Run #24: It's not called the long, slow run for nothing

Re-titled: Long, slow and ugly run

Yesterday: Sunday, April 5th, 20 days and counting until the half marathon.

9 miles; 2:04:29 (pace: 13:50) <----INSERT FROWN FACE

Had a great weekend with BB as the girls are off to the Dells with their dad and cousins, fast forward to my Sunday afternoon convo with myself. (I talk more to myself than to any other person. You probably do too, I think that's normal, right?)

Me: Maybe I should wait until tomorrow morning and run. I'm a morning runner more than anything. I can go into work a little later than usual since I don't have the girls, and stay late if need be.

Self: You friggin loser, stop making excuses!! You should go run now. It's nice out (60 degrees). Why are you always making excuses for yourself? Run now and you can recuperate for the rest of the day. You won't have those 9 miles hanging over your head.

Me: Yeah, but you KNOW you prefer morning runs.

Self pulled me up from the couch, got the running gear on and headed to the lakefront. 60 degrees! Can't beat that! This would be only my second outdoor run. So I finally get out there, get the Garmin all fired up and decided NOT to do the interval thing because it seems to throw off the pace thing. I'm not sure, since my Garmin is messed up anyway (new one coming soon.) So I got going and once again, being outside was like one big long OOOOOOOOOMPH. My leg muscles felt like lead. My breathing was all out of whack. Oh my GAWD, look at that incline (of like .5%)!! By the 2nd mile I was over my treadmill run/walk pace of 13:00. At 2 miles I thought "turn around now and make this a 4 mile run. You can run your long run on Tuesday morning." Said the same thing at 2.5. 3. At 4 I thought, "make it an 8 mile long run." NO, DAMMIT. RUN THE STUPID 9 MILES YOU SAID YOU'D DO. And that age-old "well if you have to, you can walk all the way back" logic hit me. Yeah, I suppose.

At 4.5 I finally turned around. Thank GOD the Chicago Park District had turned the water on already. Typically this is an April 1 kinda thing, but it's never a given, especially when it's off and on cold like it has been. I had no water. I had no Gu. What am I, a rookie? Anyway, I turned around and was all like YAY...I'd taken the other side of the path farther from LSD (Lakeshore Drive), but when I merged back over to the other side, HOLY CRAP...that wind was something else. In a walking break, I looked at the temperature. 52. Great. I'm out here in a t-shirt, in the wind. I keep shuffling along, the wind seeming to suck the life out of every step. During another walking break when I was especially shivering I checked again and it was 47. :( I stopped to stretch a lot on the way back, my lower calves and hamstrings hurt.

I suppose this is the downside of all of this. The only way to get to a half marathon this quickly (for me) is to run/walk it. And to ramp up in miles when I'm not quite ready (meaning run/walking it is IDEAL.) And to get outside. None of this means it will all be pretty. I'm not in that kind of shape yet where I can just pop up and amaze myself. BUT....I'm out there, doing what needs to be done. It'll happen. It'll come back. ~*epilogue*~ I came home and was so cold that I sat in the car with the heat full blasting for awhile. At least I had a hoodie in the car. Then I got out and went in. My apartment is a basement unit and it's pretty chilly now when the steam heat isn't on all day in the building, and it's not yet super warm out. I put a heavy fleece blanket on the couch and laid down it, because taking a shower seemed out of the question. That cold air upon getting out seemed too much to bear! I laid there for an hour or so, sorta stretching (while laying down) and shivering. Sipping ice tea and my favorite chocolate milk after a run. Finally I got up and took a super hot, long shower and put on layers, and then got under two heavy blankets and watched tv. This morning, the only thing that hurts is the tips of my toes.