18 to life

I found "the wall" yesterday. It came up and backhanded me at mile 14, and from then on it was mostly walking with some sporadic jogging until I got home. I'm going to blame hitting the wall on poor nutrition, and I think that's a fairly safe bet. I've proven that I can stick it out, so it's not lack of will. I don't think it's lack of training because I've been steadily increasing my miles for a couple of months now. This week was only two miles longer than last weekend. No, it's got to be the food.

I think the main problem is that I still try to limit my net calories to 1500 per day, which is roughly what a man weighing 160-165 lbs would need to lose 1.5 lbs a week. That's probably a bad idea. I don't think I should be trying to lose weight (not working, btw) while training for a marathon. I'm missing out on valuable carbs and protein to keep me moving. So, new fooding strategy: if it's edible and not actively trying to get away from me I'm going to eat it. Of course, that won't really happen. I'm often too lazy to get up and grab a snack or eat even when I'm hungry, but hopefully giving myself blanket permission to eat anything I want when I want it will end up with me getting more calories. I'm going to place particular emphasis on eating the night before Longrunday. I suspect that part of the problem with the 18-miler was that the night before I ate a very light meal.

Side Note: I completed one of my 7 goals for my 37th year on Saturday. Lisa and I went to a cooking class (it was my birthday gift) and learned how to make some awesome goat cheese appetizers, fettucini with basil pesto, halibut, and espresso creme brulee. It was tons of fun, and I can't wait to do another one. Plus, I now know how to make my own pasta, which is handy. But, you can see how this light eating (I also didn't eat much before the class) might affect my performance on an 18 mile run, right?

My initial plan was to do this thing on Saturday, but we decided to have "storm of the century" rain so I put it off a day. Sunday had it's own complications though. We had the vet coming by early in the afternoon to give the cats their checkups and poke them with needles (they LOVED that part), so I had to get up early and get this thing done. At 8:00am my alarm went off. I mentally cussed it out and thought briefly about just not going, but after a few minutes feeding my internet addiction I got my lazy ass out of bed and got ready. I hit the street at 9:00 and got moving as soon as Grendel deigned to contact some satellites.

Sometime between last weekend and this weekend fall paid a visit to Seattle. Last weekend, the trees were that ubiquitous green that you don't even notice. This weekend the leaves had turned to a hundred different shades of red, orange, green and even a little brown. At one point I was looking at the ground and it looked like some painter mixed up bunches of paint then just started dabbing dots on the ground. It was really pretty. Texas didn't do fall like Washington does. In Texas the leaves were green and firmly attached to the trees on Monday and by Tuesday they were all a uniform shade of brown and lying on the ground. There was no in-between phase.

Seattle has a dog problem. It's not that there are wild packs of dogs roaming around the streets. It's not that dog-caretakers don't pick up after their pup drops a deuce (some don't but most do). No, the problem is that Seattle sometimes smells like a wet dog. It took me a while to figure that out since I don't have a doggy companion, but some dim memory from my childhood was finally awoken by the third time I said "what's that smell? Is it me?" For the record, it was not me. I took a whiff of my sweat soaked clothes before tossing them in the washing machine, and while my stuff is rank it definitely does not smell like wet dog.

Early morning is the time to run, apparently. I much prefer to do it late but I saw three or four times as many people going early than I do when I go later. There were so many that I asked one guy if there was something going on. He thought it was because we were on part of the marathon route and people were getting a little experience with it, and he didn't know of anything else going on. It turns out that there was a 5k going on at Seward Park. I got there at the end when the last runners had grabbed their goody bag and the stalls were breaking down. I took a couple of minutes for a break and filled up my water bottle before taking off again.

If there is one thing that the 18 miler taught me it is "do not stop and take a rest break." I think it's ok if you supplement some of the running time with walking time, but taking a full-on rest break makes it that much harder to get started again. Plus, the body cools down while you're resting and mine didn't want to warm back up.

At the 14th mile I hit the wall. I tried some GU, but that didn't help. I tried just powering through, but I didn't have anything to give. I thought about having Lisa come pick me up, but I wanted to finish it one way or the other. I walked. There was a little jogging interspersed, but mostly I just walked. I tried to walk fast, but I think my best pace was probably about 3 mph. I have a few complaints about various things from this point on.

- I hate that people can't see my health meter and tell that "Larry needs some food" (that's a Gauntlet reference if you didn't get it). They should know that if I have to stop and wait for them to get out of my way I might not be able start moving again.

- I have two pairs of shoes and right now both of them suck. My Asics have something on the instep that gave me a ridiculous blister last week. If I can find it I'll cut the bastard out. My Brooks are light as a feather but insole is as hard as concrete. I felt like my feet would actually be more comfortable if I wasn't weary any shoes at all!

- WTF, Seattle? What's up with all the damn hills?

- And you, the planners of the Seattle Marathon.... GRRR!! Why would you choose to make us run up Madison at the end when we're already exhausted? Do you just hate people?

In the end, a run I planned on taking no more than 3 hours (6 mph x 3 hrs = 18 miles) took me 3 hours and 45 minutes. I'm almost resigned to the marathon taking 5 hours to finish. I hate that and I hate that I'm so concerned about it. Finishing is the goal, not some arbitrary time measurement.

Next weekend is another step-back weekend. I only have to do an easy 15 miles. Then, the weekend after next will be the longest run of my training plan, 20 miles. Twenty freaking miles. I don't know how I'm supposed to handle that, conceptually.