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

Comments

Amber said…
Great job pushing through! I always ice bath for runs over 10 miles too... Or I used to when I had a bathtub. Now I do cold water treatment in the river since that's where I do most of my runs. It works great!!
Raquelita said…
Amazing job pushing through and finishing your run! I've never done an ice bath, but I'm considering doing them for long runs in the future.
Gracie said…
I know they help later, but boy do those tough runs suck while you're at them! I'm really hoping for a good one this week since I have to head to work right after. I haven't done an ice bath but the idea intrigues me - more so since I read Chi Running and the author always takes a HOT bath after a long run. I understand both sides - cold to fight inflammation, warm to improve muscle perfusion, healing, and flexibility. I'm confused as to which I need so I haven't done either!
Great job finishing a hard run.
Linz said…
Wow - you're amazing! Great job persevering. I too just finished my long run (longest ever - 7 miles!) and all I wanted was an arugula salad, a tall Hefeweizen, and a hot tub. :-) Weird.
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?
Linz- I carry a Nathan brand handheld water bottle. It's basically a cloth strap thing that goes over a basic plastic water bottle. I can fit my hand inside the padded strap and it has a zipped pouch where I can put keys, gu, etc.

Good luck on training!
Anonymous said…
Those mentally tough runs make or break you in the marathon - you did the right thing pushing through until you got where you wanted to be! Icecream sandwich post-run = brilliant. seriously. :)

haven't tried an Ice-bath yet, but will say that it's Much more appealing during summer training than winter...
liz said…
Wow, I need you to train me! 2.5 hour run? I'm lucky if I last 2.5 minutes, hey you're in Portland right?...
Just kidding I couldn't keep up :)
Hope you feel better soon!
Well done on the long run! That run reminds me of the terrible run I had when i did 11 miles about a month back at the cabin. I stopped so many times to walk towards the end. When I got back to the cabin, I layed on the ground outside, practically in the fetal position and just whined about how awful it was. I am sure my dad was wondering why I continue to put myself through these runs! He was sitting on the deck during all of this and just sort of let me 'have my moment' and didnt say anything... But yah, def the worst run I've had in YEARS. But all my long runs since then have been great so I feel much more confident. And like you said, it's important to have those bad runs as they teach you how to dig deep and make it through!

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!

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