Monday, September 3, 2012

A run at WTF?! level

On my long runs this summer, my attitude has been waffling between "I don't have anywhere to be all day so I'll just sleep in ridiculously late and torture myself running in the heat" and "I want my weekends free so bad that I'll wake up at 3:30 am and do my long run before work in the dark". 

Today, I finally managed to hit a happy medium. I woke up at 6:30, drove to a paved/packed dirt trail, and was running by 7:30. I'm usually really lazy when it comes to driving places to run by myself (I'd rather just start and finish outside my front door) but the thought of doing another long run in my neighborhood made me want to puke. 

Of course, last night's overnight low was 71, and the high today was 75, so I wasn't exactly beating the heat. The challenge Mother Nature threw at me this time was humidity. It was over 90% for my entire run. I was soaked before I hit 3 miles, and by the halfway point my feet were sloshing in my shoes. It goes without saying that I am enjoying some nasty chafing and blisters now.

This has been my longest run so far during this training cycle, and it was one of those really mentally challenging ones. The kind where you run about a tenth of a mile and then are like "wait, 22 miles, WTF? Who does that?". Logically, I knew I had run 20 miles just a few weeks ago and that my body could handle the distance, but I still had to play a lot of mind games with myself to get through 22 miles. Eric always thinks it's so weird that I get intimidated by long distances but seriously, I don't care how many times I've done it before, 22 miles is a long ass way. Especially when it feels like you're in a sauna.

Random running humor

Anyway, I completed 22 tough miles at 9:39 pace, still slow, but considering the humidity I'm on board with it. As soon as I got back to my car it started thundering, so the timing really was perfect. I went immediately to Wegmans to buy chocolate milk, a sub, and more chocolate for later (isn't it weird how much I've been talking about how slow I am even with my impeccable fueling?). 

I thought training for a 50 mile race would be less time consuming than triathlon training since it's only one sport and doesn't require any equipment. I totally failed to consider how much more you need to pay attention to recovery with only one sport. By the time I ran, changed clothes, wandered around Wegmans in a stupor trying to talk myself out of buying everything because I broke our cardinal rule about not going to the grocery store hungry, drove home, took an ice bath, foam rolled, stretched, and yanked on compression gear, it was so late that I was forced to drink decaf coffee instead of regular. (I must have coffee every day, so even if it's 2pm and I've already gotten caffeine from Gus, I need my ritual).

Now we're about to dig into another wonderful Kari recipe for dinner, baked mac and cheese with pesto. Refueling with tons of cheese (or just eating tons of cheese in general) is always a good choice.




What distance is your WTF level (or are you on Eric's plan, once you run a distance than you are forever superior to it)?
 Mine is probably anything over 15 miles. I require a self pep talk about every half mile at that point. 

19 comments:

  1. I think my WTF level is now 140.6 miles.

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  2. My WTF level is about the same as yours. So we're both in trouble for our 50M training. I feel so much better knowing that someone else is screwed too.

    Also, hey, it was kind of humid this morning -- did you notice?

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  3. After my second run (it took me two runs to still not quite match your mileage this morning), we went into the Bay. Did you know that if you get in the Bay and get out, you can't tell the difference in level of wetness of your clothes, if it was humid enough when you were running?

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  4. My WTF?! is anything over 3 miles.........bahahahahhaha. #pathetic.

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  5. My WTF level is anything over the distance to the kitchen for a glass of wine. RIDICULOUS. Your random running humor was hysterical. Thanks for that!

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  6. 16 always used to be really intimidating to me...now it's 18. Good job getting your 22 miles in on this crazy humid day! You are doing great. Keep it up! Those ice baths are vital so I am glad you are taking them.

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  7. ugh I did almost 4 this morning and it was so ridiculously gross out (we were in delaware)so I don't know how in hell that you pulled out 22!

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  8. 22 miles freaks me out too. For some reason it just seems so much further than 20 miles. I think my WTF distance is over 18. That's when I start feeling like "I don't remember how it feels to NOT be running. Is this real life?"

    I am so jealous of your Wegman's trip. I would cut a bitch for one of their pretzel rolls.

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  9. Jealous of your thunder and Wegmans of course. Things we don't have here in SoCal. Also the mac and cheese looks fantastic and I love pesto. I inadvertently ran 13.5 two weekends ago (planned to do 11) so I guess that distance isn't scary, or at least with friends it isn't. Sometimes I really stall on getting out the door for long runs on my own- stupid things like "what flavor gu should i bring? do i bring music? hat or sunglasses?" etc. I think 15 is my longest ever run, so I'd say anything over that is intimidating.

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  10. My WTF used to be 8 miles, but now it's probably 6. I lost any fitness I had last year and it's driving me nuts. And now I want a pretzel roll so I can go eat my feelings.

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  11. My WTF level would probably be anything over 12. I'm still a newbie and training for my first marathon has me freaking out about my long run every week now that I'm over that number. I get very nervous and intimidated by the long run now. This week I have to do 18....WTF...that's a lot for me.

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  12. I'm in the same boat as you. No matter what the distance, if it's over 15, I get nervous and freak myself out. That's why I really like having someone to run with (or have my mom bike with me), so that I at least have someone to distract me until I stop being a nervous idiot.

    I'm so glad you guys loved the mac and cheese. We were rushing around like crazy last night, so we ended up having tuna melts. I think I'm going to make that tonight, though!

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  13. 15 miles for me is the new WTF level. Anything beyond that is kind of scary. I ran trails for 3 1/2 this weekend, and I had to pump myself up beforehand because I was freaking out.

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  14. Am I supposed to be training for these ultras? A 22 mile run? Crap I'd better get started.

    Great job getting a mega long run done solo. And your pace is not slow. Awesome training!

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  15. My current WTF distance will be 20. Which I'll try to accomplish next weekend. Seems so dang long when you've only done 18. And now the marathon is daunting me. I can do it right?? That mac & cheese looks amazing. I am drooling.

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  16. Have to agree...15 miles is also my WTF line. Up to there, it isn't so bad, but beyond that takes a bit of mentally "working up to it". Once I'm on the road and get beyond 10 or so, I'm usually OK, but getting out and going is intimidating. Nice run, and your pace for long run training seemed right on track to me.

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  17. The fact that you did a 22 mile run at a pace that I hope for during a 5k made me throw up just a little. And say WTF.

    As for my WTF distance? It was going to be 20 miles...but wait! I never got that far before I broke. Sigh. Guess I"ll have to save that distance for a later date :)

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  18. My WTF level is anything over 18mi. 15mi is pretty much a normal long run, and 18 is close enough that it doesn't quite approach WTF. But anything more than that is loooooong. Which is likely why I haven't done more than that yet. I should really get my butt in gear for these fall marathons.

    Also, two marathons in one season is pretty WTF for me. I've never done more than one.

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