long run

Uh oh... Think I'm coming down with what Kyra has had for the past two weeks. I woke up this morning with a headache and sore throat. But today is my scheduled long run that I've failed on during the last two weeks. I was totally motivated to accomplish it this week. I knew if I postponed it until tomorrow, I may feel worse based on my memory of how she's felt. I took two Tylenol and went back to bed with the intention of sleeping a few more hours and then going for the run. I woke up a few hours later, showered, charged my Garmin 405, ate breakfast, packed my Camelbak, and then drove to Stone Mountain.

I began my run at 11:30 a.m.  I ran 18 miles in 3 hours and 54 minutes. It wasn't exactly how it should have been, but done, thought. I started out at Stone Mountain with the intention of completing all 18 miles there. I ran by heart rate rather than trying to maintain a certain pace. I kept my heart rate under 75%. The first 5 mile loop was easy. The next 5 miles felt "easy", but I noticed I had to walk a lot more to keep my heart rate below 75%. I knew that I would be better off running rather than so much walking, so I decided to finish that lap and then go home and run the rest of the miles on the flat treadmill in the coolness of the basement. When I took off my camelbak at the car, I was amazed at how heavy it seamed. As soon as I got home, I stepped on the scale with it, then without, and calcuated it weighed 8 pounds! And this is after I had drank about half the water! I'm guessing it was probably 12 pounds when I started. No wonder I had to go so slow to keep my heart rate in check! After weighing, I took two more Tylenol (head and throat pain), and then I went straight to the treadmill, not wanting to put too much rest time into the run. I set the pace at 12 minutes per mile and easily clicked off the next 5 miles. But then, something weird happened. I started having cramps on my right side at the base of my rib cage. I stopped to walk for a few seconds and it disappeared. Then it would start again a few minutes after I started running again. So for the last few miles I did run/walk intervals at approximately 0.2 to 0.4 miles run with a 0.025 to 0.05 mile walk break. I almost quit at mile 17 because of the pain and told myself that I would take the dogs for a mile walk later to get the total miles in. Then I told myself that just wasn't acceptable; suck it up and push through that last mile. I did. 18 miles done... The ice bath afterwards felt oh-so-good and I'm very glad I pushed through this challenge!