It was a wonderful weekend.
Despite my mini-anxiety on Friday with regards to my 20mi run, I ended up completing that distance — albeit spread over Saturday and Sunday. I suppose I wasn’t quite ready for it (this is despite running 11 marathons in the past 7 years) as all my pre-training run preparations weren’t executed. On Saturday morning, I had just decided on what outfit to wear for that run (minus the technical underpants*), I was scrambling to find my water bottle and running belt, and just then told myself that I needed to practice a new nutrition regimen (brought half the amount of ClifShot gel packets I would normally take with me). Did I mention I had to drop off the car at the dealership first for maintenance? It was a mad rush out the door. When I finally made my way to my usual running route, I saw the scene below and decided that I would make a short detour (it was a half a mile trip away from my “start”), to take in this scenery:
The first 5 miles went fine, as I hovered between 11 min/mile and 12 min/mile pace. I began to notice, though, a bit of tightness with my left knee (something I had not felt in quite a while!) and sensitivity with the soles of my feet (the latter would be my undoing, on ending the run early). The temperatures had not quite risen to how it was supposed to feel, but I knew I was in for some “beautiful” warm temps (i.e., not running weather for me!) It was after the turnaround and back up PV Drive, that I couldn’t take it any more — running on the rocks/pebbles hurt the soles of my feet. Gone was the sensation of a foot massage, instead it simply felt like torture >_< At this point, I mostly walked up the hills, especially in the areas where it was rocky and uneven dirt. Couple this with the rising heat and nutrition gel only every hour, it turned even my favourite shaded running trail into annoying pain as the twigs, dried seeds/buds, stones, and packed dirt harassed my soles. I ended up with a tiring and frustrating 14 miles on Saturday.
I didn’t let that disappointing training run get to me as I’ve had worse! As soon as I returned home, I found that my sis had indeed purchased my favourite post-run BBQ meal and that the vendor, Big Mista’s BBQ not only donated to my cause, but also had a special going for people who donated to it! I was deeply humbled and definitely struct by the kindness of Neil & Phyllis Strawder — the owners of Big Mista’s BBQ — for having that special. THANK YOU BOTH!
On Sunday, I went back to PV and ran the remainder of my mileage to great results. I felt better, and ran with less anxiety — was it because I knew I only had to do 6 miles that day? Yup. I definitely still need to work on my mental game. It was also during this run that I did a short market break (i.e., ran to the neighbourhood market) to buy some Gatorade and bottled water for sis! We were both foolhardy enough to run without our water bottles (it was under 10 miles after all), and we didn’t anticipate the temps to reach 81F that morning! I liked the mini-sprint to the store, though; it gave me a mini-purpose. Haha.
Anyway, that afternoon, I had a sports massage (ouch), sis treated me to a pedicure (w00t!) and then we had our eyebrows threaded (LOL). Yes, it was a wonderful weekend. 🙂
