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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

8 Miles turned into 10 Miles!

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I knew I was due for a "longish" run, so on Saturday morning I planned to tackle 8 miles. Now, I know a lot of you can eat 8 miles for breakfast, but to me, 8 miles seemed daunting. To make matters worse, the most HORRIBLE thing happened right before my run. MY MP3 PLAYER DIED.

DOOM.

Needless to say, I was super bummed and angry to know I was going to have to run for over an hour without any podcasts to listen to. I tried to harness that anger and use at as energy for my run.

Fueled on iced coffee and a bowl of 1/2 Special K Protein and 1/2 Oats & O's, I slid into my brand new green shorts (Paul picked the color. I thought it would give me good luck.) and headed out the door.


The plan was to do neighborhood loop dee doops. I had a big 4 mile loop I was going to start with, and then I was just going to eff around for the last half of the run... wherever my legs took me. The weather was warm and the sun was shining, but it was definitely not as scorching as some of my runs last week. The bottom line is, I couldn't complain about the weather.

Since I didn't have any podcasts, I tried to make the miles go by faster by brainstorming ideas for the new school year. The goal was to have one good idea for every 1/2 mile. By the end of my run, I would have sixteen good ideas for my classroom! Well, the good ideas only lasted for about three miles. Then I started to think of blog ideas. Then, as my legs turned to jelly, my brain turned to jelly and I just let my mind wander all over the place! But the miles ticked off faster than I had anticipated.

I was feeling hot and tired toward the end, but I started to think of other runners for inspiration! Like Heather, who was going to be doing her weekend long run in the pouring rain... and she was likely doing double the miles I was doing! If she could do that, I could do 8 miles in the sunshine. Then I thought of Cheryl, who just did a double run the other day- 6.5 miles in the morning and then 7 in the afternoon. And I thought of Kristina, who is doing a training plan that involves back to back long runs on the weekends. Then there is Ali, who is about to start training in the Florida humidity for her second full marathon. All these strong women inspired me to just freaking keep going. THANK YOU, FRIENDS!

As I neared the end of my run, I ran loops around my house. Each time I passed, I could hear Paul practicing piano. I am giving him lessons, and he practices a lot more than my other students! He will sit down and play for an hour at a time. I am really proud of him. It was "homey" to run by and hear him playing.

Finally, my 8 miles were done. I grabbed the water on my front stoop and started cooling down with a walk. But after a block of walking I did something crazy. I decided to keep going and try to make it to 10 miles! What's two more miles anyway? My legs were tired, but since my knee felt strong I knew I could do it. And how cool will it be to feel SUPER DUPER AWESOME for having completed a double digit run!?

So off I went! "I can do anything for 17 more minutes," I said to myself. "Hey, now I won't feel bad for not mowing the lawn today!"

After my Garmin dinged my 10th mile, I let out a loud "WOOP!" and cooled down with a half mile walk. I definitely felt like I ran 10 miles. It was a that good tired/tight feeling you get after you push yourself. 



Here are the stats of my run!

Distance: 10 miles
Duration: 1:25:00
Average Pace:
Splits: 9:05,  9:03, 8:57, 8:34, 8:27, 8:16, 8:16, 7:58, 8:22, 8:09 
(You can tell I thought I was going to be done after Mile 8- it was my fastest!)

I couldn't wait to run inside and interrupt Paul's piano practicing to tell him the mileage I completed! he took a celebratory photo of me. You can tell I am pretty damn pleased with myself!



"Do I smell like I ran ten miles?" I asked him.

"I'm not smelling you!" he replied.

As long as I am properly fueled for a run, my tummy is usually not hungry immediately after. So besides drinking about 16oz of plain water during my 1/2 mile walking cool down, I also had a tall glass of 1/2 water and 1/2 cran-raz juice. My body craved sugarrrrr!



Then I jumped in the shower. As soon as the water hit my lower back, I realized my cute green shorts had chaffed me! Now I have a chaffing mark as a tramp stamp. That's okay green shorts, I forgive you.

