Days 27 & 28: Home sweet home!

On Saturday I did a 6.2 mile run at a decent pace.  It was nice to be back in NYC where I am used to my running routes.  Near the end of it I stopped by a playground with a mister and oh baby was in amazing :-)  I was a little bit tired from the flight but nothing too serious.

Hello Mister :-)

Today I went out for my 13 mile long run at 6 am.  I felt pretty good in the AM, I ate some grapes and had my usual two cups of coffee with almond milk.  I felt ready to go, but it was a really tough run and I only got to 12.7 miles.  I'd gone over by a total of .3 miles this week so I still go to my weekly mileage.  The run started out okay and I went out at an easy pace.  Around mile 3 I stopped to refill my water but the fountain wouldn't work.  I stood there an stretched for a minute while I contemplated where to get water.  Someone walked over and the fountain worked for them -- then I realized that for some reason this water fountain had a functional button and a broken one.  I'd tried to use the broken one. 

I continued on my run but the Williamsburg bridge was a challenge.  I started feeling numbness in my right foot so I stopped and did some back stretches and loosened my shoe.  I sometimes get a bit of sciatica because of a herniated disc in my lumbar spine, but my spine doctor says if I can tolerate the pain I can run through it.  The stretching (and/or shoe loosening) alleviated the pain/numbness.  I generally experience the symptoms the worst while running uphill for some reason.  

My view while stretching out my terrible back.

From the Williamsburg bridge I continued over to the east river park and bike/running trail.  East river park is much nicer than I remember from biking near there years ago.

At east river park, with the queensboro bridge in the background.

I ran uptown to the queensboro bridge and was generally maintaining a decent pace.  At some point I lost my sunglasses which made me sad.  Starting around mile 9 I was feeling the need to take walk breaks - it was heating up and I just wasn't feeling great.  I made it over the queensboro bridge and stopped at queensbridge park to use the rest room and refill my bottles.  I was feeling very nauseated at this point and my abdominal muscles were spazzing out on me.  I called DH and told him to meet me with our dog.  He met me at mile 12.5 and honestly I walked those last .2 miles home.  

When I got home, I very briefly foam rolled and then collapsed in the shower.  DH gave me a banana with orders to eat while in the shower.  I took a bite to humor him.  The few hours after the run I still felt pretty crappy but continued to eat/rehydrate.  Now that it is the evening I am feeling mostly recovered, but my legs are more sore than I can remember them feeling in recent history.  I'm very thankful that tomorrow is a rest day.

I think I learned an important lesson: for summer runs bring more electrolytes and/or fuel for long runs.  I generally train with only water for my long runs during half training, but I don't run as far or in as much heat.  I'll also not go out to dinner and have half of a bottle of wine next weekend right before my long run.  The transatlantic flight from Paris may have meant that my body was still a bit wacky.

Week 4 Summary:
Miles: 39
Pace: 12:24 min/mile, mostly so slow because of all of the walking during my LR
Stayed on Plan: For the most part, yes, but I really do need to do my core work and strength training for the sake of my back.