Because ... we went to Game 6 of the NLCS and watched the Giants beat the Phillies! Which was totally awesome! I think that it would have been a little bit more fun if we had been in San Francisco instead of Philladelphia, because a few people were not the nicest to us when we were wearing our Giants gear, but for the most part, the fans were pretty nice.
Anyway, this is a workout blog, not a baseball blog, but my whole point in the baseball business was to tell you that (1) I'm really excited for the World Series now and (2) watching baseball games until very late at night and then getting up at 5:45 am to take a train back to NYC makes you a little bit tired. I ended up falling back asleep for a while once we got home from Philly. In the whole 16 hours I was in Philadelphia, I just kept looking around and wondering "will I be running on this exact street again in a month?". Sort-of a crazy thought.
Obviously, because of the baseball game on Saturday, I planned my long run for Sunday. I had planned out a 21 mile route and I was convinced that I would make it this time. It involved another run across the George Washington Bridge that was a bit of a disaster the last time I attempted it. This run also ended up being a bit of a disaster and not at all the 21 miles I was expecting, but I finished. I think I learned some things. Those two facts are really all I can hope for at this point.
I decided not to take my Fuel Belt with me. I've just hated it too much the last couple times and I didn't want anything to interfere with my run. I decided to take two Gu packets and $20 and rely on drinking fountains. I'd also have money if I needed to buy anything. Everything was going along really well until one of the drinking fountains I was counting on wasn't working. Which meant that I wasn't going to make it across the bridge and back without that drinking fountain.
My only choice at that point was to turn around and go back the way I'd come from. I decided when I got back to Fairway that I'd stop in and buy myself a Gatorade. Which was $99 + tax. I can't tell you how annoying it was to carry around $18.92. Well, really, it was the $0.92 in change that was annoying jingling in my tri-short pocket the whole way home!
By the time I got the Gatorade, I was pretty thirsty. I tried not to gulp it all at once, but I think I drank it in about 5 gulps (it was 20 ounces total). The Gatorade plus Gu that I'd had earlier did not turn out to be such a winning stomach combo. The second I realized that, I was about a mile from the nearest bathroom. And I physically could not run without something devastatingly embarrassing happening. While I might be able to permit myself to have some sort of accident during a race, I just can't allow it to happen while on a training run. Which is how I found myself walking painfully slowly to the nearest bathroom a mile away.
After making it there successfully, the rest of the run was quite nice. So, now I'm left wondering what to do about the marathon. Gatorade or Gu? The combination of the two doesn't seem to work. Or maybe it really was the Gu again ... I've only had luck with it twice, and those were both much shorter runs than today. I've got one last long run planned for this coming weekend and I'm hoping to try Gu (with no Gatorade) again and see what the results are. If it doesn't work so well, I'm going to scrap the Gu entirely for the actual race. But I'm hoping it was just the combination of the two.
This is what my schedule looks like for the next month. Crazy that I have 87 miles to go until the marathon itself ... which gives me the total of 113.2. Also, these runs during the week seem really short now.
I've also realized that if I do all of those miles above, I'll end up right where I predicted I would at the end of my marathon training mileage wise. Which is sort-of a nice feeling. And more motivation to make sure I get all the miles in and not skimp out. The weather this week is supposed to be a bit above normal, so it should make for some really nice running conditions. All the more reason to get out there and keep going!
Running
Time: 3:35:00
Distance: 18.00 miles
Pace: 11:56/mile
I'm totally fine with this pace. Throwing in the horrible walking mile plus some drinking fountain breaks and slow running to begin with, I'm not really worried.
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