Glad that's over

Run: 15 miles

It wasn't pretty but I did it. Even though my average pace was a full minute slower than I wanted, I can still check my first 15 mile run off the list. There were a lot of factors that made today difficult and I'm not using them as excuses for my poor performance but there were some things I needed to take note of and change going forward


The one major factor was totally out of my control - HUMIDITY. To say that it was muggy, might be the understatement of the year. My first step outside I was hit with a wall of dense, hot air and I knew we were in for it. I could literally see the moisture in the air with my headlamp. I'm not sure if it was the humidity or the fact that I forgot my Endurolytes but I was sooooo thirsty. I drank a lot more water than usual (and more than is probably recommended while running) but I just couldn't quench my thirst. I was really thirsty all day yesterday, too, so I'm sure I started out slightly dehydrated. Although I drink a lot of water on a daily basis anyhow, I learned my lesson and will make more of an effort to hydrate with something other than water for these long runs.


The other big issue of the day was my aching feet. This was much more than the usual tired feet after a long run. In fact, as soon as we got back to our cars, I immediately took my shoes and socks off and did a little "foot yoga." It felt like I had been walking on rocks all day. After some discussion, Christy and I determined it was from my trip to the mall the day before in flip flops/heels. I walked from end to end in those shoes. There's another big lesson from the day. I guess because these are just training runs I don't think I need to make any special preparations but today was a huge wake-up call that I need to respect these runs more. That's what training is for though, right? Mental, physical and circumstantial preparation.


For nutrition I had a TriBerry Gu at 5, a Jet BlackBerry at 9, G2 at 13 and a G3 Recovery when we finished.