Lesson #1: NEVER run on a full stomach. Even if you wait the obligatory 30 minutes to "let it settle", you will be extremely sorry and in agony. I don't think I have ever had a more painful run (stomach-wise) than my run Tuesday night. I ended up having a meeting after work, so I couldn't just go straight to the gym like I had planned. Instead, I made dinner, ate with the family, sat with the littlest one and watched part of a DVD with him before I headed off to the gym. I made it about a half-mile before I started feeling my dinner slowly try to march back up my esophagus. I hadn't had that sensation since I was pregnant with James (and no, I'm not expecting again!). Let me just say that it was reminiscent of driving hundreds of miles across Louisiana, which at the time had terrible roads. I spent somewhere between 300-400 miles trying everything possible to keep from throwing up inside our U-Haul truck and the occupants. Needless to say, that is an experience that never needs to surface again. The good part was that I ran at a 12:45-mile pace, even while trying to hold my dinner down.
Because I had "Meet Your Teacher Night" on Thursday & didn't leave school until 8:30 pm, I opted to skip my Thursday run and just rest from being at work for about 13 hours straight. I wonder if that had something to do with my long run not going so hot. Which brings us to my other lesson...
Lesson #2: Old shoes & treadmills make for bad long runs. I attempted to replace my Brooks last weekend, but the store didn't have my size in stock. Apparently, they don't carry high quantities of women's "Gargantuan" shoes. So, I was put on a waiting list and told that I'd be called when they came in. They called Thursday night while was sitting in the McDonald's drive-thru, waiting for my salad, my hubby's food, & the kids' Happy Meals to take back to school so we could eat before "MYTN". I decided I'd just pick up the shoes on Saturday.
So, today (Saturday), I had a baby shower at church to help co-host, so I had to be done with my long run, showered, presentable, & present by 10:00 am. Since we have a crazy outbreak of the West Nile virus running rampant, I decided to not take my chances with the mosquitoes and just take my long run indoors again. This time, I decided to break it up into 3-mile increments & to run my normal pace using my music as my timer instead of the clock on the treadmill. I figured I'd run a little faster this time than last week. Not so. I got about 5-6 miles into my 9-mile run when the tops of my feet started to cramp up. Then at about mile 8, the bottoms of my feet started to ache. The last mile I was so worn out I couldn't even run through an entire song, so my pace ended up being a full minutes per mile slower than last week. At least I got it done, and this time I didn't feel like I was going to hurl in the process.
I finally have the new shoes in my possession, and I'm anxiously awaiting my run on Tuesday. Nathan told me that he thought my new purple shoes would make me go fast. I guess we'll have to wait to find out.
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