I think work and training has gotten the better of me lately. I have fallen of the face of the earth. I have found it difficult to keep up with everything lately. I suppose I need to get better at time management.
It has been a while and I am unsure of where to begin. On Saturday the 3rd, Terri and I went to see Michael Buble. I purchased the tickets a while back and was pleasantly surprised to have such fantastic seats. We were in the front row off to the side. It was great concert and a welcome relieve from training.
The past two weekends have been my longest runs to date. I now have 2 new distance PR’s (15 and 16 miles). The 15 miler was hard, but it was cool and raining the whole run. Last Saturday’s 16 mile run was sunny and a bit warmer which turned out to be brutal for me. I had been experiencing some toe pain and when we stopped for a break to use the porapotty at the park, I took my shoes off to stretch my toes out. I was getting an intense pain and not sure why. It seemed that they were cramping, but when I stretched them out the pain went away.
The 16 miler started to go downhill around 10 miles when the guys I was running with decided to pick up the pace and Terri and I were continuing on the same pace as we had started with. When we started to run as a group we said we were going to stick to a certain pace.However, after 10 miles into the run two of my group decided to slowly kick it up and after a while they had gotten so far ahead that were not even in site. Anyway, I was a little perturbed that they just took off without asking if we would be ok. My wife runs with music and therefore doesn’t talk while we run. To me, talking helps make the time pass by much faster and I don’t even think about it. After they took off, I was a little ticked and I started to feel negativity take over my thoughts. I thought if we were running in a group and we agreed upon a pace, we should stick together. At this point, I was thinking I would have better off if I had run this alone, because I wouldn’t have the negativity creep into my head. The negativity really threw me off my game. Maybe I am wrong and this is normal in group running. If so, I need to accept this and not let it bother me. I am hoping you guys can enlighten me on the acceptable etiquette for this type of training.
Around mile 13 I had to stop and stretch my toes again and I motioned Terri to keep going. I was only stopped for about 30 seconds and was back at it. I could still see Terri and she was looking back to see that I was there. We got to mile 13 and there were the other 2 guys waiting for us at the park. I was still upset and just kept running past them. I also had run out of fluids at this point and was starting to tank quickly. I was short with my responses to their questions and didn’t feel like conversing. The more I went on the more sporadic the pain seemed to shoot into my toes. We soon were all split up again, but this time, it was my own doing since I was not keeping the pace. I didn’t expect anyone to wait, if I wasn’t keeping up. I still had Terri in my sight and followed her since we had not planned an official course. We all had GPS watches and knew when we hit 16 miles so it wasn’t necessary for a course. I got back to my house, where we all met and there everyone was waiting.
I decided not to say anything and let it go. Terri took a quick shower and then made pancakes for all of us. These are good friends and I did not want to cause a scene. For all I know, I may be the one who is in the wrong with my thinking.
Sunday we ran a local 5k race (Run Thru the Hills) in our town. One of my training partners, 2 of my poker buddies, Terri and my son Dante ran as well. I came in 6th place out of my age division but was pretty tired from the 16 miles the day before. It was no PR but I was ok with 26:35.
This week we scale the mileage back a bit and the long run is 12 miles. I never thought I would be relived for a 12 mile run, thinking that was a break.
Thursday evening after our 5 miler, Terri and I are off to an Elton John concert. I was planning on taking Friday off and making a late night of it, but I have a meeting at work I have to be at.
I hope I figure out or get passed my toe issues, but training is going pretty good despite my rough run last Saturday.
