Why Does Everyone Think I'm Bummed Out?

It is really interesting to me that some people are treating me like I failed and assume that I feel really bad that I only went 35.3 miles on Saturday. That is not the case. In retrospect, jumping from marathon to 50 miles on trails might not have been the wisest thing that I have done (8 weeks after a double Ironman and 13 weeks after another Ironman), but hey, I signed up, and I went for it. Sometimes you have to push your limits to find out where they are, so that the next time you can go farther.

When I finally got around to calculating my splits up until the point I began walking, as it turns out I was averaging 13mpm. Considering the terrain we were running in and that I felt like I was walking half the time, I am very happy. VERY happy! I kept up that pace for 33 miles! When my shin started really bothering me, I didn't feel like I was out of gas in the least. Even though my quads hurt like mofos, I wanted to run. And it wasn't because I thought I was going to feel bad for stopping at 35 (actually 35.3 according to the race) miles, it was because I was enjoying running! Now you may question enjoying yourself when your legs feel like someone's been beating on them with hammers, but I was in beautiful woods, and the sun had come out, my feet were wet and muddy, but I was enjoying it!

For Ultraman, I will need to average 13:44mpm in order to make the 12-hour cutoff, and while the terrain will not be as bad, this will be after 2 days of beating the crap out of myself, so it will be no easy task. My legs will be very tired beginning the run, but in a different way. I hope my quads are still available, too!

Another positive thing is that my knees did not bother me. I took it in the quads, baby! So while I can always want stronger quads, I give them extreme credit for keeping my knees stable while running on such uneven surfaces.

My back never hurt, either. Not that I expected it to--I've been really hitting the abs/core stuff since ROTPM because I knew it would be an important component of my overall strength--but while I was out there, every now and then I would think, hey, other than the fact that my quads hurt, I feel pretty damn great! My upper body felt wonderful the entire time--I never felt fatigue there.

I had another opportunity to test out fueling for a really long run. It was cool, so I wasn't drinking as much as I would on a warmer day, but Coke did the trick, and I also had maybe 1/2 of a PB&J sandwich and a couple of cups of chicken broth.

I didn't get any blisters!

So, in summary, while I technically DNF'ed, hey, it was an awesome, awesome training day, and 35.3 miles is nothing to shake a stick at!

Now, about my shin--it isn't bruised. It was just red and inflamed, but the redness is already gone. I think my peroneal and possibly my anterior tib muscles just took it for the team. I am being very watchful, though, and this week is very flexible in terms of when I begin biking (or swimming, for that matter, although I will probably go mid-day today just to get away from work).

I ended up raking my entire back yard yesterday, which was an interesting task without quads. Normally, once I fill one of the leaf bags up, I stick a foot in to compress them, but no way I could do that, although when I almost instinctively did it, it made me laugh! So I had to use my hands. And then dragging the huge, heavy (the leaves were pretty wet from all the rain on Friday) bags (5 of them) to my front stoop was entertaining, but I was very careful and went slowly. I didn't feel tired at all doing the actual raking and bagging (about 3 hours of work), and then went to the grocery store.

As I was entering the store, one of my quads misfired, and I let out a little "ouch," and a woman behind me asked if I was OK. I said yes, that my legs just hurt from running 35 miles the day before. And this woman tells me hers hurt from running 3! I don't know if she misheard me or what, but it was funny to me. Sure, even a 5K hurts, but nothing like this! I was grateful for being able to hold onto the cart, which helped me walk better. When I went to grab some Lean Cuisines (I have one for lunch most days), a bunch more fell out of the refrigerated compartment, and it was like a complete tragedy! I looked at them on the floor for a few seconds, thinking about how I was going to pick them up, but I just took my time with my Frankenstein legs and got it done.

Raking and shopping and then going up and down the stairs in my house (which can't be avoided) is helping my legs to come around. I can already go upstairs without holding onto the railings, but down is still touchy. My feet are puffy, but I'll spend some quality time with them elevated today (just as I did yesterday), and I'll ice my right shin just to keep down the inflammation. I even stretched my quads a little bit this morning, and will do so intermittently today.

So my little experiment to train for a 50-miler has been pretty successful. I am glad I did this, I put a bunch of miles in the bank of my Ultraman legs, and now it's time to recover and begin my next training block, which thankfully, will include a lot of biking and really only modest running, culminating in Goofy Challenge in just 11 weeks. Now that will be easy, as this is my third time, and it's just 39.3 miles over TWO days! In the back of my mind, I think that if the stars aligned, I might be able to qualify for Boston, but the main point of the adventure is to have fun with friends and get in another good run training weekend.

Oh yeah, and when all is said and done, I will probably pick up a little run speed from this last 8 weeks of training. There were 4 high mileage weeks in there (and yes, my right shin is thanking me!), and all I need to do is recover from them and I'll be back in business.

On to Phase II of training for Ultraman!