chapter 2 page 343 - TR 121 8 miles that didn't happen

"C" and I just couldn't get our schedules worked out so today, I had to go the long run  . . . alone (gasp!).  Yesterday she did a very hilly 4 miler in Northern Indiana which is just so impressive.  I'm so proud of her.  Now . . . I have to keep my end of the training plan.  Why am I scared of this 8 miler:  A.)  doing it along is not my forte; B.) last week's 6 miler totally fell apart due to the heat so I'm seriously hoping I can push myself to get this done; C.) 8 miles is 2 miles further than I have gone since the half 3 weeks ago; D.) did I mention my insecurities about my ability to do 8 miles alone????

If you want the crib notes version of today's run - here it is: 
It sucked!  It was only 5 miles and so I'll count it on this week's training schedule as my hilly 5 miler rather than my 8 mile long run (booooo! that means I still have to do an 8 miler to do ALONE! boooooo!).

The only reason there is even a small glimmer of a smile is because I was literally driving home at that exact moment - car moving forward, driving home!

If you want the gory details, you can read the full story below:
 "C" had planned out the route for today's long run (despite the fact we weren't able to do it together).  It consisted of doing 3 miles on the road either before or after doing a 5 mile nature trail.  Well . . .everything got so screwed up- don't ask me why, but I knew in my heart I should do the 3 mile road part first otherwise I would never do it afterward - the trail would be plenty tiring.  So I had planned to run the 3 mile road route then return to the car and pick up my hydration belt to carry with me for the remaining 5 mile trail run.  For whatever reason, I lost my head - completely - and began down the trail without any water or fuel or anything - what was I thinking????  No idea.  Absolutely no idea - I'm sure I over estimated my ability, and underestimated my hydration needs since the weather was picture perfect.  I took my beeper (oh boy!) and set it for this week's increased interval 2:40 & 2 . . . seriously, someone tell me what I was thinking?  Here I was screwing up the planned route, going it alone, without water, and an increased running interval???  I did a 5 minute warm up walk and then started up with the intervals. It felt okay for the most part.  Not going to lie the running seemed to last forever, but it wasn't impossible.  After only 2 intervals I thought I was really thirsty and that this was really going to be hard plus I couldn't believe I had only run two intervals . . . oh  man, I'm in trouble - especially since I didn't do the 3 mile road route first.  Because of the undulations and uneven surfaces, my calves and Achilles were really working hard.  I stopped at a bench after 23 minutes to do some stretching - totally made the difference.  I set out for more intervals this time feeling really good about my performance.  After about a total of 40 minutes I totally caught my toe on a root and did the whole windmill arms and roadrunner legs in an effort to NOT fall.  I aimed for a tree to use as a break otherwise my acceleration combined with the down grade would have surely resulted in me doing a face plant in the mud!! Before coming to a stop by the tree, I took 5 or so very hard steps with my right foot.  Immediately my plantar fasciitis hurt, the top of my foot hurt, my pinkie toe hurt and the inside edge of my big toe hurt.  Ohhhh it hurt.  I walked through 3 intervals because just the pressure of walking on my foot hurt and I couldn't imagine the pain the force of running would cause on it.  I eventually returned to my intervals hating all aspects of what I was doing.  I decided that I had to leave the trail at one point to go to the nearest water fountain (ohhh how I wanted to just go from there back to the car, but knew that I would feel even worse).  I walked quite a bit on both sides of my water fountain break.  I tried to return to running eventually, but it seemed that everytime I got in a good rhythm, I came across a downed tree that I had to go over or under or a huge mud hole that I had to formulate a strategy to get around (my cute new Nikes are MUD-DY!!!!!) while not falling, loosing a shoe in the mud or getting my shoes unnecessarily muddy.  It was super challenging.  I was really hating life the last half hour.  My foot and heel was killing me and as I had already known before I started out there would be no way to do an additional 3 road miles after the trail.  In some ways I'm glad I didn't do them before because I would have really been tired, but . . . .I was feeling super disappointed that I put forth so much effort on this run (though to the observer I'm sure it just looked pathetic!!!!) and not be able to put a check mark next to the long run this week.  I was pretty discouraged until on the drive home I realized that this week's training plan called for an 8 mile long run and a 5 mile hill training.  Although these weren't the hills I was planning on using - there were plenty of hill challenges on this trail run to count.  So . . . that's what I'm doing.  Although this week's long run isn't done, my  5mile hill run is (SIGH - something is better than a complete fail though I suppose)!!!!

I've said it before and will say it again and I mean it:
If I ever loose my training partners for any more than a week or two, I'm DONE running anything more than 2 miles. I'm done - you all will have to just read about my recumbent bike riding in the air conditioned gym while reading a trashy novel or something. Seriously, I'm not running if something happens to my training partners for more than a week or two!!!  Be forewarned!!! 

Can we all still be friends even though I had a T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. run today???????  I sure hope so!!!