Bright and sunny day post snowstorm. The roads were narrow and the shoulder was basically slippery snow. I just had to get outside after too many days on the treadmill. After 8 miles and many near misses with crazy car drivers I gratefully arrived back at my house.
I set the alarm for 4:30 am and was up and out the door in 15 minutes after making my usual pre-run shake. When I got to the parking lot at the head of the Peabody Independence Bike path there was nobody there… just the way I like it. It was brutally muggy, 80 degrees with a heat index of 92.. which is *not* the way I like it. I kept the music off for a while so I could just enjoy the sounds surrounding me.
It was so muggy and hot eventually my sweat overcame the “moisture wicking” properties of my shirt and I started chafing. I should have taken the shirt off but instead I ignored the symptoms and ended up paying with that awful runners penalty: bloody nipples.
Brutal. Ok I just have to say that. It was a deeply unpleasent experience. I left a few minutes before dawn. Conditions were clear and 38 degrees. I knew I was in trouble 2 miles in when I was already feeling tired. I had switched to intervals of run 4 min, walk 1 min since all the recommendations is to walk a min. I hated it. By mile 5 I was pretty miserable and at some point I switched back to my normal 3 min run, 30 second walk. I think for some reason the 1 min walking is too long, very hard to get moving again. I need to do some research to see if 30 seconds will be enough to reduce lactic acid buildup. I think all the miles this week wore me down. I am very glad next week is a cutback week. At mile 8 I was feeling a lot of discomfort in my left foot and shin and my right calf. I stopped and stretched thoroughly for 5 minutes and then continued. That made a huge difference.
My heart rate distribution shows most of the run was spent in the aerobic zone, but roughly 20 percent was in the aerobic threshhold zone, which means I was probably going too fast for part of the long run. Sheesh, the one rule for long runs is “don’t run too fast” and I can’t even get that right!