Running in Germany

I was warned that the weather in Germany would be horrible this weekend. Although that never materialized, when I went to the university to do my speedwork on Monday, I saw at least five girls wearing scarves. When it was 23 C out. You gotsta love Germany.

I love running in Germany, anyway. Things went really well this week. Thursday’s speedwork was challenging: I had 3 x 1600meters at 7:33 per mile, with 800 meter jogs in between, but I managed to get it all done in spite of some pretty bad humidity. In retrospect, the biggest challenge was getting myself clean afterwards after having forgotten to bring a towel…or finding a place to stash my things after forgetting to bring a padlock for a locker. On the one hand, I felt stupid for thinking I could get by without these essential items, but then I remembered that I always lived around the corner from the track and never needed to bring these things before. It was just a force of habit, I suppose.

And by “biggest challenge” I naturally mean “second-biggest challenge”. My biggest challenge was suppressing the urge to vomit after my tenth lap of near-sprinting. I found it fascinating that my time per lap (400m) was the exact same time the women were running 800m during the Olympics. I think that makes me half as fast as an Olympic athlete, which is completely mind-boggling. If I ever tried to DOUBLE my speed I’m pretty sure my legs would rip out of my hips and get bloody sinewy grossness all over the track. Which would be hard to clean up. So I won’t even try it.

Sunday’s run is the big story, however. My alternately discouraging/encouraging 16 mile run last week that ended up being well over 17 miles left me alternately hopeful/apprehensive about 18 miles. I decided to just the bite the damn bullet and do everything I could to make it a decent run. I bought a fuel belt for more isotonic drinks. I bought vanilla flavored goo. I didn’t drink alcohol on Saturday. AND, I woke up at 6:30 Sunday morning and ate two giant plates of salmon pasta even though I had no hunger whatsoever that early in the morning.

I hit the turf at 8AM, and had what could only be described as a moderate, comfortable run. Don’t get me wrong, I was tired by the end, but this was the most relaxed 18 miles I think I have ever had. I am not going to make any bold statements, and will re-test things next week for my first twenty miler, but I think I may have made a breakthrough in fueling myself before and during runs. I simply never hit a wall and never felt, well, pain.

Basically, as I ran along the Rhine I tried to concentrate on my form and simply break the run into three one-hour increments. I just kept telling myself to “manage this hour”, and I basically did. I had three bottles of fluids and two goo packs, and made sure I took down one of each by the hour mark. By the third hour I had enough juice left in me to speed up and I ultimately ended up with negative splits: The first 9.1 miles took about 1:28, and the second took about 1:25. My total time for 18.26 miles ended up being 2:53:44, which put me exactly at 9:30 per mile. This was exactly my target speed for the run, so I was very pleased.

Concentrating on my upper body form helped in two ways, I think. First, it kept my mind off my legs. Second, it kept me from getting overly sloppy, which hopefully conserved energy and helped me keep going forward. I don’t know. I do know that before Sunday I had never run 18 miles without immediately afterwards thinking anything other than dreadful thoughts about adding another 8 miles to the distance. This time, I felt pretty good about everything. I think the weight training on my non-running days is paying off, although Tessa claims that my arms are heavier and now I am no longer allowed to put them around her when we sleep for fear of crushing her. Because I'm that huge. Right. ;)

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I can run a marathon tomorrow. But I feel like by focusing on “managing” the pain and breaking down the run into workable increments, I can create a system that will get me through the marathon at the end of my training plan.

Oh, and I think my giant breakfast that morning certainly helped. Next week I will eat the same, and try adding bananas.