Aftermath of a 16 Mile Run

The 16 mile run went better than I expected it to go. It was 87 degrees when I left and I was dreading the heat but knew that it had to at least cool into the 70s near the end of my run. But overall, it was an alright run.

I started out the run pretty slow because I was paranoid of falling victim to the heat. Not entirely sure what I was afraid of--perhaps heat stroke? I got my two extra bottles for my Nathan belt yesterday and they worked great. Although it was a lot more water to carry around my waist than I was used to! I was fairly liberal with my water drinking because I knew there were water fountains on the route that I was taking. It felt pretty good to not have to ration out my water intake.

The run out to the turn-around point was great. Not many problems at all actually. And I would say I probably didn't have a lot of problems until the last 4. The last 4 miles, I started to feel a pain in my lungs while I was breathing. I've never really experienced that before and so I took lots of breaks to let my lungs recover. Anyways, it was alot of running .75 of a mile, walking 1-2 minutes, running another .75 mile. I kept trying to make it to at least a mile between stops but the pain in my breathing was bugging me. Anyways, I've made a doctor's appt to check this out just to be sure. I'm sure it was just the distance contributing to it...but whenever pain moves to my chest--I always worry more than I probably need to.

Anyways, I made it the 16 miles loving the fact that I still have no knee pain. LOVING IT! Although, getting to the apartment I realized that I had forgotten about the end of the long run--when you stop running and the pain starts. I felt like puking, my legs kept cramping up, and my lungs were hurting. Oh and I was shivering--but this always happens after my long runs no matter how much water I drink. I've read a ton that says it means you didn't drink enough water but I seriously say that is crazy. Because I drank 6-20 oz bottles of water on that run yesterday. Perhaps I drank too much water. Anyways, the stomach was not feeling well either and I knew I needed to eat something. That and I figured I might be needing salt since it was clearly all over my body. Drank some V8 hoping that would help. Then I tried to eat blueberries and my stomach was not having it. Waited a little bit and forced half a bowl of bran flakes down then gave up and went to bed. Well, tried to go to bed. My legs kept cramping and I swear I was up every 10 minutes trying to get them to stop.

Anyways, the 16 miler is done. Now I am going to have to figure out when I'm going to do the 4 miler and the 8 miler since my schedule is all messed up. I love going on vacation but it really does throw a wrench in your training plan!! Anyways, headed to Missouri Saturday morning...hope you all have a great weekend!