This weekend, I'll admit, I fell off the wagon. I suspect many runners go through this sort of post-race drift. Where your body is no longer as exhausted and tender as it was the 24 hours after your race, but your mind remains in a stupor.
I ran a few times last week, but nowhere near to the schedule I had set for myself. I kept saying, "Well, another day won't hurt. I need tor est. I'll get my long run in on Saturday/Sunday and it'll be fine." The same could be said about yoga, which I skipped on Thursday. Thursday was also my wedding anniversary, so it was a convenient screen to cover up my own laziness. In the end, I went through this weekend having logged 5 measly miles, versus the 15 I had aimed for, plus the Sunday morning yoga class.
But, like I said, I think that's to be expected somewhat and I'm past the point of beating myself up over it. Instead, I chose to re-focus on this week of training. This morning I got out for my usual 4 miler, but made the rookie mistake of trying to run it hard, which was dumb. What's worse, I KNEW it was dumb as I was doing it. Yet I continued on anyway. Needless to say, I flamed out in fine fashion on the return trip up to Mt. Vernon, although my overall time was still completely fine. So, I probably won't do that again for a few months...I hope. But it felt great to get back out, and the unseasonably warm weather (it's nearly 80 here today) made the dark pre-dawn run less painful. January's runs won't be so enjoyable, I think.
Training for what, you might ask? Well, nothing quite as singular as a half marathon, although I'm going to keep my eyes out for a half sometime after the first of the year...maybe in DC, we'll see.
No, between now and December 31, I'm focusing on some shorter races interspersed throughout the holiday season. The next likely candidate is a 5K in Charleston, SC, where my family is meeting for Thanksgiving. My uncle as rented a house on the beach near Charleston, and the $30 entry fee, coupled with the proximity and flat course, should make for a good race. That's about a month away.
After that, there's a 5K up in Towson called the Man Cave 5K, that looks fun. It's partially sponsored by the Big Screen Store (sells ungodly large TVs, recliners, and obesity), so some of the door prizes include a huge TV, recliners, beer, wings, etc. I have no hope of winning an age group prize, of course...but I'd take a free new TV that would be way too big for our apartment. I've not signed up for this race yet, though. Still tentative.
I did register for the 2012 Celtic Solstice 5 Miler on December 15. It's a great local race, and the typically bitter cold weather keeps a lot of unserious runners away. Not that I'm some hard core runner, but you get fewer walkers out there when it's 8:30 AM and below freezing. You got to REALLY like to run to do that to yourself! The way the registration works is they open it up to runners who want the race premium, which is usually a really nice shirt or, in recent years, a jacket. It's nice, but they also charge $65 for the race for those folks. To each their own...those entries help keep the non-premium entry fee low for the rest of us, so who am I to complain?
However, historically you've been able to register for this race without the premium, which makes it really affordable. As in, it used to be $20 for a well-organized race with a nice post-race spread. Now, it's $30, but that's still a nice bargain for this race. As it got more popular, they instituted a waiting list for this option. Usually by mid-November, they'd open it up to the waiting list and you could register for the lower price (sans premium, obviously). I've always done this, as I just want to run the race. This year was no different; I registered for the wait list way back in August. Last Friday, they sent the first 100 people on the list an e-mail with a password to use on Active.com to register early before they opened the race up. So I went ahead and registered on Friday to secure my spot. A. has no desire to run this race due to the cold weather, so she didn't register.
Beyond that, who knows? We're spending the final week of the year in Cincinnati, so we'll probably seek out a race while we're out there as well, but that's well down the road. For now, I need to make sure I get up tomorrow and get to the gym to re-start my dormant interval training routine!
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
New Comic Wednesday!
Now that work has died down a bit, I have time to actually leave my desk during lunch and walk around, rather than staying chained up in the office all day, feverishly trying to keep my head above water.
So, I walked down to my local comic shop (~10 minute walk from my office) at lunch to pick up the new books from both this week and last that I missed. I'm going home tonight with:
A pretty good haul, for me. And we're getting close to the release of some really great new books in December and January:
December
So, I walked down to my local comic shop (~10 minute walk from my office) at lunch to pick up the new books from both this week and last that I missed. I'm going home tonight with:
- Batman #13 - The much-anticipated return of The Joker! Can't wait.
- Walking Dead #103 - After seeing a main character's head bashed to pieces, how are the survivors going to respond?
- TWD Michonne Special Issue - The back story of how Michonne became the kitana-wielding badass she is in the comics.
