Coleen's Sweaty Ass Run

I haven't been feeling it lately. Whatever it is,it has departed. Very likely, the added daily biking routine, added without any extra supplementation has knocked some breathing, recovery, energy, etc out of my legs. I've been examining it for the past week or so. Yesterday, prior to heading out for Coleen's, I even had a conversation with a neighbor about how I just didn't feel up to the long run yesterday. I had risen at 7 (and hour and a half later than normal), had gone back to bed at 9 a.m, awakened at 11 a.m., had gone back to bed at 2 p.m., awakened at 3:30 p.m., and had finally gotten out the door to drive to the run around 4:45p p.m.

It was too bad that I felt that way. I had been planning to do 30 miles at the run for months. But from the get go, every lap felt tiring. I was exhausted and spent. I felt like I normally do after running a lap at the river, yet I had just begun. My stomach was upset. I felt nauseous for much of the evening.

After 15 miles, I thought about another lap to make 18, or another to make 21. But I felt as though I would possibly be doing damage if I did either. So, reluctantly, I bailed. I didn't mention to friends at the run about the distance I had planned to do. In some ways the run was disappointing. In other ways, however, it was rewarding. I got to run a couple of laps with Jay 'Blazing Hawk,' who was training for the Hawk 100 mile race. I also got to run for a bit with my friend, Indi, and also my new friend Rikki. It is always great to see the irrepressible Coleen as well.

The biggest reward I got out of the run, however, was simply knocking out 15 miles. I have never run that type of distance when I felt so bad at the outset. At the start of each lap, I just steeled myself to try to go forward and simply did it. As night fell and the temperatures dropped dramatically, I had a couple of 1/2 mile stretches where autopilot turned on and I just floated along in the dark. But I was feeling foot pain, knee pain, and stomach aches by then, and it became increasingly hard to push it all away.

On the drive home, I passed a sign on K-10 that informed me Lawrence was 12 miles away. As I drove that 12 miles, I thought about just how long that distance is. I had run farther than that in the course of the evening. I needed to chill-out, get some rest, and live to crank out 30 another day.