Watt's Running

We ran the last 22.2 miles of the AT&T Austin Marathon on Saturday morning. I went out ahead of the 4:30 group with Glenn. We were doing fine for many miles. I think we were doing about 9:45s and were just sailing along. I was taking Clif Shots and Electrotabs about every 50 minutes. But beginning about mile 23 on the marathon course with about 3 miles to go I was getting stiffer and stiffer. I felt like my legs were logs. My stomach was aching and I didn’t want to eat anything whatsoever – IOW I thought I was going to hurl. I was also going into myself. The mental battle of keeping going or just walking was raging inside me. For the last mile I felt like I was just a slug going up the 12th Street hill. All I wanted to do was walk. However I made it to the end at 8th Street, but that was it. I ended in 3:34 with an overall pace of 9:44. I walked back to the Annex with Glenn down Congress. I couldn’t have run it. I had nothing left. My muscles were totally fatigued. They were even tensing and throbbing when I was driving home.

Now what gets me is that during the ARA 30K the other week I took it totally easy and none of this ever happened, but then again I didn’t push it at all. I walked all the big hills and I was running at a slower pace with Chris. We ended with an 11:23 pace overall. When I got done I wasn’t stiff. And I felt happy to have completed it. Mentally it was no challenge at all. I never got any demons. I even went out running 3 miles the next day. How can one day be so different from another?

So what should I do? Right now my first thought is to slow down and keep back with the 4:30 group. My second is to change my posture from time to time to use different muscles as our coach suggests. Finally I should probably to fuel myself later in the run even though I don’t want to. Figuring out what went wrong is really tough for me because all the weekly quality workouts do not come close to simulating what happened to me yesterday. The only time these crazies happen is on the very long runs. In general I’m fine with anything around a half marathon. Also this has been happening for the past three years of marathons. That is to say it might be just me, my body and my mind and what happens when I go over 20 miles. I wish that I could somehow conquer this, because it is the primarily reason that I’ll stop running. If I could only figure out where these physical and mental demons are coming from.

The morning started out cold and with dread on my part. I wasn’t looking forward to this run all alone. All week long I’ve felt slow and sluggish in my daily runs. I brought my iPod to keep me company. We started from the RunTex Annex at about 7 AM. I left in one of the first groups, but was soon passed by most everyone. Along Lake Austin Blvd I saw Heather go by and disappear into the distance. I wanted to keep up with her, but I just couldn’t. I just shuffled along. My right ankle was numb and as a result my right foot was striking too hard. We came to the first water stop after Lake Austin Blvd, and there I met Chris. He said he had arrived late and everyone had already left. I was so glad to see him. We agreed to take it easy together. After the stop the feeling returned to my ankle. We went through Scenic to 35th up Shoal Creek to the turn around near Great Northern. Next we headed back downtown, and arrived back at the Annex stiff and tired after about 3 hours. The last tenth of a mile we even agreed to speed it up and we hoofed it to the end of the bridge. All told it was a good run, and so so much better when you have a wing-man/running-buddy. Thanks Chris.

I ran Town Lake plus two with Glen K. today and we each wrote up report as an e-mail to our other running buddies…

Here is Glenn’s

Met Brian down at the Annex around 8:00. Ran into a guy, can’t remember his name, that I ran with the very first long run of the year. Haven’t seen him in a long time. He’s a South Sider and he mentioned that all the First Time Southies were running 12 miles. They seem pretty hard core compared to Joe’s North Siders. I heard a couple of the Southies talking about running sub 3 Hour Marathons. We asked the Southie if he wanted to join us but he said he was running 8, I’m not sure if he was meant he was running 8 minute miles or just running 8 miles.

Brian and I started and ran a mile down to the bridge and then a mile back. I could tell I was in for a go of it, Brian was fast. I think we were running 9:30 minute miles the first 2 miles. Felt slow to Brian and fast to me. We ran into Robert around 4.5 Miles, I couldn’t tell who he was running with but they were booking. At the dam, mile 5.5 we ran into Jay. Jay was following some young lady who was running her dog. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes. Jay had got there late and was running the opposite way. I took a gu shot and water here. Had a rough patch around the 4 seasons, my legs were dead and I was breathing hard. I told Brian I needed to stop for some water. I was gassed and was doubting I could make it. Don’t know why but this seemed harder than the 19 and 18 mile runs. We saw the Lincolns around this point. Brian practically carried me to the Mopac Bridge. Took my last gu here and then miracles of miracles, I felt better the last 2 miles. We got to a half mile out and Brian picked up the pace. Made it, barely. Brian thanks for pushing me today. Dude, you were fast.

