Long Run 9

I sailed past the 20K mark listening to OneRepublic's unmistakably catchy song "counting stars" playing on..."everything that kills me makes me feel alive" the song goes...and I struggled with the dichotomy of truth and insanity in that line. Yet it made sense. 21K and 22K were also cool and my rhythm was so good I thought if I wanted to, I could go all the way to the 30K mark on current form. That's when I learnt an important lesson: never underestimate the course and never overestimate your own seeming good health. If I'd stopped and done a proper check I would have known: I was thirsty and hungry. My sipper was empty but water was only 20 meters away in the car along with a salty snack or banana. At 21K I should have refilled, eaten and continued. I decided not to and paid the price. By 23K my mouth felt so parched there was no saliva at all. I had stopped sweating completely and experienced that floundering, thirsty, defeated, head-down sensation only long distance runners will understand. My own bloody fault. That 1/2 litre of water would have shaved off 3-4 minutes easy off my time.

I was down with a terrible cold on Thursday and tried to blast it out with a massive dose of Wikoryl. It kind of worked and I felt kind of normal on Saturday morning. By Saturday evening I felt so normal that I ditched my initial plan of an easy 10K and decided to push 25K. I started off slow and timed splits of 40 mins on four of the 5K laps. The last 5K went awry thanks to what I described above. That said, I put in a solid run, felt strong, confident and at no point did I feel this wasn't going to happen. I also "stole" a few Ks early on...by just being in the moment, not looking at time or distance and just focusing on my breathing, on my form and on keeping hydrated. It was pitch black for the first 30 mins so I also had to pay attention to the ground. Before the sun came up, I was already 6K into the run and before I really began to "feel" the stress, I was 10K in. This is a good sign. I need to get to a stage where the "stress" really starts to build only 20-25K into the run. But then again, I need to get to many stages!

I'd said in my last post that 25K was a mountain too tall to climb this weekend but I did it. And I did it without much struggle. I ended up with a massive blister on my toe which I hope will go away soon. I hope it doesn't cause something more debilitating. Now that I've breached 25K (in 3:24) I need to do it again next weekend and then plan for a massive push up in the following weekend with a 30K attempt. This 30K and a 35K in August will be my two longest training runs as per the training plan. I am not entirely sure about this plan and may push for 1 or 2 more 30K distances before, just to be confident of standing at the gun of the full in Kaveri. All said and done, I'm making progress: I'm now actually considering the possibility of lining up in 2.5 months for a full marathon! Didn't see that coming but it's testimony to what the human body is capable of and the hidden reservoirs of resilience we all have access to but don't find because we never search deep enough for it.