- Star Wars: Agent of Empire, Hard Targets #1 - Beginning a new arc that combines James Bond secret agents with Star Wars. High hopes for this one!
- Green Lantern Annual #1 - Back story on the Third Army and the coming war with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Filling in the gaps for me.
A pretty good haul, for me. And we're getting close to the release of some really great new books in December and January:
December
- Avengers #1, the new book of the iconic superhero group, is set for release on December 5.
- Blackacre #1, a post-apocalyptic story about a retired soldier sent out into the blasted wilderness for a mission, comes out on the 5th as well.
- The new Star Wars book, set between Episodes IV and V, comes out in early January.
- The re-launch of Wolverine is slated for sometime in January.
- The re-launch of New Avengers is also slated for January.
Monday, October 15, 2012
2012 Freedom's Run Half Marathon Race Report
Mission accomplished, as someone once prematurely said. But in this case, it's true. We successfully completed the Freedom's Run Half Marathon on Saturday morning, despite what I would call a very challenging course and frigid temperatures. We'll take it in chronological order. To wit:
A. and I arrived at my parents' house around 6 PM Friday night after dropping off the dog at the kennel and picking up our race packets. Our packets were really just our shirts and bibs, as all the local racing stuff didn't really apply to us, being from out of town and all. We went out to dinner at a local Italian food place, where I feasted on spaghetti and meatballs and A. had veal parmigiana. Temperatures are generally anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees cooler out in the mountains than in Baltimore, and by the time we were done dinner around 8, it was already dipping into the high 40s. The region west of DC and Baltimore was under a freeze warning that night.
When we got up around 6:30 AM the next morning, it was cold and dark...temps were hovering around freezing and nice frost had coated the lawn and fields around my parents' house. We bundled up, ate a little bit, and were on our way to Shepherdstown, WV (the starting line) by 7 AM.
The race was well organized and we easily found the starting line (Shepherdstown isn't very big, being some neighborhoods, a downtown and then Shepherd University). We donated three pairs of old running shoes to be recycled or donated, which was awesome because we'd been waiting for that opportunity to get rid of those old shoes, and checked my backpack about 10 minutes before the race began.
The field was fairly small...I'd say there were no more than 700 half marathoners. Compare that to the 11,000 who ran the Baltimore Half Marathon on Saturday! We made our way to the starting pack after a quick visit to the port-o-potties (plenty of them around, which was great), and waited in the 32 degree air. Luckily, it was crystal clear and sunny with little wind.
Just after 8:05, the horn sounded and we were off! A. and I started in the back of the small pack but we separated quickly as we settled into our race strategies. The course (see below) took us across the Potomac River, along the C&O Canal Tow Path, then up into the countryside to Antietam Battlefield National Park, through the park, then back down Sharpsburg Pike across the river back into Shepherdstown and finishing in Rams Stadium.
A. and I arrived at my parents' house around 6 PM Friday night after dropping off the dog at the kennel and picking up our race packets. Our packets were really just our shirts and bibs, as all the local racing stuff didn't really apply to us, being from out of town and all. We went out to dinner at a local Italian food place, where I feasted on spaghetti and meatballs and A. had veal parmigiana. Temperatures are generally anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees cooler out in the mountains than in Baltimore, and by the time we were done dinner around 8, it was already dipping into the high 40s. The region west of DC and Baltimore was under a freeze warning that night.
When we got up around 6:30 AM the next morning, it was cold and dark...temps were hovering around freezing and nice frost had coated the lawn and fields around my parents' house. We bundled up, ate a little bit, and were on our way to Shepherdstown, WV (the starting line) by 7 AM.
The race was well organized and we easily found the starting line (Shepherdstown isn't very big, being some neighborhoods, a downtown and then Shepherd University). We donated three pairs of old running shoes to be recycled or donated, which was awesome because we'd been waiting for that opportunity to get rid of those old shoes, and checked my backpack about 10 minutes before the race began.
The field was fairly small...I'd say there were no more than 700 half marathoners. Compare that to the 11,000 who ran the Baltimore Half Marathon on Saturday! We made our way to the starting pack after a quick visit to the port-o-potties (plenty of them around, which was great), and waited in the 32 degree air. Luckily, it was crystal clear and sunny with little wind.
