Some run stuff. Some expat stuff.

Bad tree!

I do love some of the imaginative signs that you see here in England--this one immediately had my mind racing making up stories about what the tree did to deserve it's outlaw status ;-) I'm also ignoring (or trying to) the fact that "of" was omitted. 

Another 20 mile marathon training run is in the books, this one while not exactly terrible, certainly wasn't the fun-fest of last week's despite having equally excellent company.  It was definitely an interesting one with the weather, I stepped outside and the skies opened up with a heavy enough downpour that I immediately went right back in to grab a water-repellent jacket. Not normally a huge deal but I was already running late so didn't take the time to shed the long-sleeve shirt. 3 layers up top meant that I should have just skipped going back for the jacket because I was soaked from sweat almost as much as I would have been from the rain!  A few miles in and we were treated to the most gorgeously blue skies for the rest of the run so I ended up faffing about with the jacket tied around my waist and it and my spibelt kept slipping around--extremely irritating to the nth degree (not the sunny sky, that was wonderful!).

Interestingly enough despite struggling to keep moving forward, today was only a couple of minutes slower than last week's 20 miler (9:28 versus 9:21 pace per mile).  I'm chalking that up to having people to run with because I'm pretty sure I would have thrown in the towel early on this one if I had been by myself. To keep things honest, I almost did text saying I wasn't going to be there and then thought about calling it good enough at 18.3 miles.  Stuck with it though and these sort of mental fights are as important to marathon training as the great runs are.  Oh yeah, do as I say and not as I do with this bit of advice:  Don't do a more intense than normal strength session the day before a long run!

Probably more excited about it than I should be but after being waylaid with horrible sinus pressure headaches the past few days finding Clarityn rapid melt tabs on markdown for less than half-price at the shop has made me very happy. This in turn made me think of another difference between the US and UK regarding OTC meds--you can't buy in bulk here. Most supermarkets limit you to purchasing 2 packages at a time and each packet usually only contain between 10-16 tablets (the Clarityn were in packs of 10).  However if you go to a pharmacy you can buy in packs of 32 and twice the dosage strength (up to the discretion of the pharmacist) but it is still nowhere near the packs of 50 or more (live large and go for the 500!) that can readily be purchased in the states.  More information about this is on the NHS site.

Thanks to Jennifer Z's post on facebook this is today's earworm! While perhaps Leon Russell's cover of "The Battle of New Orleans" isn't everyone's cup of tea I do quite enjoy the sped-up version.  Check out what History.com has to say about the historic battle if you're like me and all you remember about it is from the song (don't guess I should admit that I'm horrible about recalling history!).

The 20 miler

From Etsy (not my shop)

Not gonna lie, thoughts of 20 mile training runs strike a wee bit of fear into my heart...something about that number is incredibly intimidating (let's not even talk about that additional 6.2 miles yet!) and I have always dreaded when they started looming ever closer in the training schedule.  That of course was for my first marathon in 2009, I didn't get up to 19 miles in 2011 when training for the Marine Corps Marathon (bad Gabby, very very bad).

Looking back over the 2009 posts it looks like I had one great 20 miler and one that was horrible (recap here)--I also had blogged about peanuts causing me tummy troubles which is something I'd totally forgotten about and mentioned this past summer like it was something new (memory like a sieve).  

End of the bad 20 mile run 2009

Enough down memory lane though, yesterday marked the first 20 mile training run for the Belvoir Challenge and true to form I had quite a bit of difficulty relaxing and falling asleep the night before. When the pesky alarm went off at 5:30 am I just laid there thinking about how insane I was to be getting up to prepare to go running before dawn. Eventually I did drag myself out from under the covers because a mate was going to be knocking on the door at 7:30 and I'm sure he wouldn't have appreciated me telling him I had changed my mind about this running lark.  I did dawdle long enough that my planned 5 miles before he got there had to be shortened to 3, oops.  

Long story short, ran 3 miles solo, then 2 up to the club with Ian to meet up with two other runners, 9.4 with them, then back to my house which brought my total up to 18 (15 for Ian), said the goodbyes and straight up the street to finish up the final 2 miles to get the 20 done.  That was so hard going past my front gate and not stopping! Having to run the last bit solo was good for mental toughness though and the last mile ended up being my fastest (8:39).  

What I did right:

*arranged to run most of it with friends so I wouldn't be tempted to back out or cut it short

*remembered to eat a couple of bites of a 9bar around mile 7

*was able to eat and drink without stopping to walk

*had fun!

*foam rolled afterwards

What I didn't get right:

*didn't eat or drink anything after mile 7 (every time I thought of it we were either running up or down a hill or we were chatting, lol)

*neglected to re-lace the new trainers in the way that takes pressure off my toes--my left big toe was in agony for a good part of the run

*didn't take the time to properly adjust my Amphipod fuel belt before running so was having to constantly move it back into place

Accessories and fuel for yesterday

Overall it was a very good training run and certainly the fastest 20 miler I have done with an average pace of 9:21 per mile and best yet I wasn't totally wasted for the rest of the day--although there might have been a nap later on. Let's just keep the fingers crossed I can keep the feet issues under control! As for today, I didn't wake up hobbling around and my 30 minute recovery run was much faster than it should have been.  

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