The Week of 05/12/2014: Not a lot better

I did better this week but still did skip some key speed workouts.  All in all I got 36 of 52 scheduled miles in.  But 50% of that mileage came in one chunk.  As I discovered in 2012, making the weekly long run too high of a percentage of my weekly volume can lead to disastrous effects.  History was repeated, read on.

Monday 05/12/2014

Scheduled:  10 Mile Recovery Run 55º, Overcast, rainy.  I due to schedule constraints I needed to cut back this run to 8 miles.  I felt pretty good on it, in fact I averaged 1 seconds per mile faster than my normal recovery pace.

Tuesday 05/13/2014

Scheduled: 7 Miles GA, 7x400m @ 5k Skip.  :(

Wednesday 05/14/2014

Scheduled:  10 Miles MLR 39º, Clear, Calm.  I have seriously had it with this cold weather business, can we all just start wearing our shorts now, please?  The run went well, the ten mile threshold is a lot more routine these days.

Thursday 05/15/2014

Scheduled: 7 Miles GA, 7x400m @ 5k Skip.  :(

Friday 05/16/2014

Scheduled: XT (Swimming) No surprise that I skipped the swim (at this point in the program it would have been a bigger surprise had I showed up).  I did miss out on the opportunity however to get a makeup run in for one of my skipped speed workouts.

Saturday 05/17/2014

Scheduled: 18 Mile Long Run I slept in and re-scheduled my long rung to tomorrow morning.  I got up with the kids and took them over to the parkway so that we could observe the 2014 Blaine Triathlon and cheer for the participants.  I participated in 2012 (The inaugural year) and 2013, but this year I opted to not do the race, as with marathon training I didn't feel that I could get the swimming and cycling workouts in to do it justice.  It turned out that was a great idea, as it was really cold and would have been a miserable swim. It was a great morning, however, to get the kids out on the parkway and cheer for cyclists and runners: I meant to get a makeup run in later in the day, but with family things and whatnot it never materialized.  The mornings are my time, I need to make the most of them.

Sunday 05/18/2014

Scheduled: REST 18 Mile Long Run - 52º, Clear, calm. In today's run I learned all the finer points of dehydration-induced Cardiovascular drift, and the subsequent psychological effects.  I left the house with the 3 liter reservoir in my Camelback Mule fully topped off.  The run started out well and routinely enough, though I did notice some foreshadowing when the brim of my hat started dripping before I was even four miles into the run.  Usually my hat doesn't start dripping until six or seven miles in, which told me that I was sweating more than usual.  I kept taking light pulls on my water during rest intervals, and really didn't notice any issues for the first ten miles. Around ten to eleven miles into the run I started to notice fatigue in my feet and ankles, and some stiffening up in general.  My perceived effort went up as well, and at the twelve mile mark I made the call to dial back my pace by 15 seconds per mile.  But in truth, some events were already well underway by that time.  By the time I was twelve miles into the run I was constantly thirsty; My thirst was greater than my ability to consume.  If I had drank as much as I had wanted I would have thrown it back up.  It was necessary to maintain the practice of taking smaller sips more often.  Also starting at mile twelve my heart rate jumped up, and even though I could still run as fast as before, I could not run as far as before without taking a rest. I was able to maintain the revised pace through mile sixteen, until the wheels fell off the bus completely.  I knew that even though I still had two miles to go that my run for the day was finished; it was now a matter of just getting home.  So for the last two miles I went into a 1:00/3:00 run/walk pattern.  The problem with long walk breaks late into a long run like that is that you tend to tighten up; the run segments were murder to initiate. I made it home and sucked the last drops of my three liters in the driveway.  Inside I found that my family was just about to sit down to waffles for breakfast.  I have eaten some good waffles in my life but that one tasted like a gift from God.  I had some lockup issues with my knees and my ankles as well as a lot of discomfort in my right plantar fascia.  Immediately after the run it felt like someone had cut off my feet and that I was walking through a field of broken glass and rock salt.  Later, it merely felt like I still had my feet, but that someone was whacking the bottom of my right foot every time that I took a step.   The worst of it was over by six hours after the run; by bedtime I was feeling much better though dog-tired. All of this makes me a little nervous as there is a 20 miler looming on the calendar.  I am assessing my goals for that run; I do not care so much about my pacing at this point as I do about finishing the run with a shred of my humanity left.  There is no confidence to be bolstered by the psychological breakdown that comes with a crappy run.  My best hope is to learn from this and do better next Saturday.