Just after 8:05, the horn sounded and we were off! A. and I started in the back of the small pack but we separated quickly as we settled into our race strategies. The course (see below) took us across the Potomac River, along the C&O Canal Tow Path, then up into the countryside to Antietam Battlefield National Park, through the park, then back down Sharpsburg Pike across the river back into Shepherdstown and finishing in Rams Stadium.
The course was incredibly beautiful thanks to the brillant blue sky, bright sunshine, crisp(!) clean air, and golds, reds, browns and greens of the mountains surrounding us. As we crossed the river into Maryland, you could look down to the river and see fog rising off the water as well. Like I told A. later, this time of year always reminds me why I like coming back to my home state to visit.
I kept my pace deliberately slow the first three flat miles of the race because I knew that at mile 3, we'd hit the first of several steep hills that would destroy me if I went out too hard. The hills were the worst part of the course. The worst is the monster at mile 3 (see below), but you also hit successive hills between miles 5 through 10, climbing in elevation overall. That final climb at mile 10 was really just awful.
I resolved, as I started to climb that first monster at mile 3, to at least jog all the hills, no matter how much it hurt, and that's exactly what I did. I used the hills to pass a lot of people, although some of them would catch up to me when I stopped at two water stations to eat my gel blocks. But I can't eat and run, so there really was no other option. Most of them I ended up passing for good though in the final few miles.
By the time I was on Sharpsburg Pike coming back towards Shepherdstown, I was hurting. The gel blocks saved me, for certain, as they gave me extra fuel to make it those last several miles. And of course seeing the bridge back across the river gave me a final push to 13.1.
I knew after hitting that big hill on mile 3, that a fast time (for me) was likely not going to happen, so I wasn't too bummed about the final time of 2:17:17 (according to my watch). I didn't flame out, I ran all the hills, I followed my fueling strategy, and I didn't kill myself, so like I said at the beginning, mission accomplished.
So what's next? We'll probably do a Thanksgiving Day race as we did last year in Cincinnati. Although this year we're spending the holiday with my family, down in Charleston on the beach. There's a 5K Thanksgiving morning we'll sign up for shortly. Other than that, my immediate goals are to maintain and continue to improve my fitness with several weekday morning runs and a long run on the weekends. Ideally I'll do some shorter distances over the winter and then another half in March or April.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Ending Training on a Strong Note
With work being incredibly hectic the last week or so, I haven't had much time to sit down and craft my usual Homeric-poem-level post. But I have a lull in the storm now, so thought I'd put a few words together.
This past Sunday was the final long run before the half marathon. I had started out the week with the intention of going 12 miles, a recent high for a run. But as the week wore on, I started thinking it would make more sense, and be less onerous, to scale it back a bit and maybe do 9 miles. When Sunday rolled around, it was cold and rainy here in the East, so I didn't get out the door until nearly noon.
But it turned into a perfect running day: mid-50s, dry, cloudy with a breeze. The later start actually helped a lot, I think, because I had time to eat breakfast before heading out. I went with a wheat bagel, PB and honey, along with some water. I went with that after reading an interesting (and timely!) article in the recent Runner's World (can't find it online, for some reason) about pre-race, race and post-race nutrition. It suggests eating several hours before your race and focusing on carbs, to a degree. They suggested the bagel, so I thought I'd try it. And they cautioned against coffee, as it can lead to "distress" while on the course.
I think it really helped me, as I ate maybe 90 minutes before my run, so I had time to digest. I went out with the goal of 9 miles and running at a pace that felt slower than what I thought was reasonable. My route was down to Ft. McHenry, around the Seawall Trail and then back.
This past Sunday was the final long run before the half marathon. I had started out the week with the intention of going 12 miles, a recent high for a run. But as the week wore on, I started thinking it would make more sense, and be less onerous, to scale it back a bit and maybe do 9 miles. When Sunday rolled around, it was cold and rainy here in the East, so I didn't get out the door until nearly noon.
But it turned into a perfect running day: mid-50s, dry, cloudy with a breeze. The later start actually helped a lot, I think, because I had time to eat breakfast before heading out. I went with a wheat bagel, PB and honey, along with some water. I went with that after reading an interesting (and timely!) article in the recent Runner's World (can't find it online, for some reason) about pre-race, race and post-race nutrition. It suggests eating several hours before your race and focusing on carbs, to a degree. They suggested the bagel, so I thought I'd try it. And they cautioned against coffee, as it can lead to "distress" while on the course.
