Run #3...What???

Now we're in real-time since the run I will be writing about happened today. And I have full faith this will be the most interesting of my training runs for two reasons....

I told Chad my plan was to run 8 miles outdoors, and I was having trouble picking a route since I don't know any exact mileage of the streets around our neighborhood in Fishers. He suggested a loop we have done before on our bikes--down Lantern Road and into a neighborhood that has a small scale workout park--things such as bars for dips and pull-ups which, by the way, is the site of those incredible 3 pull-ups I mentioned in the first post! According to Chad, who had looked the mileage up before, a loop of going from our apartment to that workout park and back was 1.33 miles. If I did this 6 times, that would give me exactly 8 miles. The idea of repeating a loop 6 times seemed boring (and at times it was) but since it was mileage I knew, I was going to use that plan. For future runs, I plan to map out more exciting runs before the day of.

I took off down Lantern Road on this first day of spring, Saturday, March 20. The weather was truly beautiful--sunny, nice cloud cover at times, 55-60 degrees and breezy. Right up my alley :) The first 2 miles always prove to be the hardest for me, especially outdoors, because as I am getting into the grove and establishing a pace, my knees/ankles/shins are in pain. After 2 loops, I felt great. After 3 loops, I knew I was halfway done, at the 4 mile mark. At 5 loops, I was excited to only have one loop left, however my knees were very achy and my shoulder blades were as well. (After the mini last year, the worst pain I experienced after the run, much to my surprise, was in the back of my shoulders.) No matter how often I remembered to shake out my arms and keep a loose running posture, my shoulders throbbed at longer distances. I paused briefly before embarking on the last loop to stretch out my quads and alleviate some of the knee pain, as well as to stretch out my neck and shoulders. I also felt a little dizzy and flushed but chalked that up to it being a little hot outside at this point. I was on the final stretch back to my apartment when I saw Chad riding his bike to check on me:) I finished up the run, clipping along at a quick pace right behind his bike.

It was HARD. I felt pushed to my max at the end of this run, which was disappointing because, although it was the first outdoor long run, I could not fathom tacking on FIVE more miles in a month and a half. Another disappointing fact was that it had taken me 98 minutes. This meant I was running around 5.0 miles per hour (as opposed to my normal 6.0 on a treadmill)....gotta pick up that outdoor pace if I want to even come close to my time goal.

All this disappointment was washed away in an instant when Chad and I discovered a miscalculation. Using an online tool for mapping outdoor runs/bike rides, Chad asked me exactly the point where I started and finished all 6 of those loops. I heard him yell from the other room "Babe, you ran 10 miles." Incredulous, I ran into the room to see the computer screen myself and the route he had mapped out perfectly. There it was: 10.02 miles. Meaning a.) I skipped past running miles 8 and 9 as my plan laid out and jumped right to 10! No wonder it felt so hard and took so long! and b.) I averaged a 9.8 minute mile, running slightly faster than I run indoors on that nice comfy treadmill belt!! It's awesome what your body is capable of doing, even without your knowledge! I felt amazing!!

Amazing, that is, for a little while....I started to ice my knees which still throbbed and I also had a pretty good cramp in my left quad. No biggie. My head started to throb so I thought that I was really due for some post-run replenishment. Especially after 10 miles!! (For breakfast that morning, I had eaten oatmeal with sliced banana and a maple syrup drizzle and also about 3 cups of coffee--my Saturday morning ritual as I love to make a full French press of coffee and leisurely drink it all. In my defense, I did try to drink an equal amount of water to balance out the diuretic effects of coffee before I ran.)

So, I drank 2 full glasses of Crystal Light raspberry ice and had a tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat toast. I started to feel increasingly terrible, pounding headache right in the center of my forehead, blurry vision and seeing spots. The sunlight coming in our sliding doors was excruciating, and I realized as I was texting on my phone, I could barely see the letters. I went and laid down in our dark bedroom, on the floor. Chad brought me in an apple thinking that my blood sugar had to be low, so I ate that but didn't feel any symptoms subside. I crawled into bed but could not get comfortable. It felt like the hangover from hell...and trust me, there was no alcohol involved. I started to feel nauseous from the headache and blurred vision--the nausea came in strong waves and I felt like I could pass out lying down in bed! I called Chad, who had run out on errands, sounding a little frantic and told him to hurry home--I have just never felt this bent out of shape! When he got home, I had him grab my heart rate monitor so I could at least see if anything was wrong there...nope, perfect 68 bpm, very steady. And then, I threw up. A lot. (In a wire mesh trash can, which I don't recommend, but that's all that was handy!) And over the course of the next 2 hours, threw up 2 more times. A lot. Sorry Mom, for canceling our dinner plans!

Classic dehydration according to my own common sense...ok, and Google. Which would explain it feeling so distinctly like a hangover! Of all people to not hydrate enough before a run, and not hydrate at all during the run, the Health and Fitness Specialist should have known better.

Somewhere around 8pm (I finished the run at 2:50pm), I felt human enough to crawl out of bed. You can thank the episodes of today for giving me the inspiration to start this blog that had previously been just a fleeting idea. And now, at 10pm I feel thrilled again at the 10 miles and happy that spring has finally sprung!

Lessons of the run:

• Accurately track your mileage! I got lucky in that I thought I was running less than I actually was, but it can also happen the other way around which can be a bummer! I recommend www.imapmy.com This website allows you to map a run, walk, bike ride, or even a triathlon course!
• Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! If you feel thirsty, you ARE. I ignored the fact that I was very thirsty during the second half of my run, when it would have been easy to take a tiny detour up to my apartment for some water.
• Nothing beats Saltines, and a husband willing to drive to the nearest gas station for Gatorade. Have both handy!!

Favorite songs of the run (randomly played on ipod shuffle):

• "River of Dreams" -Billy Joel
• "I Need Love" -NSYNC
• "Closing Time" -Semisonic (which fittingly came on as I began the last loop)
• "I Kissed a Drunk Girl" -Something Corporate