What a busy weekend! I'm surprised I had any time or energy to get in my 17 miles but I did!
Friday night had me going up to Madison for a concert of my favourite indie band with a good friend of mine. Getting home at 3:30a and finally passing out a little after 4a.
Saturday night had me waking up at 8a to leave by 9a to get to Chicago so I can park at the same friends house and taking a bus up to Wrigley Field to catch a Cubs game. I was freezing my buns off in the upper deck and in the shade with a strong wind blowing in from the lake. OUCH!
Came back to my friends house to get some rest (no sleeping, just chilling) to get ready for another concert off the same band with the same friend! Finally caught up with my sleep a little that night. Going to bed around 3a and waking up at 9:40a.
I left relatively soon after that to head back out to DeKalb to hopefully start my 16 mile run. I decided to do it on the path around DeKalb instead of the Great Western Trail.
I got home and my apartment was 54 degrees! It was 50 outside! I ate a bagel and got dressed with shorts & a long-sleeve shirt. Yep, I did that. I only had one knee band and I put that around my left knee. I have to look tonight to see if I can find the other one.
I knew right away I was going slow and that's how I wanted it. With not running for a week, it was going to be interesting to see if I can get 16 miles in at all.
Nothing really to report from the first half. I was reaching a road crossing and I thought I saw a guy's car I knew. I was surprised to see him in town but I remembered that I had let him borrow 2 books last JUNE and he never read them but I still hadn't picked them up from his mother's house. So I was thinking I need to get down there that day and pick them up.
When I reached the end of the DeKalb Nature Trail, I had only hit 6 miles. I knew his mother lived on the same road and wondered if I could run down there and get 8 miles. So I attempted it. That first mile was THE longest mile EVER. I couldn't believe it. But I made it to his mother's house with his car outside and knocked on the door. 7.69 miles. Booo.
My friend asked if I was going to run back with those 2 books, I told him it was the only way, I ran here. Plus, I knew that he was never going to drop them off to me. I ate some PowerBar Gel Blasts, asked if I could fill up my water bottle and with 2 books in hand, I took off again.
Even within that first mile, it was tough going. I was constantly switching hands back & forth. Putting one book in each hand. My forearms were starting to burn. Wasn't fun. And that's when the times started to slow down.
At one point, right around 11.5 miles, I had to drop the books and I just stood there shaking out my arms for a bit. I knew I couldnt' keep it up for too much longer. That and I knew that I had a hill coming up soon and I didn't know if I would be able to trudge those books up that hill. So I started looking for a drop point and I found one just after 12 miles. I dumped them under a dumpster at the NPR station at NIU. I just knew i had to remember to get them before the day was over.
I felt a lot better after that. My running did seem a little bit easier. I did the math with what I knew of my normal path and the distance left. If I ran the same path, I would have just over 15 and that wasn't cool with me. If I added the other part of the path I would have nearly 16.5. So decided to just go with it. I was starting to hurt and I kept saying "just get to the next ______."
I tried filling it up at spigets that these pillars out in front of a condo place but alas, they weren't turned on yet. I finally ran out of water with less than 1 mile to go. Saw 16.5 come and go and decided to keep on going. At my normal start/stop point, I had 16.8. Well, I couldn't leave it at that distance so I continued to 17. Good enough.
My legs weren't cramping at all either. My left knee felt OK. I was surprised. I do have to remember to not wear a long-sleeved shirt in 50 degree weather. That wasn't a smart move at all.
Luke came over about an hour later and after just hanging out and telling him about my run, we went on a bike ride. Well, I went on a bike ride, he went rollerblading. He actually said that he didn't think he would be able to keep up with me. As I carried my bike down the stairs, I felt my calves a bit, I giggled and said "I don't think you need to worry about keeping up with me! I did run 17 miles a few hours ago!" And sure enough, we were able to go about the same speed. So that was good.
However by about mile 4, I started to feel my left knee have some pain. He suggested that we go back but I declined saying that we might as well go as far as he wanted to go. And we did. All together it was 11.6 miles (according to my bike computer, while the Garmin got started late because of stupid satellites). And we were both freezing by the time we got back. Especially him since he was wearing a short sleeve shirt & shorts!
I was walking around my apartment afterwards and I felt tightness & pain in my left knee. Luke kept telling me to ice it but alas, I couldn't just sit for a while since I am expecting company tonight and had to clean up my place. And I never did ice for the rest of the night either.
Woke up this morning and felt great muscle wise but then I sat for quite a while at my desk at work. I got up and my legs hurt, especially my hip area. I swear I want to go work at a place where I can be moving. I hate having officechairitis.
Not running again until Wednesday, to give my knee sometime off and also cause I have stuff going on on Monday & Tuesday. I'm almost in taper mode. 6 miles on Saturday, followed by 13.1 (Illinois half Marathon in Champaign) and then another 8 miles and then my marathon. Gah. 4 weekends left!
Activity| Route: | -- | Elev. Avg: | 856 ft | | Location: | DeKalb, IL | Elev. Gain: | -3 ft | | Date: | 04/18/10 | Up/Downhill: | [+387/-390] | | Time: | 12:41 PM | Difficulty: | 3.5 / 5.0 | | | | Weather: | Fair | | | 58 F temp; 31% humidity | | | 58 F heat index; winds N 10 |
| Distance: | 17.00 miles | | | | Time: | 2:47:09 | | Speed: | 6.1 mph | | | | Pace: | 9' 50 /mi | | | | Calories: | 1818 | | |
 Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits| Mile | Pace (min/mile) | Speed (mph) | Elevation
Gain |
|---|
| actual | +/- avg | actual | +/- avg |
|---|
| 1 | 9' 35 | -0' 15 | 6.3 | +0.2 | +20 ft | | 2 | 9' 25 | -0' 25 | 6.4 | +0.3 | -6 ft | | 3 | 9' 11 | -0' 39 | 6.5 | +0.4 | -13 ft | | 4 | 9' 18 | -0' 32 | 6.5 | +0.3 | 0 ft | | 5 | 9' 31 | -0' 19 | 6.3 | +0.2 | 0 ft | | 6 | 9' 24 | -0' 26 | 6.4 | +0.3 | +7 ft | | 7 | 9' 29 | -0' 21 | 6.3 | +0.2 | +43 ft | | 8 | 9' 35 | -0' 15 | 6.3 | +0.2 | 0 ft | | 9 | 9' 45 | -0' 05 | 6.2 | +0.0 | -29 ft | | 10 | 9' 52 | +0' 02 | 6.1 | -0.0 | -10 ft | | 11 | 10' 17 | +0' 27 | 5.8 | -0.3 | -6 ft | | 12 | 12' 50 | +3' 00 | 4.7 | -1.4 | 0 ft | | 13 | 10' 07 | +0' 17 | 5.9 | -0.2 | 0 ft | | 14 | 10' 21 | +0' 31 | 5.8 | -0.3 | +33 ft | | 15 | 10' 18 | +0' 28 | 5.8 | -0.3 | -23 ft | | 16 | 11' 00 | +1' 10 | 5.5 | -0.7 | +19 ft | | end | 10' 16 | +0' 26 | 5.8 | -0.3 | -33 ft | | Versus average of 9' 50 min/mile |
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