It's Nice to Run Outside Redux

So I woke up Sunday morning to nice clear skies, no wind, and the temperature was a balmy 27 degrees. PERFECT!! Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn't far from the truth.

Given the conditions I ran in on the Sunday past, I decided on Saturday that I would drive my route to be sure about the road conditions. I realized two things as I drove the route: the roads were great (the snow had melted off of them), and 13 miles is a long way! Even in the car. Not to mention on foot.

I was a bit apprehensive, as I had only run 13 miles once before, and that was in the Flying Pig Half Marathon last May. I decided I would keep the pace slow, just ease into the run and see how it went. Within the first mile, my lower legs started to complain. My left leg began to hurt along the front of the shin, and my right leg had the same inside calf shenanigans that's been going on for awhile. I remained conscious of it, each step making me wonder how I am going to get through 26.2 miles. This kept up for the next couple miles, and then a miraculous thing happened; ALL the pain/discomfort/hurt went away. By mile 3 everything was fine. Now I don't know if the problem is that there is a muscle/tendon/whatever that starts out "cold" then warms up as things go or what, but whatever it is (as long as it goes away) I'll take it.

I was happy to come to the first "pit stop" at 5 miles. I walked while I gelled and drank. Then I started up again. There was a time when I thought that if I stopped to walk I'd never be able to start running again because my legs would just be dead. Not so much.

Bu the time I got to 8 miles, I was looking forward to the 10 mile "pit stop". Things were getting a bit harder and I felt it mostly in my thighs. There was some definite burning going on. Which is good; that means the muscle is breaking down and during recovery will build itself back up stronger than before. At least that's what I thought I read somewhere. If you know something different, let me know. Maybe I'll choose to believe what you say, or maybe I'll continue to live in this fantasy world I've created in my head.

The 10 mile "pit stop" was interesting. I used a Clif Shot (Orange Cream), and followed it with some water. I've decided that for me, the Clif gels are just too thick. I prefer the Powerbar gels (Raspberry Cream is pretty good, and Green Apple is just plain tasty). So I washed down the gel with some water. This is a slightly different experience than past long runs because my water had frozen by this point. Not yesterday. It was nice and cold, however, and I think I may have drunk a bit too much, because I developed a bit of a stitch about mile 11. Nothing too bad and nothing I couldn't work out, but not comfortable either.

The last couple miles I really felt the burn in my legs. But I made it. There were several times in the last couple miles I wanted to walk, but I just imagined that there were 24 miles behind me and only a couple more to go and that kept me going. We'll see in a couple weeks when I go LONGER THAN I'VE EVER RAN BEFORE IN MY LIFE: 15 miles.

The end result from Sunday's run:

Garmin: 13.01 miles, 2:28:03, 11:23 pace
Nike+ : 13.76 miles, 2:27:27, 10:42 pace

And yes, I did get "Yoda" working again. I finally got the Nano to restore. Seems like the Nano is partial to a particular USB port, while the iPHONE is especially fond of the other.

A step back this week for the long run (only 10 miles), but a couple of the midweek runs go up in milage (from 6 to 7, and from 3 to 4). Should be interesting.

Later.