Happy Holidays

See everyone next Saturday

Here is mine.

As I was just about to walk out of the house at 7:30 AM Chris phoned me and said his wife wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be able to run. Too bad, because we missed him and his cheerful demeanor. I hope she is feeling better now.

I drove downtown to the RunTex Annex. It’s been a while since I’ve gone this far for a long run because most of them have been up north somewhere. Glenn was already there talking to a guy he knew. Nearby there was a group of about twenty people talking including Sadie B. who I know is faster than me. We asked if he wanted to run with us, but he didn’t seem to. I was worried that he would not be at our pace. So we headed out.

It takes a while for me to warm up and even though we backtracked from Mile 0 to Mile 1 and the Barton Creek Bridge and then ran back to Mile 0, I was still huffing and puffing for miles. While running Glenn would talk easily and I tried to answer between gasps. His foot falls were light and easy. It took us about 24 minutes to do the first two miles, but Glenn’s geek-o-meter said we had actually run 2.4 miles. Twelve minutes a mile – hmmmm? So without stopping at Mile 0 we headed out on the trail passing Mile 10 marker and doing a counterclockwise loop from RunTex to Riverside to Longhorn Dam. We chatted as we ran and the time went by easily. I was still having troubles getting enough air, but the weather was great. It was cool and in the mid-50s. The sun was out and the projected breeze was non-existent.

We got to the Mile 9 marker just before the Riverside hill in 33:38. I finally got the wits about me to start pressing my split button on my watch so I don’t have the individual mile times of the first three miles. Across I35 and on to east Riverside, back to the trail and the 8 Mile marker in 43:18 (9:40/M). I said we’ve got to slow down. Down the trail to the rise leading up to the Dam and 7 Mile marker in 52:32 (9:14). Hmmm, where was the slow down. I was running my watch continuously even when we stopped for water or a chat.

When we got to the top of the Dam we saw a woman and Jay coming towards us (he was doing a clockwise Town Lake loop run). We said hi and started to ask him questions as he passed so about 10 feet later he stopped and turned around as we continued to talk to him. We walked back together to talk more. I was trying to figure out if either of us could join the other, but we were about 5 miles in and he was about 2 or 3. So we agreed that it wouldn’t work and we split up. Too bad, Jay, we would have enjoyed your company. Afterwards Glenn and I wondered why Jay didn’t stop sooner to talk to us, and we agreed that Jay must have been with that woman and by stopping him we had split them up. If that is the case, Jay we are sorry.

After our brief encounter Glenn and I stopped for sports-drink/water and GU/Clif Shot on the other side of the Longhorn Dam. We were both “packing” since this was a OYO 12 miler without any Rogue water stops. We started up again, ran by the now shut-down Holly Power plant, the ball fields, and 6 Mile marker in 1:04 (12:13). We got to I35 and 5 Mile marker in 1:14 (9:26). By this time we were just running and casually talking, Somewhere along the way I had stopped gasping for breath, and had finally warmed up – exactly when I don’t know.

The west side of the trail was getting busier as compared to the quiet eastern side near the Longhorn Dam. Glenn asked to stop for a minute at the Four Seasons for a water break. At Mile 4 marker in 1:25 (11:42). Just under the Congress Ave bridge the trail was closed and blocked off, so we detoured up steps and ran along the street. Maybe it was the detoured trail, because we arrived at the 3 Mile marker in 1:34 (8:33) which was not possible. We got to the Mopac bridge for water and had a short break. Here I did stop my watch. Starting up again we crossed the footbridge, and passed the 2 Mile marker in 1:44 (9:33). Just after the bridge the scenery was great, but we passed her and continued on. Next we went by Zilker and the trail of lights, got to the Barton Creek footbridge, and 1 Mile marker in 1:53 (9:40). We both wanted it over with. I could feel my knees and my legs were stiff – but what else is new. At Auditorium Shores and the last half-mile I asked Glenn to kick it in, but although we picked it up a bit, the kick was left somewhere in the past 12 miles. We crossed 0 Mile marker in 2:02:48 (9:07). For 12 miles and a bunch of stops/chats we were satisfied. I think we were averaging about 9:30s-9:45s. After a brief drink of water at the coolers, we walked to Glenn’s car, and I thanked him for a good run and bid him a happy holiday.

Wow are they different. Did we really run the same course???