Awesome Long Run this Morning!

I was scheduled to do a 2:30 run today (last week's long run was only 2 hours being just 2 weeks after Triple T). Yesterday I ran about 8 miles after a 2-mile swim plus riding to and from the pool, and my legs felt pretty trashed last night. But I stretched for :35, tried to carb up as much as possible (hot weather and lots of running=not really that hungry) for today's run.

About 10:30PM, I woke up to go pee, and I thought I heard my cell phone ringing, and sure enough, it did. It was a woman I met over the winter at the Y. She is one of the angels I've spoken of--she listened to me babble on about all the crap I was dealing with over the winter and into early spring. Now she has her own troubles. I don't know if I can be as much of an angel to her, but I'm going to try. She's a lot like me in many ways--very logical, analytical, purposeful and always striving for excellence. I can tell she's a bit overwhelmed with her situation (which includes the beginnings of a divorce and they have a 4-year old daughter), just as I was for several months over the winter. But she already knows and has said that she knows things will improve and she will find her happiness again. We talked for almost 2 hours, and I fell peacefully back asleep after that and woke up just as my coffee pot was beginning to brew about 4:45AM.

When I woke up, I felt pretty damn good. I remembered the discussion during the night, and I knew I had a tough run ahead, so I put on my HTFU bracelet. I basically got up, put my running clothes on, drank 2 cups of coffee and ate most of a Powerbar Triple Threat, filled my run bottles with (mostly) defizzed Coke, packed my run bag and I was out of the house within an hour.

The weather was pretty nice this AM--not too terribly hot or humid. I wondered how my legs would feel today considering how sore they felt yesterday before I stretched. But I also felt very good and motivated to run my very best. I hoped to knock out 16-17 miles, depending on how fast I was able to go. I drove to Waterfall Glen and was ready to take off running at 6:00AM on the nose. I parked in a place I don't usually park, which meant I had to start off on some short cut through the parking lot to get to the trailhead. The shortcut includes a few stairs and various roots.

When I was about .1 miles into the trail, AJ ran up next to me. I met AJ this winter while doing one of my NothingMan's. Only I couldn't remember his name until much later! We chatted--he was doing the full loop (9.5 miles), and I told him I was going for 17. He actually got me started out on a good, ease into it pace. I was tempted to stay with him, but I knew I had much more to go, so after about 1/2 mile, I told him to go on up ahead. But I could see him for about the first 4 miles, and I wasn't that far behind.

I ended up running to the Mile 4 marker and a little beyond, and then turned around. I stopped to use the porta-potty that is just before the Mile 4 marker. On the wall I saw a big tick! Well, that made me hurry up and get out of there, although I tried to kill the tick before I left. Of course, just seeing a tick made me itchy and thinking there were bugs all over me for a little while.

I had plenty of Coke for the way back, and didn't feel underfueled or dehydrated. My first out and back loop was about 8.6 miles, and I drank 12 oz. of Coke for the distance. I was running (slowly, but still running) the hills, and feeling pretty good. Back at my car, I drank about 3 oz. of Coke from another bottle (I had brought 3 just in case), and then grabbed another 12-oz. bottle and took off again. I felt so good for the first loop that I wondered if I'd still feel good, since I had already polished off a little more than I ran yesterday.

About 1.5 miles into my second loop, I saw one of these just sitting on the trail:

It's an indigo bunting. I knew what it was because I have a bird guide and have looked through pretty much all of them at one time or another, and I knew it wasn't a bluebird because he was smaller than a bluebird. He just sat on the trail, and I got within about 3 feet of him! I figured this was God's way of presenting to me a very special gift, because it is truly a beautiful bird, and this one wasn't afraid of me!

Also on the way out on my second loop, I saw a bunch of guys without shirts coming the opposite direction, probably a high school cross-country team. I was running really well at this point and almost naked myself, and they all waved and/or said hello to me. I was just glad I was representin' at this point!

I kept going and turned around about 3.6 miles or so out. Now I knew I was getting close to being done. There were several other groups of naked runner guys (sweet) and a few groups of girls who were probably also cross-country runners. One of my favorite songs came on the radio, and of course, I had to do some fancy footwork, much like these guys:

About the same spot as the way out, who should I see again but Mr. Indigo Bunting? He was sitting on the trail in almost the same exact spot, and I stopped to gaze at him and then he flew up into a small nearby tree. A couple of women were running up near me, and I was pointing madly at the tree to make sure they didn't miss this beautiful sight. I told them what kind of bird it is, and one girl (in a heavy British accent) commented that there was probably all sorts of wildlife in there, and I told her that indeed, there is. They had seen a few deer--last week when I ran here, I saw 4.

Now I was pumped up to finish strong, and I told the 2 girls they should go ahead and pass me, but they didn't (they were running 4 miles), and I just took it home, toweled off, got in my car and drove home, feeling great.

And I still feel great. I've got about :20 of strength work to do yet today, and I'm already up to almost 10 hours of training for the week, with about 12 to go, and I'm feeling really, really strong! Between today (I ran 16 miles in 2:30, not bad for me) and yesterday, I've almost run a marathon over 2 days, and I really can't complain! Tomorrow I don't have to swim since I'm doing a 2-mile swim race on Saturday, but if the weather is good, I really want to go for at least 1500 meters at the outdoor pool to recover from today's run (and well, get even more of a tan!), and then I'm biking 2 hours.

I've gone from feeling like I'm about to crumble under the weight of all the training to really feeling great and hitting it hard! I think what's happened is that I'm finally recovered from Triple T and have absorbed it and all my previous NothingMan's.

So you know the drill--it's total HARDCORE AGGRO for the next 3.5 weeks! I'm in 100% HTFU mode now!