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28 July, 2012

Running Lessons Learned

The alarm went off at 05:00 this morning, and Scott and I got up and moving shortly after that.  Today's goal: the 6-mile run I failed at last weekend.  I managed to finish the run in 1:32.12, which is only 2 minutes slower than my goal pace and 4 minutes faster than the 16 minute/mile pace I need for the races.  I did learn a lot of little things that I wanted to record for future reference. 

  1. The early bird also catches the fish.  We saw an osprey fly over clutching a hefty breakfast in its talons.
  2. Bullfrog aerosol sunblock is only sweatproof for up to five miles.  The last mile, the only reason I was still running was the motivation to get back to the towel in the car and wipe my stinging eyes!
  3. Four miles is about as far as I can go without refueling.  Next week I'm going to pack some almonds and raisins for a quick boost.  Today I got a little bit light-headed around mile 4.5, and the last .5 mile my feet were like lead.
  4. Awesome recovery food: smoothie of chocolate soy milk (the light kind), banana, and a big honkin' spoonful of peanut butter.  It was as thick as a milkshake, and with a good amount of calcium, potassium, and protein.  (down side: too much sugar)
  5. Don't forget the bug spray!  I got some OFF with Deet, which kept the yellow flies away (I still have a welt from the bites I got 2 weeks ago), but there are a lot of bugs out there!  I had a dead gnat stuck to my face under my eye...and I'm pretty sure it actually drowned in the sweat on my face!
  6. Oh, the sweat! By the end of today's run, I had one dry spot on my shirt, near the bottom where my underwear/shorts/shorts were between my skin and the shirt. Also, my ponytail was soaked from my scalp to an inch below the rubber band AND 4" up from the bottom from the head sweat and neck sweat.
Even after a one-hour nap, I'm still tired.  My fingers and feet still feel pretty swollen, and I don't actually know what to do about that.  I'm also still having blister issues.  Of the seven (seven!!) blisters on my foot, four are right under existing old calloused blisters.  The others are small, but in places I wasn't expecting them to be.  Only one hurts.

All in all, I'm happy with today's results.  Next week is 7 miles, but I think I'll be stronger with the lessons I learned this week.

2 comments:

m said...

my fingers swell like crazy whenever i take long walks on hot days ... if you find out what that is, i'd like to know. i can stope it by walking with my arms up in the air, but ... that's dorky!

Nicole said...

I know I'm a little late on this, but I feel your pain on the blisters. Anything over 2 miles and those puppies come out. I may try to double sock it this week to see if that helps. My mantra from the trainer this week is run softly and breathe, so we'll see if that helps too.

I was able to make it through the 5 mile this weekend without a recovery snack, but I did almost pass out while I was making my smoothie. I think my new rule will be run, recovery snack, then shower, because any other combo is not going to work.

Also, if you are looking for a fun recovery smoothie with a little less sugar try 1/2 cup almond milk, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, 1/2 banana, and ice to your desired consistency. I blend that up in the magic bullet and I'm good to go. And if you close your eyes, it even tastes vaguely like Rita's chocolate peanut butter cup creme ice. Definitely a win/win.