Running With Jack

On Friday when I came home from work it was stormy out, thundershowers and windy. My wife prefers that I don’t run during thundershowers, so I figured I would have to postpone my running plans for a day. But an hour later the sun popped out and I decided to go for it before the next round of thundershowers.

The air was clean and fresh, the temperature around 19C/67F, as I made my way over my normal 14K/8.7 route. My plan was to turn at the 8.5K point and add on another 14K/8.7M from the Graben Running Club trails. However, as I started over the latter trails I could hear thunder in the distance so I decided to cut the run a little short. I ended up with 23K/14M at an average pace of 5:48/K (9:21/M). To be honest I was straining pretty hard at the end to keep the pace up, so it was probably better that I quit early anyway. The 28K/17.5M (2 runs) that I did on Wednesday left me worn down more than I had anticipated.

On Saturday morning I was up at 5:30 and began my hilly long run around 6:15. It was raining lightly and the temperature was a fresh 13C/55F, which is pretty cool for August in our area. My goal was a non-stop 3½ hour run (roughly 32K/20M) over the hilly trails. I had mapped out a roughly 16K/10M loop earlier in the week using Google Earth, much of which was over my normal hilly route, so I only needed to run this loop twice to meet my goal.

The first loop started out well, my legs were somewhat recovered from the run the night before, it definitely helped that I had shortened that run. However by the end of the first loop my quads were already protesting, especially on the last steep downhill back to my starting point. As I climbed back up the mountain my quads settled down again, but by each downhill they again raged. By the 3 hour point my legs were shot, everything ached. I could feel my pace slipping, but fought grudgingly on to keep it as strong as possible.

Finally I made my way down the last downhill and last 500 meters back to my car. I ended up running for 3:29:34, no walk breaks, and only one short pee break. I also didn’t fuel during the run, other than the 2-liters of watered-down sports drink in my CamelBak. After walking it out for 5 minutes and some stretching I drove home for a hot shower, a second breakfast and a chair! Mission accomplished.

Today (Sunday) my legs feel good, no aches or pain – a bit tired, but nothing a day of rest won’t cure. Not bad for having run 97K/60M this week, my second highest mileage week ever!