How To Run Like A Rookie

What a great weather weekend! Here in Ohio it was unseasonably warm, with temps in the mid to upper 80’s, and sunny skies. Awesome! The only drawback to all this is that I was not prepared to RUN in the heat. Considering just 10 days ago, it was ‘too cold’ to run outside….Anyway, I made a lot of rookie mistakes yesterday and it cost me an important long run.

I was supposed to run Friday evening after work, and my long run was scheduled for Sunday (yesterday). Except that my dear husband made plans with some friends to ‘stop over’ with their kids for a ‘little cookout’. GREAT. I love my friends, I love my husband – don’t get me wrong here…but don’t make plans without consulting the ‘boss’ first! ;-) So, instead of running, I got home and had to quick clean up and run to the store all while keeping a pleasant smile on my face and trying to hide my frustration over missing a training run. We still had a nice evening enjoying the weather and sitting out on the patio, but I was obsessing in my mind over my running schedule.

So Saturday what do I do? I become a weekend warrior! I ran 3 miles Sat morning to try to ‘make up’ for the missed run Friday. It was warm, but a nice breeze was blowing and that helped, but I was ready to stop at 3 miles…I was starting to feel the heat. THEN, I go to the rec and do 30 minutes of bike and stepping. THEN I did one hour of strength training. Oh I was feeling GREAT! Not only did I get a run in (albeit shorter than I wanted), I also got my cross training in! OH yeah, Cyndi Rocks….NOT.

By about 6pm Saturday evening, I was starting to worry about getting through a 9 mile run the next morning. My body was feeling tired. I vaguely woke up around 5am and could NOT get my butt out of bed to go run. I PICTURED myself getting up and going about my pre-run routine…yes it was a nice PICTURE in my mind, but the body did not follow, unfortunately.

Next think you know, it’s 1:00 in the afternoon and I am finally ready to go run. It was 86 outside, so I already planned to take it slow and easy and I headed down to the valley where there is ‘more shade’. Uhhh….there was NO shade. Not enough leaves on the trees yet!
So here’s the rundown:

Mistake #1 – A pre-run cup of Kashi cereal (plain) a GU and some water is not proper fuel for a 9 mile run on a hot afternoon. ( I had a good breakfast but that was at 9am…)

Mistake #2 - A long run in warm temps would require FULL STRENGTH Powerade or Gatorade for hydration, not Powerade ZERO, which has ZERO carbs and ½ the sodium. DUH. Thank god I also brought a pack of sport beans or I would have been in worse shape!

Mistake #3 - I probably needed more than a 16 oz. bottle of said fluids…..(ya think?)

Mistake #4 – I had too much coffee in the morning, and not enough water.

Mistake #5 - Don’t workout hard (run, bike, step, weights) the day before your long run.

All of this added up to a bad run, in which I konked out at mile 4, but I managed to eek out another mile and ½ run/walk, and then ended up walking about 2 miles home. (two miles which included a big a**s hill OUT of the valley, because of course the only way OUT of the metroparks is to go UP.) And then, what’s worse is that about two miles into my run yesterday I experienced the ‘Fat Hands’ phenomenon too. By the time I got home 2 hours later, my hands were swelled up like balloons! Definitely a sign that my electrolyte balance was WAY out of wack.

I was almost home when my hubby passed me while driving and beeped and waved – I could barely wave back ha ha. When I got home and he came home he says ‘I feel stupid. I was just beeping and waving at some chic because I thought it was you, but it wasn’t you, because THIS girl was WALKING’.

HA! *smack* Funny guy that one, let me tell you!

So, again, more lessons learned. My first clue that I was an idiot was when I got down to the valley and I did not see ONE runner! Lots of cyclists, cruising along just fine…but no.runners. Period. Except me, the rookie. ;-) All the REAL RUNNERS got their butts out of bed at the crack of dawn to beat the heat!

Thankfully, temps are returning to normal this week. Even though I did not do 9 yesterday, I sure as heck FEEL like I did, so I’m going to go for 10 next weekend. I have to – that’s all there is to it, it’s my last opportunity to do 10 and allow one weekend for a taper.

While reading up on the swelling hands thing, I read that the body has to acclimate to warm temps gradually, by easing into it and being careful. There was no easing into this, that’s for sure! Some of our friends who ran Nashville this weekend found this out too!

Unfortunately, my poor Chris, with his ‘stronger’ brain, could not withstand the big weather swing and he went down for the count on Saturday with a couple of seizures. He recovered nicely though and thankfully did not lose a whole weekend to it.

Some of you had some great runs this weekend though, and good race reports! I love that!

Cheers~