One of the joys of Ultra Marathon training is the Back to Back long runs.
You will run a Loooong long run one day and then the very next day run another long run…maybe 5-10 miles shorter than the long run the day before. There’s a reason for doing this. The Loooong long run is to get your legs good and tired, AKA: “trashed” and the next day is to make yourself run a whole bunch more miles on your trashed legs so you get used to grinding out the miles when your legs cry, “Uncle!”
My back 2 back long runs started up this week.
I didn’t have huge long runs this week and quite honestly, I did expect any problems with them. I hopped out of bed Wednesday morning and pounded out 20 miles without any problem. Thursday, I was only scheduled for 12 miles. That’s a run I can usually do in my sleep so I was super surprised at how hard it was!
Yes, I knew my legs were tired from the 20 the day before but this was different. I really struggled through those 12 miles. I stopped more than once and cried. I just don’t DO that! The entire run was off.
However, I was told to run 12 and so I ran 12. End. Of. Discussion.
Later on during the day, I started chilling and feeling pretty awful. That feeling carried over until this afternoon. Finally the light went on and I realized that I had been fighting a bit of a bug. That would explain why I felt so awful! LOL!!! I’m not quite the sissy I was thinking I was. Whew!
Since we covered all of that, we’re going to backtrack to the 20 miler on Wednesday because I have a story to tell you about that run.
A few blog posts ago, we discussed carrying protection while running and I said I usually just carried some pepper spray with me. I want you to keep that in the back of your minds while I tell you about this run.
Quite a bit of Wednesday’s 20M was on the shoulder of hwy 45S. I run on this 4 lane highway often. A lot of the motorists are used to seeing me. I always wave a few times when a car/truck is heading my way and I usually get a wave or horn toot as they drive by. It’s simple courtesy. You’re saying, “I see you, you see me. Hi!”
So, I was approaching mile 9 out of 20 and coming up on a 4 way intersection. As a rule, this was a busy intersection. There was a gas station to the west and hwy 82 to the north. It sees a lot of traffic. I am always on my toes here.
The coast was clear as I started running through the intersection. Then, to the west I saw a car approaching. Fast!
I did my regular wave thing.
The car didn’t slow down.
I waved again…while still running.
The car still didn’t slow down.
Hmmm…I was in the middle of the intersection now and quite frankly, I was screwed.
I started waving my arms over my head while still running because I HAD to get out of there!
FINALLY, the car slammed on its breaks and came to a screeching halt, literally inches away from me. He had blown through that stop sign. Hadn’t even slowed down.
He rolled down his window and started yelling at me.
*Now remember. I’m at mile 9 out of 20. I didn’t want to waste a bunch of energy on this guy. I still had a long way to run.
I simply pointed at the stop sign he had blatantly ignored and said, “Stop sign.”
He didn’t like that. So he got out of his car and started storming towards me. He was waving his arms and yelling.
I’m thinking to myself, “Dude. You don’t want to do that.”
I raised my hand so he could see my cute little pink canister of pepper spray and calmly said, “Pepper spray.”
You could tell he was seething but you could also tell he didn’t want to get blasted with pepper spray. He turned around and stormed back to his car.
That man will never know how close he came to getting nailed with pepper spray Wednesday morning!
The rest of the run was a delight! MFH and I had drove through a new route the night before and I thoroughly enjoyed running it!
Part of it followed the TomBigBee River.
Saw lots and lots of bamboo!
Fancy houses, too!
Running a new route on a long run was a breath of fresh air. What a fun run!!!
Seeing as I ran 20, later on that evening? I ATE! LOL!!! Needed to refuel for Thursday’s run, right?
Next week’s back 2 back long runs will be 25 Miles on Wednesday and 13 on Thursday.
Let’s so this!!!
#100MTraining
#IRun4Aiden *Aiden is recovering for a pretty big surgery this week. He came through like a champ! This kid is my hero!!!
#teamZensah
#AbbottWMM
#ChafeX
#MSBlueCrew #10 discount code: MBM17MH ***Price increase the end of this month!* http://www.msbluesmarathon.com/
#areyourenegade
#oisellevolee