I think it really helped me, as I ate maybe 90 minutes before my run, so I had time to digest. I went out with the goal of 9 miles and running at a pace that felt slower than what I thought was reasonable. My route was down to Ft. McHenry, around the Seawall Trail and then back.
By the time I got to the fort, my legs still felt really fresh. I thought, "you know, I bet I could go 10 instead of nine." That's only an extra loop around the fort, give or take. I ate four gel blocks after the first loop around the fort, along with some water, although the foolish part of my mind was saying I didn't feel like I needed them. But the rational part of me knew I was lucky to feel that way now; that by the time I got back into Federal Hill, I'd be bonking if I didn't get those new carbs in my system now. And, the Tropical Punch flavor tastes like Gushers, so it was like I was in 4th grade again. The second loop felt fine, and I was keeping a good handle on my tempo, focusing on going slow so I could run the whole time and not walk, other than stopping at the water fountain.
Another lap around and back through Fed Hill and my legs actually felt stronger and less tired than when I had started out. By the time I got back up Calvert Street, I was feeling it, because that's basically a mile and a half uphill climb, but I wasn't cooked or anything.
Basically, it was a solid long run and by the time I stopped, at about 10.4 miles, I felt confident that, had that been the half, I could have gone 13.1 without too much trouble. I was glad to get such a strong end to my long run training...I'm hoping that translates well to next Saturday. What was also encouraging was that after the run, my legs didn't feel as trashed as they have in the past. Maybe that's a combination of the deliberately slower pace and cooler weather, but I'd like to think having enough fuel from the breakfast and gels and sodium from the GU drink helped things as well. Overall, I just felt less beaten up after this run than in weeks past...maybe my body is finally adapting to the longer mileage?
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
The Half Marathon Approaches...
This past weekend was the second to last weekend before the Freedom's Run Half Marathon and I was slated to complete an 11 miler for my long run. I've had to be pretty aggressive with my mileage ramp up the last six weeks or so, as I procrastinated too much back in July and cut my plan short on the back end as a result. I would have liked to have had a couple extra weeks to get a handful of 10 and 11 milers in and then have hit 12 miles this past weekend before "tapering" somewhat in the final weekend.
But, my laziness made that an impossibility, so I've had to add a mile per week to my long runs. The rule of thumb is to add no more than 10% of your total mileage to your long run per week, and back in August, that limit was definitely exceeded as I tried to get beyond the 6 and 7 mile range. It hasn't been optimal, but I've avoided any serious injury like runners knee or the like. The worst I've had thus far are some minor tweaks early on. But since I started practicing yoga, those aches and tweaks have started to disappear, which is great.
Anyway, the 11 miler went as expected. It was tough, as my legs are trying to adapt to mileage that is growing a little too fast. I again went with the GU tabs. This time I had four gel blocks after about an hour and then the last two about 20 minutes later and that seemed to work well. My legs were really aching going into the 7th mile, just like the previous week, but the four gel blocks gave them new life and the additional two blocks made them feel almost fresh going into those final few miles.
Because I was going far this time out, instead of wearing my simple Timex wristwatch, I charged up and took my old Garmin Forerunner 305 that my parents got for me way back in '07 when I first got seriously into running. I mapped my run on Running Ahead, as always, and it came out to 11 miles. But the Forerunner said I ended up running just 10 miles, for some reason. I did go off course at different places, but not 1 mile's worth, to be sure. It was hard not to go off course around Patterson Park, given my relative unfamiliarity with those smaller streets. Check it out:
But, the reason I generally stopped using the Garmin in the first place is that it tended to lose its satellite signal when I was running through downtown Baltimore due to the skyscrapers. So, I'd get wacky pacing and elevation data for portions of my run. And even then, sometimes it would lose contact and not reestablish until I was well out of downtown, which may have happened here. I haven't installed the Garmin software on our new PC, so I can't go back and compare.
Nonetheless, I know I ran 11 miles, no matter what my Garmin might insist.
This weekend I originally thought I would try to hit 12 miles, but now I'm wondering if I should bring it back to 8 or 9 to "taper" in a limited fashion and not exhaust my legs less than a week before the race. We'll see how I feel as the week goes on. It'll probably be a game time decision on Sunday morning.
