Long Run, Longer Walk

On Saturday, I left for my second long run of my marathon training program.  I left my house with the grand thoughts of running 20 miles.  I left my house envisioning running 30 miles within the next two days.  I left thinking that after this weekend, I'll finally be back in the saddle and on my way to a 3 hour and 10 minute marathon time.

When I finally made it home on Saturday, all of my previous thoughts were just that. Thoughts, and nowhere near reality. 

The frustrating part about Saturday's run is that the first half of the run went surprisingly well.  My plan for my 20-miler would be to run my previous 17 mile route, and then add my regular 3- mile lap at the end of the run to get to the magical 20. 

The first part of the run went from Norfolk to Medfield, which is a little over eight miles.  This is the first part because I usually stop in Medfield to buy a Gatorade, and it is the turnaround point back to my house.  I started out slow for the first three miles to loosen up.  With the music blaring, and the temperature bearable, I sped up a little bit to an 8:00 – 8:15 minutes / mile pace.  I arrived in Medfield just under 70 minutes, and felt very confident about the rest of my run. 

I purchased a 20 or 24 oz. lemon-lime Gatorade, chugged half of it, and then took an extra few minutes to change the playlist on my Ipod, fix my belt, and focus on the second part of my run.  Then I’m off again. 

The first two minutes seem slow, but I assure myself that I’ll pick it up in a little bit.  After finishing mile nine, my legs are still unresponsive, and I felt very full from the Gatorade I just demolished.  I figured I’d sweat it out in the next few minutes, so I charged onward.  After five more minutes of struggling to maintain an easy tempo, I decided to start walking for a little bit.  I rationalize that there is no reason to push it when I still have at least 7.5 miles to go (only 17.5 miles if I decided not to run the last 3-mile lap).

During my walk, fatigue starts to set in, and I sensed that the rest of this run is not going to be as fun and easy as the first hour.  I walk a little more than a half mile, and then I start to run again.  My pace now has dropped considerably and hovers around 9:00 minutes / mile.  After another hour and a half of this long run / longer walk, I arrive home walking the last 3 of the remaining 8 miles.  The second half of the run lasted 35 minutes longer than the first half.  Sheepishly, I even cheated my normal route and cut out a half mile of my run and finish the day run / walking 16.5 miles just under 2 hours and 38 minutes. 
 
So, what went wrong?  Could it have been the cocktail and glass of wine I had the night before?  Could it have been the fact that I had not run in the prior two days?  Did I have too much Gatorade at one time during my run?  Did I attempt to bite off more than I can chew with another long run without running 13- or 15-mile runs first?  Or perhaps it’s because I didn’t bring anything to eat on the run.  I’m sure the answer is some combination of all of the above.    

On the bright side, I was on my feet for 2 hours and 38 minutes, which is training in and of itself.  I did finish (please note I’m using a very loose interpretation of the word) a 16.5 mile run.  I did manage to make it out of the house today to run my regular 6.3 mile run, and I made it back home in one piece.  And I did complete my third week of training.

Up next, I’ll be working on the fourth week of my training plan, and I’ll do most of the training in Dallas, Texas (I’m in Dallas for work through Friday).  My focus this week is to get my “legs” in gear and start turning my running thoughts into reality.