I stretched for 20 minutes and my legs didn't feel too worse for wear. I definitely felt like I ran longer than usual, but I wasn't wrecked. That was good! My knee felt strong the entire run and my hip only felt tight if I thrust my hip out and bent my body all the way to the left... in other words, I had to try pretty hard to make it feel tight. So that's not perfect but it is good!

10 Miles is the longest I have run since March 14th! FIVE FREAKING MONTHS! Can you believe it!?

I am glad my mojo decided to visit me on Saturday afternoon. I had that "long run feeling" for the rest of the day, and it felt great! After stretching, I immediately sat down and typed up this blog post while I was still high on endorphins! Then... it was time to lay on the couch and refuel with homemade salsa and chips. Oh, and Jeopardy!



Operation RUN MORE is going pretty well.


**Don't worry, once I get used to running a couple double digit runs I won't do such a HUGE recap! Sorry, I was just a little excited for this one!**
What's the longest amount of time you have gone without a double digit run?

Can you remember the last time you had to do a long run with no podcasts/music?

Do you ever add miles to the end of a run because you felt you could safely go farther?

18 comments:

  1. Whoooo! So exciting!!!!

    That's so funny that Paul said he wouldn't smell you. After I get home from a long I always try to hug Adam and for some reason he won't do that either. What's wrong with these guys? Shouldn't they be willing to do anything for us? ;)

    I think of other bloggers when I'm out there running too. I think of how awesome/dedicated everyone is and that if I want to stay in the club I've got to pay my dues!

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    1. They should be basking in our sweaty putrid-ness after a run! :)

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  2. Megan, this is just awesome news! You not only inspire me with knocking out 10 miles but on every run you do, you negative split which I think it way cool (I am not counting your last two because those were unplanned). So, I have been running on and off since I was 15 (most serious once I reached about 23)....and I have never run double digits. The longest run I ever did was 8 miles! I just have never had a desire to go far--but man, do I admire those that do. Keep kicking ass, girl.

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    1. Thank you Susan! To each their own for sure. There is no greater health benefit to running double digits than single digits. The only reason I think to do so would be because one enjoys it and desires to.

      It is crazy how I negative split! I just get warmed up as the run goes along and then when I get close to the end I just instinctually (sp???) want to give it my all.

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  3. Oh, this post makes me so happy. Your excitement is totally contagious! It's so true though about that self-talk "you can do anything for 17 minutes." It puts it all into perspective if we just focus on biting off bits of a run. Otherwise it feels so daunting. But this is what gets me those super high mileage weeks! I just keep tacking on the miles, 17 minutes at a time and before I know it, I've run a long frigging way. :) Nice work Meg!

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    1. You sure do run a long frigging way! I am glad I could portray my excitement! Thanks for listening!

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  4. Great job! I haven't run anything over 6 since the LA marathon in March. It's just too dang hot!

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  5. Wow congratulations!! Way to get out there! I'm always amazed at people who decide midway through a run to keep going longer...if I make any adaptions to my run it's usually the other way around because I'm a slacker like that :-/

    Nice progression! That is seriously impressive! So now that you're getting your mojo back, do you think you'll start training for something? A trail race maybe?? :-)

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    1. No trail race but I do have a race announcement tomorrow! :)

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  6. It didn't even dawn on me that they would chaf because I have the exact same shorts but in different colors. I may not have tied tight enough or something though!

    I don't know if I could convince Paul to perform for my blog but we will see...

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  7. I just found your blog - girl, you are so funny! I am also a runner, I have two boys (I really don't like children, only mine), and I am originally from Central PA (near State College) - awesome blog!

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    1. Thanks for reading! I laughed when you said you don't like children- only your own. :)

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  8. AWesome job on the double digit run!!! I'm glad my rainy run helped get you through ;) All the Halifax runners rearranged their schedules or headed out early on Sunday for the rain that didn't show up until noon!

    That was so funny that Paul said he wasn't smelling you! LOL

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    1. lol I know he and I have a weird sense of humor and shit like that happens every day between us. :)

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  9. Are you just so excited about this? Had to feel so great. I don't know that I could have done it without music, but you never know... Great job!!!!

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    1. A little excited, did you notice!? :) No music definitely made it harder!

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  10. Yay for double digits!! And all without noise! You rock!

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