Sunday, November 6, 2011

How did you use your extra hour?

I'm not sure there's any truer sign of aging than the night it's time for our clocks to fall back. Back in the day, it meant an extra hour the bars were open, an extra hour for partying, and really, could you ever get enough time for those activities?


As soon as I woke up Saturday morning, I remembered that it was the day when we fall back, and I got so freaking super excited that I would be getting an extra hour of sleep that night. Sleep. That was what I couldn't wait for.


I don't exactly know when I crossed over from one side to the other, but that marks a huge transition in my opinion.


 I seriously don't know what the MCM did to me, but ever since running the marathon last Sunday, I've been absolutely exhausted. I can't wake up. No matter what.


Friday, I ran 6  miles with Lily. Average pace 9:26. I was exhausted. It felt hard.


Saturday morning, 14 miles was on the schedule. Friday night, I got that old anxiety about the long run, like, omg, 14 miles, I can't believe I have to run that far, I can't do it, etc, etc. Logically, I knew I could, have run 26.2 just 5 days ago, but 14 just seemed really overwhelming.


The alarm went of Saturday morning and I thought to myself "Remember when this wasn't my hobby, and on Saturdays I'd go to like an hour of Zumba and not torture myself by getting up at the crack of dawn to run for 2 1/2 hours?? That was great". 


The 50 miler didn't care though and was still looming over my head threatening to kill me if I didn't get up and get ready to run (plus Lily would be at my house in ten minutes), so I got up and we headed out in the cold. 


The run was fine, but I felt exhausted, felt way too out of breath, felt my heart rate was too high, and mentally just had that "I just ran a marathon, I'm supposed to be resting!" mentality. Average pace 10:01.


I haven't run today yet, but I can guarantee it will be a slow five miles that feels really hard. Maybe I'll just leave my Garmin home and skip torturing myself with seeing my pace.


Here's some cool stuff that I did Saturday.



Can you tell why we needed to take this picture?

Tried fried pickles - yet another thing that is perfect in pure form, and doesn't need to be fried

Introduced our friends Katylin and Ben to crab pretzels

Explored Harris Teeter for the first time

Tried Cookie Dough vodka - excellent decision

Made good use of time spent waiting for a table

List of topics to occupy us for 50 miles of running
Please share any and all possible probing questions, interesting conversation topics, or funny jokes that we can talk about for an amount of time that is too frightening to type that we will be running for in two weeks.

10 comments:

  1. consider taking a rest day today. your body is screaming loud and clear "rest day"!

    you can always do states and capitals and lyrics to songs during the 50-miler! i sometimes do that during marathons.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was so excited for an extra hour sleep! Last night was glorious!

    Yesterday I actually slept through my long run with the group and was like, "I don't actually HAVE to go because I'm not in training! SCORE!" As awesome as the marathon and training were, I am really enjoying doing whatever the heck I want as far as running goes.

    Topics:
    Worst date
    craziest ex
    most embarrassing moment

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cake vodka was delish!!!! awesome runs... I am debating on a rest day..... cant wait for Bikram tomorrow

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like a little bout of overtraining/burn out. I feel ya! My recommendation? Take it easy for the next 2 weeks. Nothing you do over these next 2 weeks is going to significantly impact the 50 miler. I slowed up significantly right before the MCM. I have stopped wearing my Garmin all together and just focus on getting the miles in. I am actually enjoying the runs so much more. I am just going to focus on eating right, getting plenty of sleep and keeping loose - lots of slow runs and stretching. I want to avoid waking up 11/19 with tired legs. Just take care of yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rest up! The last thing you want is to have tired and overtrained legs getting ready to run 50 miles!
    And now with the cookie dough vodka? Seriously, I have to get out more.

    ReplyDelete
  6. take care of yourself!!!

    and one of my favorite random long run topics is "what would you do if you won the lottery for a million dollars"

    good luck at the 50 miler! there is a small chance i will be running the annapolis half that day...if not, i will be there to cheer you on...i won't have a minituare pony though, sorry :-/

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have been thinking the exact same thing about DST. I used to LOVE it for the extra time at a bar or club or whatever stupid place I was at, but now I look forward to the extra hour of sleep. It might be my 3rd favorite day of the year. : )

    Alyssa. You have turned in to a running maniac. Seriously! You are so awesome with all of your marathons and 50 milers. I can't even run ONE mile anymore. ahhhhhhhh.

    Cookie Dough Vodka sounds AMAZING. And how can you hate on fried pickles? I guess that's why my ass is getting flabby again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I could have written this. I felt great after Baltimore, but MCM killed my will to live a little. I felt SO winded on my run today. I blame NC. I am getting the "Oh man, this feels hard. FIFTY MILES? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?" feelings. Also, I've been getting minimal sleep for a few days and that makes everything seem worse. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. oh goodness its kind of nice to hear that everyone even pros get nervous for long runs!!

    my husband would love those crab pretzels! we really need to come up east someday!

    ReplyDelete
  10. HaHaHa! I love the list! Nice that you are so well planned out!

    I still haven't even figured out my outfit, whether I'm dropping a bag (or two), clean my trail shoes from the last race....I guess I should get some things done.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.