Musings on, Art, Skinning, Computers, and the True meaning of Life. (AKA The Lego Theory)
Long Run: 22mi @ 8:54 (Planned: 20mi @ 8:55)
Published on January 22, 2007 By mormegil In Sports & Leisure
LA Marathon training program: Week 10

Sunday January 21st, 2007


Long Run:  22mi @ 8:54 (Planned: 20mi @ 8:55)
 
Weight: 189 Time: 8:55am Temp: 12f Weather: Fricking Cold Route: Howell to Witmore Lake.
Notes:

  
What a surprise, 22 miles is harder then 20 miles. This was the hardest thing I've done. After the last 20 miler I was feeling pretty good. After this one I was about as close to giving up this crazy running thing, as I have ever been. I had a tone of work to do so I did not blog my run yesterday. But that's good, because I have had a day to recover, my body, and my spirit. I might be being a bit over dramatic, but I will say this was a very difficult run to finish. I almost didn't.

  From Weather.com I learned that I had a window from 8:00am to 12pm to miss the snow. So I managed to get my self together and hit the road just before 9:00am. It was 12f, and not very windy. Which was nice. The first 2 miles were pretty hellish, There was no wind, but once I got the main road, the passing traffic, kicked up enough wind to bring up the wind chill. I was so cold that I came very close to turning around. Buy the time I hit my first hill, around 3 miles in I was warmed up enough to begging enjoying the run. From 3 miles to 11 miles thing continued smoothly, I was slowly building a lead on my "Virtual Partner", by 10 miles in I was about 500feet or so ahead and still feeling pretty confident.

  At 11 miles in I slowed to a walk to call my wife and let her know I was Ok, This brake maybe lasted 3 minutes, but in hindsight I think this is were things got hard.  In the last 11 miles, because I was running, and relatively warm I had not noticed that the wind had picked up. It was now getting down to the single digits with the wind chill, and I during my phone brake, my sweat had begun to freeze. Once I kicked it back into gear, by the time I warmed up, I was had hit 13.1 miles. At 1:55:55. Which was a pretty good, only 5 minutes under my Race time from the Detroit Half Marathon back in October. At this point I was still feeling pretty strong, It wisent until about mile 16 that that I started to feel the burn.

  I have come to think as 16 miles as "The Wall" hopefully as I get more experienced with long runs the wall will be pushed back. But not yet. The colder temperatures, combined with several late run hills made "The Wall" that much more painful. Some ware in the middle of mile 17 I made another mistake, and stopped for a moment. Almost instantly I was freezing again. And getting my legs moving again was a real effort. About a mile later I passed several kids sledding, this acted as a bit of a spirit lifter. And I began to have hope that the end was near.

  Someware in these last few miles I began to realize that I had tears in my eyes, I am pretty sure that it was just from the wind, but I would not be surprised if they rose form a deeper place. I Always know when I am mentally fatigued when I beginning chanting. "5 more miles... 5 more miles... " ect.. I began this ritual at around 8 miles, and was still doing when I saw my wife's care waiting for me at mile 22. There was one last problem however, What I though was mile 22, was only 21.25. So with a brief message, I ran right past here, and down the block to finish the last .75.
It turns out that that last 3/4 of a mile was the hardest. I think it was just because I know that the nice warm car was just around the corner, and I could go back to it. with only .25 left I actually stopped on the side of the road, and decided to stop. But my oppressiveness saved me, and forced me to move my legs, and I managed to finish.

  About 2 minutes after I was in the car it began to snow....
 

View my full 16 Week training program.


Comments
on Jan 23, 2007
Dude. It's never good when your sweat freezes. Never.

You're going to flip out when you get here for the marathon. It's going to be downright balmy compared to what you're used to.

Congrats on finishing. I have a strong feeling that you'll be fine when the race comes around. There's an energy along the entire course that will pull you through those tough miles.

I'll be about 2 miles behind you at that point.

JB
on Jan 23, 2007
We shall see about that, I know that the real race is always differant, but dropping 54 seconds a mile of that time, and holding it for 4 more miles, is quite a bit to expect. I hope your right.

All I know is that I am takeing the day off, this is the first time I will have missed a schuled workout with no plans of makeing up for it. But I need the break.