Misunderestimation

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September 22, 2013 by Amy B

I approached my long run of 12 miles on Saturday a little lightheartedly. After you’ve run 20 miles the Saturday before, 12 seems like a cakewalk.

Which, by the way, is stupid. Because twelve miles is still a two-hour run. And Saturday, it was a two-hour run with a nice headwind.

I didn’t try to race this run by any means, and with a 10:22 overall pace (a few of the miles were slower when I stopped to walk to retrieve chews, try to rearrange my stupid jacket because I was overheating, put stupid jacket back on, etc.), I’d call the run a success.

I wasn’t ready, however, to completely crash when I got back home. Well, after Sophie insisted I bake chocolate chip cookies (I had promised the day before).

Kids don’t forget anything, especially cookie promises. Oiselle trials hoodie makes great relaxing baking wear. 🙂

I didn’t leave for this run until mid-morning, which is later than I like to leave for long runs, but it was freezing outside, the temps were hanging steady, and the Husband needed to get a run in, too. It turned out to be a good thing to wait. I didn’t feel at the top of my gastrointestinal game early in the morning (I’ll leave you to imagine the gory details), and by waiting, I was able to not have to deal with that nastiness mid-run, which would have been really shitty (pun intended).

But post-run? My stomach felt pretty good. I’m attributing this to not eating very much anymore on long runs and skipping the electrolyte drinks. Something with them is not working with me on long runs, or at least the ones I’ve been using. While I’d like to try some Nuun, I don’t seem to have a hydration vessel that can handle the carbonation without spewing all over hell while I’m running. Um, no thanks. I’m typically a “every other aid station take Powerade” person during the race, but this year I might skip it. I also might carry my small Nathan handheld flask with water, so that I can drink when I need it, not when there’s an aid station. We’ll see. This is all one big experiment.

I ended up unintentionally zonking out for a few hours later in the afternoon. When I woke up, I was pretty sore, or at least sorer than I expected to be. I wasn’t ready for that run to take so much out of me.

The rest of the weekend was fairly low-key, as we spent the bulk of today at a friend’s ordination/installation at a local church. Cross-training was playground playing and pizza eating (though some could argue that enduring a 90-minute church service is fairly strenuous exercise). 😉