Running Man

You all know the story of me missing my last two runs because of fatigue, or because I wasn’t feeling just right, and then the altering of my schedule from five days a week to four days a week.
But with the Quebec City marathon now a month away, it’s important I get a few long runs in to maintain my base, and extend my body so it knows how to deal with fatigue. Temperatures above 110 degrees in the Valley the last two days didn’t help, so I awoke at 5 a.m. to prepare for Sunday’s run.
I was out of the house within an hour, and despite the sun not yet peeking above the horizon, the temperature was already 77 degrees. Making matters worse, it was humid.
In my mind, I needed to make sure I could handle a long run – especially with the weather – and did much better than I anticipated. One smart move I made was going to bed at 9 p.m. the night before so I would get a good night of rest.
I also tried something different with this long run. Instead of setting out on a 16-mile loop, I ran some laps, which normally I hate to do.
I began with an eight-mile loop, which went fine but was a little slow. But around mile nine my body loosened up, I stopped wondering if my base was still strong enough and I just ran.
Remarkably, my second eight miles (a loop of four miles and a pair of two-mile loops) was faster than my first eight miles. I checked in just under two hours, 46 minutes.
One nice surprise at the end of the run was being joined by my niece, Nicole. She just graduated high school and came from New Jersey to visit for a few weeks to see me and hang out. (I think she also wants to see Kyan and help with him). She joined me for the final two miles, and made it go by quickly.
I was done running by 9 a.m. so I was able to watch the end of the Tour De France and British Open.
Another thing I’m pleased about is how my body feels. My legs don’t ache, I don’t feel exhausted. In other words, I feel terrific. And the best part is I also feel great, mentally, about the run, and looking ahead to training.
Here’s to a cooler week of running; 5 miles (Tuesday), 8 miles (Wednesday), 5 miles (Thursday) and 18 miles (Saturday or Sunday).