Week 12: Drained

I've reached a point where I am just exhausted! There doesn't seem to be enough time during the week to do everything I need to do once I throw in running. It's been tough!

This past week didn't go as planned for running, either. Due to Hurricane Irene, I ran on Saturday morning in Glastonbury instead of my usual Sunday morning in West Hartford. The Saturday run starts an hour earlier than the Sunday run does, plus it's a half hour drive from my house, so I had to get up extra early! Combined with the sleep deprivation I already had, getting out of bed was quite the challenge.

The long run this week was 16 miles, and was the most challenging run yet. The distance itself was fine -- I'd ran nearly 15.5 the week before -- but I was run down to start, and had some emotional challenges along the way.

We're really getting into the toughest part of our training now, and it's very easy to suffer from an injury. Of the 7 of us who started off with the intent to run the 16 miles, only 3 of us actually succeeded.

My friend and teammate Angie suffered an ankle injury only about a mile in, and had to stop. The first portion of our run was an out and back, so I found her on my way back to the start. This run was really important to her, so I felt terrible.

Another teammate got about 3 miles in, then realized the injury she'd been nursing for a week wasn't ready for a long run yet. She had to stop and get a ride back to the start with Angie.

During the second portion of our run, I found another teammate walking slowly -- she'd hit an emotional wall and had to stop soon thereafter.

Another teammate almost made it, but started feeling too much pain around mile 12 and had to stop.

As I watched my team dwindle, I started to wonder if I was going to make it. I wasn't in much pain thanks to my new shoes, but I was really feeling tired from lack of sleep. My Gu packs were barely keeping me going. The hills in Glastonbury were far more challenging than the ones I was used to running, making the run even tougher to get through. And as a final blow, right as I finished my water at the final water stop, Irene decided to greet us with a torrential downpour, with only two miles to go.

I'd run in rain plenty of times, but this was by far the worst I'd ever ran in. My shoes were full of water, with rain covering my glasses and dripping into my eyes. I was drenched from head to toe. I tried to take it easy, but I just lost it emotionally after a couple of minutes, and had the dumb idea of trying to sprint. I took off in frustration, speeding up from an 11:30 minute/mile pace to a 7:30 minute/mile pace, faster than I'd ever run before. I sped past one of my teammates as if she was standing still. I ran until my shin started hurting -- unfortunately sprinting was far too much impact for my healing shin to handle.

I got through the rest of my run by repeating my mantra -- "light on my feet" -- over and over again. The shin eventually settled down enough for me to finish the run. My first words at the finish: "That sucked!"

My shin is still recovering, unfortunately. I was doing so well! Thankfully this week backs off on the mileage a bit, giving me some time to recover. I won't be doing any more sprinting in the near future!