Year 2, Week 6 Wrapup

It was cold and wet on Monday, and I was feeling a little sick so I skipped the run that day. I had extra time on Tuesday, so I pushed Wednesday's speedwork up to Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, I was going to make up Monday's run, but we went to dinner with Andrew and everyone instead. So, I added another mile to Thursday's run. Got that? I ended up only a mile short of what my planned weekly mileage, so I guess it's all okay.

I did Tuesday's speedwork down at the track. There were maybe a dozen of us on the track, all running the correct direction (counter-clockwise). Then, about halfway through my run, this middle-aged guy in a full sweatsuit shows up and starts running the other way. I don't know if he's a jackhole that was just trying to be different or if he was retarded. Either way, he was running in my lane. As I would come up on him, I would speed up and he'd eventually switch lanes to get out of the way. Then, since he's going the other way, I would only go another half lap before coming across him again, only to find him still in my lane. Finally, after about ten times of this, I broke down and just moved over a few lanes, only to find that he's somehow moved into my new lane as well. If I wasn't trying to stick to a pace, I would have eventually just stopped him and asked, "Dude?!"

This week's long run was the dreaded 20 miler. There was a bit of a psychological barrier to overcome here because I never had done a 20 mile training run successfully. The previous marathon training had two 20 mile runs, and both of them ended badly. I would get about 18 miles into it, then pretty much fall apart and have to sort of walk/stumble the rest of the way. This one went totally fine, though. Yeah, the last two miles were a little tougher and more grueling than the first two, but it was way easier than the previous 20 mile runs, even though I was maintaining a per mile pace that was a full minute faster than those previous runs. Yeah, the temperature difference between July and December might have a lot to do with it, but I'm taking as much of the credit for myself as I can.

The only glitch in the long run was that I completely misestimated where the turnaround point would be, and I stashed my second gatorade about 3/4 miles past that point. As I got closer and realized how the mileage was working out, I was faced with the choice of turning around and skipping the second gatorade, or continuing on but then finishing the run too far from the car. It was pretty hot, so I decided to keep going until I got the gatorade, but I was still almost 2 miles from the car by the time I finished the 20 miles. I normally try to plan these so I end about a half mile away to give me a nice cool-down walk, but instead I had a nice cool-down walk, followed by a miserably long bonus cool-down walk.

The real hero of the week is BODYGLIDE™ (not to be confused with Astroglide). I've had the usual nipple chafing and thigh rubbing, along with some other chafed regions on all these long runs. The thigh rubbing is not as big of a deal now that my thighs are not so big, but it's not gone totally. So, I finally picked up a stick of this stuff last week. I rubbed some on my nipples, between my thighs, and some on some... other... places. When it was all over, I was not chafed anywhere. Bravo, BODYGLIDE™.