It wasn't pretty
I know I said just the other day that the long run isn't that tough mentally. Well, yesterday was a different story. When your body isn't cooperating as you'd wish, the mental toughness becomes necessity.
When I started off early yesterday at a park along the river path, my legs immediately felt like lead. Sometimes this lasts for an entire run and sometimes it just takes a few miles to get the junk out. But this time, it was there to stay.
Luckily, I had already picked the main part of my route. So, I headed off with my cherry cashew Pure bar, Shot Bloks and Gatorade/water mix. About 4.5 miles in began a few miles of hills and trail, which felt okay. But then I reached mile 10 or so and just felt done. You know, the feeling I should have been getting around mile 15+. Mentally, it was time to buck up and commit to those last several painful miles.
From mile 7 on, I'd say it was one of the ugliest looking and feeling runs I'd ever had. I mean if a camera were following me, you'd be thinking "ugh, that stride, that pace, the posture." And it's exactly how I felt. At mile 10 I decided to head back to the river with a few switch backs here and there to keep my brain interested.
Conveniently (or not), my Garmin decided to lose satellites at mile 13.5 as I was running along under wide open blue skies. I decided to keep on trucking until the running time hit 2h 30 min. The last 15 minutes were no doubt the hardest. I had to have a little talking to myself and just put in the time.
Sure, I could have stopped and been done, but I wanted to put the time in. And as I've said before, I think those mentally tough runs actually help you in the marathon when you hit the wall because you've already dealt with it in your training. Over the last 10 miles I stopped probably 5 times to stretch or walk for a minute and regroup mentally.
After 10 min of walking around barefoot, sucking down more water and stretching a bit, I headed home. First stop, the market to get the essentials. Ice for ice bath, ice cream sandwich that I was craving and chocolate milk. Mmm...
It was my first EVER ice bath and I have to say it wasn't that bad! I did wear a sweatshirt, turned on some tunes and munched on my ice cream sandwich. I definitely think the legs feel better today because of my time in the cool water. Have you ice bathed after a long run or tough workout? I think I might do it from here on out for runs over 10 miles.
Final stats: ~16.75 mi
Time: 2h 30 min
Times walked: 6
Minutes in ice bath: 10
When I started off early yesterday at a park along the river path, my legs immediately felt like lead. Sometimes this lasts for an entire run and sometimes it just takes a few miles to get the junk out. But this time, it was there to stay.
Luckily, I had already picked the main part of my route. So, I headed off with my cherry cashew Pure bar, Shot Bloks and Gatorade/water mix. About 4.5 miles in began a few miles of hills and trail, which felt okay. But then I reached mile 10 or so and just felt done. You know, the feeling I should have been getting around mile 15+. Mentally, it was time to buck up and commit to those last several painful miles.
From mile 7 on, I'd say it was one of the ugliest looking and feeling runs I'd ever had. I mean if a camera were following me, you'd be thinking "ugh, that stride, that pace, the posture." And it's exactly how I felt. At mile 10 I decided to head back to the river with a few switch backs here and there to keep my brain interested.
Conveniently (or not), my Garmin decided to lose satellites at mile 13.5 as I was running along under wide open blue skies. I decided to keep on trucking until the running time hit 2h 30 min. The last 15 minutes were no doubt the hardest. I had to have a little talking to myself and just put in the time.
Sure, I could have stopped and been done, but I wanted to put the time in. And as I've said before, I think those mentally tough runs actually help you in the marathon when you hit the wall because you've already dealt with it in your training. Over the last 10 miles I stopped probably 5 times to stretch or walk for a minute and regroup mentally.
After 10 min of walking around barefoot, sucking down more water and stretching a bit, I headed home. First stop, the market to get the essentials. Ice for ice bath, ice cream sandwich that I was craving and chocolate milk. Mmm...
It was my first EVER ice bath and I have to say it wasn't that bad! I did wear a sweatshirt, turned on some tunes and munched on my ice cream sandwich. I definitely think the legs feel better today because of my time in the cool water. Have you ice bathed after a long run or tough workout? I think I might do it from here on out for runs over 10 miles.
Final stats: ~16.75 mi
Time: 2h 30 min
Times walked: 6
Minutes in ice bath: 10
Comments
Great job finishing a hard run.
I've never even considered bathing in ice - but I'm ready to do more research on the topic now that you mention it. BTW, what do you use to carry H2O along? A regular waterbottle?
Good luck on training!
haven't tried an Ice-bath yet, but will say that it's Much more appealing during summer training than winter...
Just kidding I couldn't keep up :)
Hope you feel better soon!
The best part about running at the cabin (or maybe the only good thing? I hate runnuing the...) is that i can jump into th lake afterwards. It's still pretty cold so it's akin to an ice bath!