Two new PRs and a Labor Day long run

40 days until the Chicago Marathon

Derailed by a slow drain

I was so excited for my long run over the weekend. After a difficult work week, I was looking forward to proving to myself that I could reach a new milestone with relative ease. The plan was to run 16 miles on Saturday — the longest I’ve ever run.

I ate a carb-heavy meal Friday night, picked out my outfit and snacks and got to bed early to prepare. Saturday morning, I ate breakfast at around 6 a.m., gathered my various gadgets and supplies and drove out to the Little Miami trail. I wanted to celebrate the occasion with a new running route, and one that I’d heard was relatively flat to boot.

The morning weather was nice and cool and I felt strong. But two minutes into my run, I noticed a small leak in my water backpack. It didn’t seem too bad, and I adjusted it briefly to try and stop the drain.

About a mile later I was drenched, through to my socks and shoes. With every step, my shoes made a squishy sound, and my shorts were so soaked it was as if I’d been sitting in a pool all morning.

I ran back to my car, feeling utterly defeated. My options weren’t great: keep running and inevitably get blisters from my wet shoes that will make it difficult to run for the next week; go home, change and start over when it’s late morning and hot outside; or find another day this weekend to run.

To be honest, this small inconvenience really set me off and put me in a mood for the rest of the day. Why? Well, ask any distance runner and they’ll tell you it’s not a “small” inconvenience. Long runs aren’t casual — you don’t typically just get up and run 16 miles without preparation. I eat certain things the day before my run, avoid going out for drinks with friends the night before, wake up early the day of and plan the rest of that day to be slow and restful for recovery. Training for a marathon isn’t just about the time you spend running. You have to learn how to prepare for and recover from these long distances, which altogether means two days structured around a run.

Nobody knows this better than my mom. I called her before I left the trail on Saturday, and she gave me some sage advice: Call it quits for the day to avoid getting blisters. She also knew I was running a 10K race on Monday, so running 16 miles the day before racing wasn’t a good plan, either. Instead, she told me to fold in Monday’s race to a 16-miler.

It worked.

I ran about 4 miles before the race, ran the fastest 10K I’ve ever run (56:58, an average pace of 9:07 per mile, is my new PR) and got in another slow 6 miles afterwards. I was all wrapped up by about 10:30 a.m. and spent the rest of my Labor Day relaxing with an Epsom salt bath, drinking white wine and working on a puzzle with Oliver, cooking dinner together and lounging on the couch.

Sometimes the unexpected can derail even the best-made plans. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try again tomorrow (or the next day). Take a deep breath, call a friend and keep moving forward.

Runner’s log

I ran for an hour on Monday and Thursday last week, ran a speedy 5K on Tuesday and went about 3 miles on Saturday before my long run on Labor Day.

When I didn’t have time Tuesday to run the workout my training guide suggested, I ran the fastest 5K I could and got myself a new PR: 27:38. That’s an average pace of 8:52 per mile.

Practicing mindfulness

I finished reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment over the weekend and I’ll leave you with another passage:

“It is essential to understand that an emotion is merely something that arises, remains, and then goes away. A storm comes, it stays a while, and then it moves away. At the critical moment, remember that you are much more than your emotions. This is a simple thing that everybody knows, but you may need to be reminded of it: you are much more than your emotions.”

He also provides the following poem to help us practice mindfulness:

“In; out.

Deep; slow.

Calm; ease.

Smile; release.”

Reciting this poem to ourselves can help bring mindfulness, ease and peace no matter where we are or what we are doing.

Have a great week, all.

xoxo,

mad mitch