The running gods were smiling on me today. I had was feeling pretty good when I woke up, even though it was the most daunting and critical run of my entire training schedule, and that feeling carried on throughout 20 miles of relentless pavmement pounding.
It is a masochistic enedvour to run 20 miles, pain is expected and enivitable but taking that on and succeeding, feels fucking fantastic. With the memories of the evil stomach cramps that attacked me during my last long run and again on Wednesday, my biggest fear was that I would be doubled over by mile 5 and have to finish the run cursing the fact that I had to be born with a stomach.
In effort to avoid this fate I tweaked some things and perhaps found the magical and stellar antidote to my nasty stomach issues. I tried to limit the dairy in my diet on Saturday, but this was a lot harder than I expected. No lattes, no cheese on my sandwhich, no chocolate milk - this was tough! When trying to decide what to have for dinner I thought back to when I ran my first half marathon. I admit I didnt know what I was doing back then so I had cheese pizza for dinner and in the morning for breakfast. The result was a much faster run than I anticipated. I avoided continuing to do this because according to the research it wasnt the best option though. Well everything else I have tried has always given me evil stomach cramps so what the hell.
Me n Eds provided me with the new love of my life, the valley veggie. It was loaded with cheesy veggie goodness and I had an utterly fantastic time eating it. I realize that I am sad and pathetic to spend my Saturday night alone with a pizza and enjoy it, but such is my life. Besides pizza is always just a phone call away and you dont have to try to figure out if it likes you or not which kicks ass.
I had a cliff bar when I woke up instead of my usual wheat toast and peanut butter and met my mom at the trail at 7:30. A good majority of the time I need a few miles to get the stiffness out and to find the pace, but I was comfortable from the start which was a good sign. We went a different way and explored areas we hadnt been, which helped the miles go by more quickly. By mile 10 I still felt strong and comfortable, I had no pain or stomach cramping - hell to the yes.
Mile 18 was when I first started feeling a little achey in my legs and some stiffness, but thats expected by that point so I wasnt concerned. By the time I finished I was still fine and even felt like I could go further - but I didnt, "over training" flashed through my mind. It was a great confidence boosting run for me though, and I did it in 3 hours, which is faster than I needed to go by a minute a mile. I have one more 20 miler and then it is time to taper so the worst is almost behind me.
One of the most freakin awesome benefit of running that far is that I can eat anything I want today and not worry about over doing it or making my stomach upset for a run. You roughly burn 100 calories per mile so by 11:30 AM I have already burned 2,000 calories, woo hoo! What has convinced me that I dont eat the way that I do because I like to and not because I dont want to gain weight is that I went to Carls Jr and ordered what I usually do - a chicken sandwhich no mayo. I could have gotten fries and mayo and not had to worry about it but I didnt want it. I will eat the rest of the pizza a little later though, for sure.
And now, it is time for some pizza and a nap...best Sunday ever.
UPDATE: Yeah I actually have (2) more 20 milers to go, damn. So I will be running ast least 40 miles a week until October 19th so dont be suprised if you dont see a lot of me in the near future.
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