Last Long Run

Today I ran (well, run-walk-run) 23 miles.  hold on, 23 miles.  geez, hasn't hit me yet.  It is the last long run before the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.  Online forums are abuzz with proper corral placements (damn I didn't submit a proof of time, so I'm in the dead last corral), bib numbers, planning for the chaos that is the Expo, travelling ... oh yeah, and training.

Last long run.  so that means the Marathon is 3 weeks away.  The Goofy Challenge is 3 weeks away.
It felt good today, to accomplish 23 miles.  But it felt weird.  I felt "the wall" early on around mile 10-11.  I now know how it feels (I think) to seriously consider just stopping.  I rationalized, it's ok, 11 miles is fine.  it's good enough.  Maybe it will rain so I can use it as an excuse.  I'll walk.  I'll take a break and do another 10 later.  I'm hungry.  Really hungry.

What was weird was how early I felt it.  Yesterday I did 10 miles no sweat.  Felt great.  60 degree winter weather too.  No tiredness whatsoever, felt like I could keep going.  Jeff Galloway's plan was to walk yesterday, but i really want to see if I could walk run both the half and the full for the Goofy, so I did 90:30 ratio yesterday at an 11:19 overall pace.  No wall.

When I ran-walked the Atlantic City Half Marathon, I kinda felt tired around mile 11-12, maybe just from wanting to get it done, but get it done I did in 2:30:09, 11:30 pace.  My 10/27/13 long run of 14.86 miles had my tired at around the same place, maybe mile 12-13, still managed 12:14 pace.  My 17.25 mile long run on 11/27/13 got me tired at feeling at at mile 14-15, and even during my 20.02 mile long run 11/30/13, I didn't really feel any sort of wall until mile 17.

Today, however I felt it early on at mile 10-11.  Perhaps because I ran yesterday.  How about fuel?  I had a waffle with peanut butter, maple syrup, and speculoos spread.  PLUS during the run I had 3 gatorades, at least 3 bottles of water, and 10 cliff bloks.  All tolerated well.  But I was hungry.  I slowed down my ratio from 90sec:30sec to 60sec:30 sec, and that helped. I did take a break at my car at mile 10-11, sat for a minute, had clif bloks.  Then felt great right afterwards, going up to 90:30 again.  A little before mile 20 I changed to 30:30 ratio, which felt so easy.  NO WALL whatsoever at mile 20 (where they say many feel it). Before I got to this point, I was just going to stop, but at this point I felt good enough that I finished up the 23 miles to meet the goal.  What got me through it?  I just thought about how good I'd feel when I finished it, and how bad I would feel if I didn't.  "Run joyfully."  "I got this."

All this talk about mileage, and the wall, and run-walk ratios, and fuel.... I really have to STEP BACK and take a look at what's gone on.  I'm so thankful I'm at this point right now.  With my osteoporosis diagnosis, and multiple injuries, I really just wanted to heal and run again.  The Atlantic City half marathon was a proud moment in my life.  I had worked my way up to there with walking, then doing a modified run-walk by doing walkfast-walk ratios, then working my way up to run-walk.  It took a matter of swallowing some pride.

A couple years ago, when I blew through the Couch to 5k, I was prideful.  I skipped the last few weeks because I didn't want to run-walk.  I didn't ever want to walk.  But I got my lesson when I got injured, and ended up on crutches.  An aha moment came when I swallowed my pride on crutches and got a scooter.  A scooter for my disney trip and a knee scooter for work.  That aha moment told me that swallowing pride to do run-walk would be the same thing -- it would help me accomplish something, and make me feel good, not caring about what anyone else thought.

And I'm a new person now because of it.  A combination of run-walk, light form (feet low to groun, with short shuffle strides), plus the maximally cushioned Hoka One One Bondi B's, have lowered overall physical impact on my body and has allowed me to run.  Not to mentioned my medications and keeping up with my physicians.

Good stuff.  I just say thank you!

Now taper time.  and last minute preparations for the 2014 Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge.  Run joyfully.  I got this.