In other running news, looking at my monthly totals since I got back to really trying to consistently run, my distance is increasing nicely. July 2012, the first full month of getting back, I ran just 38 paltry miles (see discussion about my laziness and its impact on my training program now, above). August saw a nice improvement to 49.3 miles. But the real success was September, when both my required distance and motivation increased. Last month I logged 74.5 miles on the roads, which is very encouraging
But, my laziness made that an impossibility, so I've had to add a mile per week to my long runs. The rule of thumb is to add no more than 10% of your total mileage to your long run per week, and back in August, that limit was definitely exceeded as I tried to get beyond the 6 and 7 mile range. It hasn't been optimal, but I've avoided any serious injury like runners knee or the like. The worst I've had thus far are some minor tweaks early on. But since I started practicing yoga, those aches and tweaks have started to disappear, which is great.
Anyway, the 11 miler went as expected. It was tough, as my legs are trying to adapt to mileage that is growing a little too fast. I again went with the GU tabs. This time I had four gel blocks after about an hour and then the last two about 20 minutes later and that seemed to work well. My legs were really aching going into the 7th mile, just like the previous week, but the four gel blocks gave them new life and the additional two blocks made them feel almost fresh going into those final few miles.
Because I was going far this time out, instead of wearing my simple Timex wristwatch, I charged up and took my old Garmin Forerunner 305 that my parents got for me way back in '07 when I first got seriously into running. I mapped my run on Running Ahead, as always, and it came out to 11 miles. But the Forerunner said I ended up running just 10 miles, for some reason. I did go off course at different places, but not 1 mile's worth, to be sure. It was hard not to go off course around Patterson Park, given my relative unfamiliarity with those smaller streets. Check it out:
But, the reason I generally stopped using the Garmin in the first place is that it tended to lose its satellite signal when I was running through downtown Baltimore due to the skyscrapers. So, I'd get wacky pacing and elevation data for portions of my run. And even then, sometimes it would lose contact and not reestablish until I was well out of downtown, which may have happened here. I haven't installed the Garmin software on our new PC, so I can't go back and compare.
Nonetheless, I know I ran 11 miles, no matter what my Garmin might insist.
This weekend I originally thought I would try to hit 12 miles, but now I'm wondering if I should bring it back to 8 or 9 to "taper" in a limited fashion and not exhaust my legs less than a week before the race. We'll see how I feel as the week goes on. It'll probably be a game time decision on Sunday morning.
In other running news, looking at my monthly totals since I got back to really trying to consistently run, my distance is increasing nicely. July 2012, the first full month of getting back, I ran just 38 paltry miles (see discussion about my laziness and its impact on my training program now, above). August saw a nice improvement to 49.3 miles. But the real success was September, when both my required distance and motivation increased. Last month I logged 74.5 miles on the roads, which is very encouraging
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
New Yorker Article on Running (Really!)
Short post today. There are no new comics out this week that I'm looking to pick up, although I because I spent all day Saturday setting up our new desktop computer, I never made it to Alliance Comics. So, I'm hoping to make it down there this weekend at some point.
However, I will call your attention to an article from The New Yorker that ran a few weeks back. I've been meaning to post about it since then, but have either forgotten about it, or had other things I wanted to post first. The article discusses a middle-aged dentist and runner from Michigan, Kip Litton, who's become infamous over the last several years for running improbably fast marathon times around the country. As in, breaking three hours routinely and winning his age group. I say improbable because Litton nearly always starts his races well behind the starting gun (i.e. his chip time is much lower than the gun time because he doesn't start the race until the majority of runners have already started ahead of him). Couple that with statements from several age-group runners up, who said they never saw Litton along the course, nor were ever passed by him, and you have a small controversy brewing.
The article is fascinating because it not only delves into the evidence against Litton, but talks about his possible motivations. The author manages, after several tries, to interview Litton at a Wendy's in his hometown, and his responses deepen the mystery. It's a long article, but you'll get sucked in to it, I promise.
Is Kip Litton a Marathon Fraud? - by Mark Singer of The New Yorker
However, I will call your attention to an article from The New Yorker that ran a few weeks back. I've been meaning to post about it since then, but have either forgotten about it, or had other things I wanted to post first. The article discusses a middle-aged dentist and runner from Michigan, Kip Litton, who's become infamous over the last several years for running improbably fast marathon times around the country. As in, breaking three hours routinely and winning his age group. I say improbable because Litton nearly always starts his races well behind the starting gun (i.e. his chip time is much lower than the gun time because he doesn't start the race until the majority of runners have already started ahead of him). Couple that with statements from several age-group runners up, who said they never saw Litton along the course, nor were ever passed by him, and you have a small controversy brewing.
