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So, I woke up Saturday morning and didn’t feel the same pain that had marked every day of the previous week; I thought this was a good sign, so I got dressed for my run, loaded up the old iPod with some audio, and zipped out the door at about 8:30. I drove up to Vienna to get on the W&OD Trail at a point where I knew I’d have a fair amount of flat running for my 13 miles, stopped to get a couple of waters, and pretty soon was on the trail itself.

I felt great through the first half of the run; I made it all the way up to Reston, which was surprising - I used to live there, and I never thought it was that close to Vienna (though the Trail takes a more direct route than do the roads I normally drive on). I turned around at 6.5 miles, stopped off at a 7-11 for a fresh water bottle, and was back on my way without a great deal of trouble.

At about nine miles, I started feeling a little off; my water wasn’t lasting like I’d hoped it would, and when I looked down, I noticed that sweat was leaving salt trails on my leg. I slowed my pace a little more and tried to stick to the shaded parts of the trail, but the feeling just got worse and worse as I continued. I walked a big uphill and had a hard time getting going again, and I was taking longer and longer walking breaks at each mile marker. By the time I hit mile 11, I was done - I walked from there back to the car. At that point, I had about two mouthfuls of water left in my bottle (they were gone by mile 12 despite my rationing efforts).

Once I started walking in earnest, my back began to hurt. I had to stop every quarter-mile or so to bend over and stretch it out. After a while, I got so frustrated that I tried to run again - but after the first step, my calf cramped in a most unpleasant (and all-too-familiar way - I have a history of bad muscle cramps that start in the calves), so I stretched it out and went back to walking.

It was a long, long two miles - but eventually, I made it. I grabbed my extra water from the car and laid on the grass nearby for five or ten minutes, then got into the car and drove home. Once home, I jumped into the shower for a long soak and felt better. I then crawled into bed and tried to go to sleep while Lacie got ready to go to a meeting of a board she’s on.

And here’s where it got a little scary: after Lacie left, I stayed in bed for another fifteen minutes or so, then I got up and went to the bathroon - at which point, I felt faint, started sweating heavily, and had my eyesight go a little dark. I had to lay on the bathroom floor for a while just to cool off, then crawled back into the shower for another twenty minutes or so before feeling strong enough to get back to the bed. After napping for an hour or so, I was able to wander into the kitchen for some food and was able to make it through the rest of the day without too much trouble.

All in all, it was quite the adventure - and one I’m not eager to repeat. I found out after I got home and recovered a bit that the heat index for the second half of my run was over 100°; I’m guessing that contributed a fair amount to my problem. Next time, I’ll set out earlier to try to beat the heat. Luckily, my run for next weekend is only 8 miles - a piece of cake compared to the last two weeks. Whew! Who knew running a marathon would be such hard work?

I’m getting used to saying this, but today was the longest I’ve ever run - my schedule called for ten miles, and I think I did something pretty close to that. Normally, I’d be a little more confident in my judgement of the distance… but then normally my watch doesn’t reset in the middle of a run.

I’d made it about 3 and a half miles out when, while trying to change the view on my watch (moving from heartrate to pace, or to total time, or something like that), my watch suddenly reset. I started the workout program again and tried to estimate how far I’d been, but 1) I wasn’t completely sure what my total distance up to that point was, and 2) I couldn’t remember where I’d planned to turn around on the trail. I kept going for another mile or so, then turned around and headed back the way I’d come. Happily, the watch didn’t reset again, so the data I have recorded for today’s run shows part of the whole run - even though the software thinks I did it on January 1st, 2003 (the date and time got reset, too).

Anyways, I survived my something-like-10-miler. I’m sore (which was expected : ), so at this point I’m just hoping I recover enough to play some volleyball tomorrow. And after that, I’ll be looking forward to the thirteen miles scheduled for next weekend. Heck, that’s half a marathon right there!

Yesterday’s run taught me a very valuable lesson: I’m crap at judging my own pace.

To switch things up from my normal heartrate-guided run, I decided to add a little pace-guiding into my weekly schedule. Easy enough - I set my watch for a 9:45/mile for the first two miles of my run (+/- 30 seconds) and to 10:15/mile for the second two miles (+/- 15 seconds). I was OK at keeping within my range for the first half, but I just couldn’t seem to keep a steady pace for the second half. I went both faster and slower than my target, shifting from one out-of-range speed to another. I’m thinking I may have to make later pace ranges bigger (+/- 45 seconds, maybe) instead of smaller - at least until I get better at determining my own speed.