Rate Your Run – Megatron Edition

“No sir, I didn’t like it.”

That’s a quote from the “Ren & Stimpy” show, that was used in an understated ironic manner to convey the disapproval of a certain something. That quote was going through my head for much of this uncomfortable, painful run.

“You’re still running?!”

That was the incredulous question lobbied by a flabbergasted individual as I passed him in the parking lot as he was about to leave Discovery Park in his vehicle. I surmised that he had seen me running when he had arrived at the park earlier that morning (probably for his kid’s soccer game), attended his child’s game and was preparing to leave and still saw me running as he left. In his mind, I bet he was thinking “Wha?”

And that’s it in a nutshell. If you’re not an endurance athlete or not familiar with them or their activities, watching someone run and run and run can be exhausting to think about, let alone witness. And think about how bad it can be for the athlete themselves!

That was what happened to me today. This was the run that would not end. Although, I did make my target for time however. But much of the run I was just begging for it to be over. And I am pretty sure I know why . . .

When one decides to run 19, 20, 21+ miles (at my current pace that is 3+ hours of running), there’s a certain precision one must do their pre-run activities. My checklist includes:

1. Filling my hydration bottles. I had two blue ones. Two red ones and two black ones. For the past couple of runs I’ve made it a habit to fill the red ones with strawberry or fruit punch-flavored G2 Gatorade sports drink and the black ones with grape. I like it when the color matches (just my OCD). The blue bottles I always fill with water so I know which bottle is which.

2. Construct my running playlist. With several hours of running, it’s not unusual to have a playlist that has several dozen songs. My playlist for this run was 75 songs. Making this playlist takes time and I always vow to do it little by little over the week but I never do and I find myself on Friday evening always scrambling to put something together.

3. Carbo load. I usually will have pasta pre-prepared so that I can just decorate it with some type of sauce, heat it and eat it. I also have gotten big time into baked potatoes.

4. Make sure my GPS is charged.

5. Make sure my Zune media player is charged.

6. Make sure my netbook is charged.

7. Pick out my running outfit. This should consists of shorts and one of my performance t-shirts.

8. Pre-hydrate by drinking from my Darkwing Duck Water Bottle liberally.

9. Relax and go to bed. Usually on Thursday or sometimes Friday, I will take a whirl in my hot tub and allow my body to relax and meditate on the upcoming run and I try to visualize myself finishing the run. If I’m lucky, I can be in bed by 11 PM or midnight. The last task is to make sure my alarm clock(s) are set so that I don’t oversleep!

Ideally, I have these all done on the Friday before the run . . . And that didn’t happen this week.

It started with work, where I stayed later than I intended. And that would have been OK if I had skipped my strength/resistance training workout. I was intending to do this except I ate a lot of barbeque at lunch and wanted to burn some of it off. Also, the recreation center at Intel where I workout will be closing for more than a month starting on Monday so I figured I should get one last workout in. (A quandary, I will need a new place to workout in the upcoming weeks. I may order a Swiss ball and buy some weight at Target and open my own home gym ).

That took about forty-five minutes and then I had to stop by the grocery to get some more G2 and fresh bananas. By the time I got home it was nearing nine and I basically had not done anything on the list 1 – 9 . . . And I don’t know how it happened but I fell asleep a little after 11 and I woke up at ~2:12 in the morning to find that I had not done 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9. 7 was not done because I couldn’t find any clean exercise wear so I had to perform an impromptu laundry session. To be frank, however, I think 8 and 9 are really what messed me up on this run.

9 because obviously getting adequate rest is kind of important when you are about to expend ~3300 calories over the span of one single morning. And there were times later in the run when I thought I was about to hit “The Wall”. The dreaded wall even though I had never had that issue in any of my previous runs. That, I conclude, was due to the inadequate rest I had done.

But I think 8 was what really messed me up. When I met with my doctor the week prior, he advised me to pre-hydrate a five or six hours before the run which means that I should do it in the hours immediately before I go to bed (and to be fair, one of our group members had also given me that advice). But because i had fallen asleep . . . accidentally. I hadn’t done that yet. But remembering this, I started the process around 3 AM (note that I was supposed to “get up” for the run at 5:30). When the “morning” “arrived”. I was pleased to find my urine surprisingly clear. Yeah! I thought. That means I’m adequately hydrated.

Oh, I was hydrated alright.

Before, the run even commenced I went to the restroom several times – about four times total. That was before the run. So you would think that during the actual run I wouldn’t have any urges to “go”. Imagine my shock when barely a mile in and I had one of the strongest urges ever to use the restroom. This happened while I was in the “desert” portion of my run – which means I was far away from the park and any restroom facilities. It was so bad I seriously considered finding a tall bush or any other structure that could offer my semi-privacy and doing it there. And it was early in the morning so there were not that many people around . . . But I resisted – I didn’t want to be arrested for indecent exposure – that would really sink the one. I would hold it in and make a detour when I made my way back to the oasis.

What is going on here? I had the same exact issue last week. Here is how I explain it. Last week, I wasn’t completely listening to my body and didn’t relieve myself immediately before starting the run which I should have done. This week, I did do that, however, I think my body was all out of whack because I had pre-hydrated too near the actual run. In addition to the pre-hydration when I am dong a warmup I down an entire bottle of Gatorade right before I start the run. So I think all that fluid was just itching to get out and I found myself in a lot of trouble.

The good news? I finished and I finished on time (even when considering the unscheduled pit stop – which took about forty-five seconds – I was a hair under my target time). And I finished with NO CRAMPS! I did have some pain in various parts of my legs but it was the type of pain that I could propel through – anyone who has run through an expected period of time will know what I mean.

OK, so I have one long run left before my taper. it is critical that I have all nine items on my checklist done on time. I am already working on 2 and other items I will try to do little by little over the week (where applicable). The upcoming 22-mile run  I know is something that will be top of mind for a large part of the week. It will be important not to psych myself out. Honestly, I felt I could have done 22-miles today and have been done with it. But that’s not part of the plan. I need to stick with the plan and execute in order to have a successful race (actually successful races).

So, there was a couple of big negatives on this run. But overall, the fact that 1) I completed the damn thing 2) on-time with 3) NO CRAMPS! means that it overall was actually successful (for instance, I was growing very doubtful that I could do number 2 and number 3 at this distance when I first did my nineteen mile run). So I will reward myself with an 8. What grade will I get for the most important run in my training next week?

GRADE: 8