four loops of this route but in actuality all I really needed to 4.00 miles to complete the challenge and reach the personal goal of a second marathon distance. I could have stopped earlier than I did and not complete the final fourth loop, but ... me being me ... I had a route in mind and I was going to run it. It's just who I am and how I am wired I supposed. Plus knowing that I am about finished, motivated me to finish what I started.
Done and soooooooo dusted!!
Day Two Total Miles: 26.81 (full marathon distance for the day)
Day Two Total Time: 4-hour 37-minutes and 45-seconds (7-ish minutes longer than the first day)
Total Miles Finished: 53.06
Total Time to Running: 9-hours 8-minutes and 38-seconds (not terrible for 50+ miles)
Average Running Pace: 10:21/mile
This was a very different type of challenge and one that I am not likely to take on again, this year. It could become "a thing" that I do once a year, however, and my hope is that next year I am not dealing with any injuries. The medial ankle pain certainly threw a wrench into this adventure, but knowing full well that running long distance oftentimes turns into a problem-solving situation I just worked my way through the challenge one run at a time. Adventures like this one are all about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
It is now Monday evening, April 20th, after a full day of work and I am still super tired. I road the bike trainer for an easy hour this morning before work and that felt good, but now I really need to warm my body up again for a short bit of strength training. What do I honestly feel like and want to do right at this point? Hit the couch and close my eyes. What am I going to do instead? Get out of my comfort zone, gear up, ride my bike outside to warm up, and then tackle the strength training.
#happytrails
Comments
Post a Comment