16 Miles.* Still Bonking.

Dear dudes and girl dudes, my apologies for not covering the recovery week. It was three runs of six miles, and I skipped the weight training. I figured that you guys didn’t want to hear about it, so I decided to conserve my energy and watch Top Gear instead of posting. If it seems like I have been watching a lot more television than I ever have before, it is because I am victim to so much quality programming. Watching television is okay in a foreign culture, because it constitutes research. I am learning about the Brits every time I watch The Daily Show.

Week five was a big week. My tempo run on Thursday was sixteen laps at 2:00 per lap, which worked out to a 8:05 mile for four miles, plus two miles warm up and cool down. The tempo was good, in that it kept me going just outside of my comfort zone. I would have happily slowed down at any point, but it didn’t get excruciating until the twelfth lap. Those last four laps were less than fun, which may have been heat, or it just may have been the fact that the runs were doing the work they were supposed to do. Which was kick my ass into shape.

Sunday’s run was less than grand. I met some friends Saturday afternoon for a Beer Festival in Earl’s Court, and heavily restricted my beer intake in preparation for the run, but I’m not entirely sure it helped. All that I know is that when I was in the thick of it on Sunday, I didn’t feel good at all.

I just didn’t have the energy to finish well. In fact, as I hit the last two miles, I was even heckled by a street performer who stopped doing a magic trick long enough to remind me that he could walk faster than I ran. I couldn’t even argue with him. He was probably right. I don’t even know how fast as I was going at that point, but I know that I was exhausted and cramping. And I think it was due to eating way too little before the run. And nothing during the run. Soooo, I’m back to square one with my bad habits, and have decided that I need to wake up extra early on Sundays just so I can eat a big breakfast and then have time to digest it somewhat before the run. Next Sunday we will try something along those lines, and I will let you know how it goes.

Other than the bonking, the run was actually beautiful, but extremely windy. And the wind didn’t help. I finally moved things up into central London and ran almost the entire distance along the Thames. I started at London Bridge, traced my way along the South Bank, went through Battersea Park to the Albert Bridge, then doubled back through Chelsea to Parliament Square and Green Park to just short of Buckingham Palace. The thing was, there were 20-plus mile an hour winds along the Thames, and I was getting blasted like I was in a wind tunnel. I had to deal with this for the first five miles, and then once I made the turn home from Parliament Square, again on the Chelsea side for another three miles. I was exhausted by four miles, and feel like the wind might have contributed to my bad run more than anything…but nonetheless, if I had a bit more food in my system, then maybe I would have been able to finish fast enough that I could escape the silent heckles of the abusive mimes. I finished it nonetheless, but I ended up with mile averages that hovered around 10:30 or so. Like I said, it was a challenging day.

This week promises some real fun. I am flying to Cologne Thursday morning, so I will do my track work at my old track on the Unigelände. Its not as nice as the track at Ladywell, but its considerably more free. Sunday I run eighteen miles along the Rhine, so I am essentially switching one big river for another. It should be considerably less windy though, because the Rhine is much wider than the Thames and lacks the giant buildings on either side that funnel the wind into your face no matter which direction you face. This will be a sentimental run. I’m looking forward to it. But not as much as the ginormous breakfast I am going to eat at six o’clock that morning.

* (Update: I just checked my route on USATF for the first time, and it turns out I ran about 17.3 miles and that my Nike+ seriously needs to be re-calibrated. The real new lesson is to check your routes before you run them, unless you have a GPS! :) So instead of 10:30 miles, I was closer to 9:35, which is only a little slower than my goal pace. I'm officially less discouraged by this run. I am also dreading the 18 miles next Sunday a little less, knowing I only have to run an additional .7 miles or so. After that big breakfast, I should be sorted. Hopefully.)