The article is fascinating because it not only delves into the evidence against Litton, but talks about his possible motivations. The author manages, after several tries, to interview Litton at a Wendy's in his hometown, and his responses deepen the mystery. It's a long article, but you'll get sucked in to it, I promise.
Is Kip Litton a Marathon Fraud? - by Mark Singer of The New Yorker
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Double Digits
This weekend marked the first time in a long time that my weekly long run reached double digit miles. A. and I both completed 10 milers this weekend out on the NCR Trail and it felt good to realize that although I'm not setting any land speed records, my body can handle the distance.
The run was about as good as I could have hoped. My goal was to keep to a roughly 10:00/mile pace and I got within a few seconds of that. Although I felt like my first 5 miles were slower than my second half. But that too was by design...I was afraid of going out too fast and then flaming out before I made it back to the car.
We both went five miles north and then turned around and came back to the parking lot at the trailhead we chose. The parking lot was already full when we got there around 9:30, so we had to park on the shoulder. But the trail was not that crowded with bikers and runners and walkers spaced out. In fact, once you got about 3 miles in, between parking areas, it was generally empty.
So I was able to keep a decently steady pace throughout and with the nice, dry weather, I wasn't laboring that badly. This week I tried out the GU sports drink tabs (one tablet in 16 ounces of water), and decided to eat 4 gel blocks rather than the three I did last week. The drink worked out well, although it's a little more bitter than the homemade Gatorade powder mix. Which is saying a lot because the powder doesn't have the extra sugar you get when you buy Gatorade (or any sports drink) in liquid form at the convenience store. The taste wasn't terrible though, as I like a slightly more bitter taste; too sugary and my stomach hurts. And it was definitely superior to just drinking water. I just had water last weekend for the 9 miler and despite the gels I still felt sluggish from the lack of salts as the run wore on. Sunday, I felt better, especially in those final few miles. Going with four blocks was also a good decision, as it gave me a little more energy to finish the run.
The biggest challenge of the run was simply the pounding my legs took over the ~100 minutes. This is something that I think will get better, but never really go away. I focused on maintaining something akin to decent running form throughout the run, which I think helped. But my legs definitely started to tire by around mile 6 or 7. By mile 8, they were hurting and by the end, I was in straight up pain. Few things felt better than sitting down on a bench after finishing the run.
The good news was that while I was sore the rest of the day, the aches and tired leg feeling were both gone by yesterday morning. No lingering pain of any sort, even after walking to and from work yesterday. This weekend is 11 miles, so the ramp up continues.
The run was about as good as I could have hoped. My goal was to keep to a roughly 10:00/mile pace and I got within a few seconds of that. Although I felt like my first 5 miles were slower than my second half. But that too was by design...I was afraid of going out too fast and then flaming out before I made it back to the car.
We both went five miles north and then turned around and came back to the parking lot at the trailhead we chose. The parking lot was already full when we got there around 9:30, so we had to park on the shoulder. But the trail was not that crowded with bikers and runners and walkers spaced out. In fact, once you got about 3 miles in, between parking areas, it was generally empty.
So I was able to keep a decently steady pace throughout and with the nice, dry weather, I wasn't laboring that badly. This week I tried out the GU sports drink tabs (one tablet in 16 ounces of water), and decided to eat 4 gel blocks rather than the three I did last week. The drink worked out well, although it's a little more bitter than the homemade Gatorade powder mix. Which is saying a lot because the powder doesn't have the extra sugar you get when you buy Gatorade (or any sports drink) in liquid form at the convenience store. The taste wasn't terrible though, as I like a slightly more bitter taste; too sugary and my stomach hurts. And it was definitely superior to just drinking water. I just had water last weekend for the 9 miler and despite the gels I still felt sluggish from the lack of salts as the run wore on. Sunday, I felt better, especially in those final few miles. Going with four blocks was also a good decision, as it gave me a little more energy to finish the run.
The biggest challenge of the run was simply the pounding my legs took over the ~100 minutes. This is something that I think will get better, but never really go away. I focused on maintaining something akin to decent running form throughout the run, which I think helped. But my legs definitely started to tire by around mile 6 or 7. By mile 8, they were hurting and by the end, I was in straight up pain. Few things felt better than sitting down on a bench after finishing the run.
The good news was that while I was sore the rest of the day, the aches and tired leg feeling were both gone by yesterday morning. No lingering pain of any sort, even after walking to and from work yesterday. This weekend is 11 miles, so the ramp up continues.
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