Thursday, August 13, 2009

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!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you just drink water? Perhaps you needed more electrolytes to help prevent the cramping. Either in sport drink or capsule form... especially since you had to run in the heat. I use an electrolyte source on every run in the summers here in Vegas.

Emily said...

Your post run descriptions make me shudder because you nailed them. And while I feel excited to go longer distances, my body can't help but freak out a bit. Yet we run on. Nice run! You got it done! Glad your feeling well (except the new lung thing).

EmLit said...

Yay for no knee pain but boo for the lung pain! I think it's good you're taking that seriously, and I hope you can get it figured out with the doctor. I have the same thing happen with my body temperature after long runs. It seems like no matter what, it is bound to happen, whether I drink enough water, gatorade, etc. I would love to figure out what to do about that!

The Alien said...

Its great that you finished the run without any knee pain!!

And I agree with Jill, I usually run in warm weather and there is a HUGE difference when I drink sports drink and water. Specially when I'm out there for more than an hour.

Irish Cream said...

Awesome job getting through a hot 16-miler--but very weird about your lungs. I'm glad you're getting it checked out!

Hope you're having fun on vacay :)