June 30, 2011
Rachel
Today's mileage: 8.0 miles
Today was my longest run yet and it felt great (and sorta horrible at the same time). It was my first run in my new shoes, which always make me feel like I can just go forever. New shoes are not necessarily in the budget right now, but I knew that the old shoes I was using were bound to lead to injury.
I also used this run to experiment with hydrating during my run. When I ran 7.5 miles last week, I felt very dizzy, disoriented, and cold towards the end of my run. It was recommended to me that after an hour of running, you need to find a way to rehydrate, which is anything over 6 miles for me. So, today, instead of running 4 miles each way, I tried something different. I stashed a gatorade in the bushes near the starting point and ran 3 miles each way, out and back. I stopped for about 20-30 seconds to guzzle half the gatorade, and then ran another 1 mile each way in the other direction, for a total of 8 miles.
I was nervous about doing this because I really do not like stopping when I'm running, for any reason. It just feels SO HORRIBLE to start up again. But, although the first quarter mile or so after my brief stop was pretty rough (especially 6 miles into the run), I think it was worth it. I think that shot of electrolytes was what helped me make it the full 8 miles. I felt much better at the end of this run than I did a week ago.
I'm feeling pretty rough tonight, though....I'm limping around the house and groaning every time I have to move very much. But I've stretched really well, will continue to hydrate, and will do some mild activity tomorrow to keep my muscles loose.
I love that I've set the goal of running my first half marathon over labor day...that goal is truly what keeps me going during these long runs. I spend a lot of time during run imagining myself running the race and finishing it! And today was actually the first time I started to feel like it might be possible. I plan to add a half mile each week or every other week, which makes getting to 11 miles before the race seem within reach.
