20 Miles

Distance 20.03 Time 2:58:38 Pace 8:55 Temperature 68

Well today's orginal blog on music is going to be pushed back until its done and for today we are replacing it with today's accomplishments.  With 21 days remaining until D Day, I knew that I had to get in a long run to a) make sure I could last and b) to serve as confidence in my training schedule, which is not the one I had started back on January 1, 2012.

We set out today with the mind set of doing at least 15-18 miles as 16 is my longest on the road distance I have ever done.  I don't like to go out saying "hey let me do 22 miles," because the way my mind works, its more less setting myself up for failure.  I prefer to set the bar low and then feel out the conditions and make a decision as to how much further to keep going.

The day started out rather bad as I didn't wake up at the crack of dawn and had to put the run off until 5PM at the latest.  I believe I have found the perfect formula for food before running which is a big problem for runners.  My lunch, which was at 12:30PM consisted of  Bacon Double Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, and a Plain Original Chicken Sandwich all three from Burger King.  For most people, I'm sure that eating this much food from a fast food restaurant would not sit well, especially before setting out to go run.  For some reason, my body reacts totally different to food from just Burger King, even though I only had 4 hours for the food to digest.  It seems that it serves as just energy for me.  Right before setting out, I drank a 16 oz bottle of water flavored with Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea, and a couple sips of water.

Its weird as I was under the impression that your supposed to stretch before any type of activity especially something as long distance running, but new studies and advice from runners, in my running club have led me to not stretching at all with exception of shins and shoulders.  After a couple minutes of taking in the nice weather and scenery outside the apartment I set about my run, which was going to consist of many circles and up and downs on the streets near my apartment.

At about mile 3-5 we started to get this slight left leg falling asleep problem that I noticed on my last run of 13 miles last week.  Rather weird if you think about it, constantly moving your leg/foot and it falling asleep, weird.  This was overcome about mile 6/7, thank goodness.

I don't know what it is about running long distances more less or just the sense of accomplishment of a barrier one personally didn't think was achievable but it seems that emotions run high.  While listening to music there are certain songs that give you that extra jolt of energy.  In today's run it was Mana-Manda Una Senal and the other song sticking out more than the other 46 was Havana Brown Feat. Pitbull-We Run The Night.  With the former song I remember finding myself running past one of the restaurants, with a patio along Colley Ave, and singing aloud without a care in the world.  The latter just has a beat that gave me a jolt of energy finding myself running at what I believe was a 7:00 minute mile pace.  At about mile 18 it just hit me and we had a slight buildup of tears.  It seems like you get overtaken with emotion from accomplishing something that you personally did with no help from others and that no one can take away.  I always wondered why athletes cried and thought to myself, man I'd be super happy not crying, but now I can relate.

What does it feel like when you finish?  Well thank god it wasn't as bad as when I used to run long distances on a treadmill.  On a treadmill, I would feel like my legs where going to fall off.  On this run the only pain was in my upper calves which after mild stretching was fixed.  The only downside is what I believe is hypothermia.  Your body temperature just drops and your body turns cold.  Even taking a shower in hotter than normal water even feels cold.  Its cool to wonder about comic movies and these characters having superpowers some which of course would never exist in real life, but while running or after, my body develops this heightened sense of senses.  Directly after running I can drink something and with water, for example, I can taste the minerals more than normal, and with other liquids the flavors just jump out making some drinks that I normally drink undrinkable or better yet I can notice flavors advertised but not normally noticeable.  I lose a sense of hearing but this is due to the Shures blasting music in my ears for 3 hours, which I'm sure isn't healthy but oh well.  Hopefully the only other problem that normally accompany my long runs will not happen tonight which is my inability of sleep?  I guess we shall see tomorrow.