See Diva Run

It wasn’t exactly the way I hoped to do it, but I did get my 20 mile run in today. After the disaster that was my last long run, I was feeling a little nervous. I decided to run on the Centennial Trail, in case the treadmill was causing some of my problems. When I got up this morning the temperature was in the low 40s, with a light but steady rain. I have all kinds of weather gear, but I still struggle with that step out the door. I had a leisurely breakfast and a cup of tea before going upstairs to put on my sub-4 running tights. I grabbed a long sleeved shirt and a short sleeved shirt, as well as 2 jackets and a vest. When it comes to weather, I like to be prepared.

Today was also the day for Nancy’s 9 on the 9th virtual race. My goal was to run 2 x 9 +2. I jumped in the car and drove to the Machias Trailhead. I’m on pager duty this week, so I had to be able to get back to the car quickly if I got a call. The plan was to run south 2.5 miles, then north for 5 miles, then back to the trail head, and repeat. Because I’m on call I had to carry both a pager and a cell phone. I’ve already destroyed one pager this week (it’s a funny story, buy me a drink and I’ll tell you what happened), and had to borrow one from someone else. I wasn’t taking any chances with this one. I kept it safely in an inside pocket, rather than clipping it to my pants.

I followed the plan and ran south. There was a very brisk head wind that made it hard for me to settle in to a comfortable pace. When I started heading north, the wind stopped being an issue. Soon I was overheating in my fleece vest and long sleeved shirt. I was already carrying my hat and gloves. There was no way I could carry the vest full of pagers and phones. I began to fantasize about taking off my shirt and running in my bra and vest when I got back to the car. Instead I pulled off the shirt and vest, and put on the short sleeved tech shirt. I would have been happy to leave the vest, but needed it to carry the junk.

I felt much better after changing shirts. I continued north and finally settled in to a comfortable pace. I felt great and was soon at the turning point. On the way back I became acutely aware that the pavement was slanted for run off. On the way out I had been running the most level area, now I was running the least level side. Soon my IT band started to give me the early warning. At least I had made it further than I had in Arizona. Since the trail was somewhat deserted, I opted to run back on the left side, to keep the IT band from acting up. This was a good call, but about a quarter of a mile from the car my side pain from last weekend returned. Rather than risk having a major “system failure” on the next out and back, I decided to drive home, rest a bit, and try to finish the next 10 miles on the treadmill. It wasn’t quite as good as 20 continuous miles, but it was the next best thing. At least I had my “9 on the 9th” complete.

I went home, changed out of my wet, sweaty clothes and had a weight watchers penne with chicken and broccoli entree. Knowing that the next 10 miles wasn’t going to run itself, I headed downstairs to the treadmill, thinking that I would run 5 miles, take a break and run another 5 miles. To my surprise, I felt good. Whatever had been ailing me on the trail was no longer an issue. After 2 miles, my husband came downstairs to tell me that the pager was going off (treadmills are noisy, and my iPod might have been a little loud). I paused the run and called the office. The good news was that it could wait a little while, so I turned on the laptop and got back on the treadmill. After another 4.25 miles I figured they would be getting impatient, so I paused for a “work break”. This is never a good idea, because logging in nearly always means that you find other problems that kill the rest of your day. I found a couple and decided to save them for after the run. I finished up the issue I as paged over, and got back on the treadmill. I still felt good, and soon the second 10 miles was complete. I could have kept on running, but was glad that I didn’t have too! So, instead of running (2×9)+2, I ran 2x(9+1), but no matter how you do the math, it is still 20 miles!

Next weekend I have the Birch Bay Half-Ultra (25K), which I will substitute for my 18 mile scheduled run. At first I was planning to make up the miles by running around the park after the race. The following week is the Mardi Gras Marathon, which I’m running in place of the second 20 mile run, so I figure I’ll get the miles in. I should even get them without taking a big rest break in the middle, but time will tell.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.