Monday 11 March 2013

Better Than Nothing

I'm going to try and draw some positives from today.

I had planned 16 miles, and sorted my route in my head. About a third of it was still snow/icy, so I was either crunching along, or trying not to slip. Four times I slid along on my heel. Snow that had fallen over icy puddles was the worst, as I assumed it was safe to run on.

At 8 miles I had a gel. I have read there will be High 5 ones available at Edinburgh, but after the High 5 drink I didn't need another bad run, so tried an SIS one. I quite liked it, it's tasted weak, like over diluted orange squash, which is just fine.

Although, I am an idiot.
I know the best thing to have the night before is rice and mushrooms, and easily digested carb and B vitamin fest. However, I stupidly decided to have normal wheat pasta and some part-baked bread, so an utter wheat fest. I'm not having as much wheat as I did, and so it was a rather unpleasant wheat hangover. My stomach ached and I felt a bit sluggish.

I honestly thought it would be fine. Slow, but fine.
The problem was I had to run back past my house to then complete the last two miles, and by this time my legs hurt like hell, I was out of drink, and my MP3 player had gone dead.
So, I gave up at 14 miles.

Next time, I will take my waist pack, with lots of drink, and two gels, as I think if I'd had another one at about 12 miles, or even a glucose tablet or something, I'd have felt better.

I then came home, pulled off my clothes to discover various parts of me were chaffed and bleeding, especially where my bra had been rubbing. And I was bright red with cold.
I had a quick shower, some orange juice and an energy bar, then went to the pool, where the chlorine reminded me of the parts that were sore, but I did 50 lengths, some of which were drills.

For the first time ever I got cramp in my calf and foot. Only mild and not enough to stop me, but was a good enough reason for a medicinal packet of salted crisps when I came out.

So the positives I am going to draw -
14 miles is better than nothing, and snow, ice and cold are evil.
I went swimming as planned.
Even with having wheat, I can run 14 miles and my stomach may be sore, but nothing terrible happened.
Pain was a contributing factor in my giving up, my legs were much unhappy. However, I was in less pain when I started walking during a half marathon last September, with a sore, twanging foot, so I'm getting tougher.

2 comments:

  1. It's hardly "giving up" cutting a training run a tiny bit short in these conditions!! You still went over distance for the next 2 races you have, so it's all good!! and then swam!! Soooooo impressed!! You really are super awesome!!!

    ReplyDelete