Sunday, January 24, 2010

Three Miles of Blech

I need to go back and read some of my old blogs to figure out what has changed. Yesterday's 20 miler was another painful slog. A lot more painful than it should have been. Ever since my second 20 miler on my Long Beach Marathon training cycle, these long runs have taken a toll on me.


With the flood channels still flowing, and copious amounts of mud still around, I decided to attack my 20 miler down on the beach. I started in Newport Beach, and ran down to the mouth of Newport Harbor. No rain today! What a difference a couple days make:


I backtracked to the car for seven miles, and then continued into Huntington Beach. The damage from the storm was evident. Here's the path from three weeks ago:

Here's the path today:

They are obviously going to need to do some cleanup before this:

I need to correct my blog post from last Tuesday too. I mentioned that the photo showing the waterspout was of the Balboa Pier. My son corrected me a couple days ago, and explained to me that it was the Huntington Beach Pier, based on the unique design of the lifeguard towers out on the pier. He is correct. I checked, and there were no waterspouts today:

I had been fueling every five miles, so at mile 15 I pulled up for my last two Endurolytes and a Hammer Gel (tropical - yum!). I had been keeping things intentionally slow and easy, and was managing somewhere around a 10:55 pace up to that point. But the fun was about to begin. As I hit mile 15 or so, I started feeling really really fatigued. Especially my calves. By mile 16 fatigue had turned to pain, which shortly thereafter turned to cramping. I ended up shuffling the last three or four miles back to my car.

The bottom line is I had a formula that worked once. I need to get back to that formula.

13 comments:

  1. Stuff like that happens to me to and I never really know why. How I've eaten in the days leading up to the long run? Sometimes runs just go bad I guess.

    Hope your next 20 goes better.

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  2. Hi Glenn,
    I absolutely love your pictures! You are so lucky to be able to run on the shore line...so beautiful. I know it sucks when you know what your body can do and handle and then to have it not work as you think it should. I went through that at the end of October. Hang in there...it will get better:) Stay positive!!

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  3. Climate? I am going to start logging the humidity and barometric presure, along with temps, wind, sun and rain (yeah even in the desert I got to run in the rain/sleet stuff a few days ago). At least for me, since I am a desert rat runner (which is what I am going to change my Blog title too).

    Anyway, daily logs on fuel/diet, sleep/rest, hydration/fuel while running and know even more details on weather conditions might put a clearer focus on good runs and bad runs analysis.

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  4. Oh Glenn, I'm so sorry about that experience for you! Did you eat enough this week of the good stuff? Do you need more Endurolytes maybe? Do you eat a lot of bananas? I used to get the cramping right around that time and then I started forcing myself to eat a banana every day whether or not I liked it, for the potassium. It helped.

    And the pictures are absolutely beautiful!

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  5. I wish I had the secret. As you know, my 19 miler was pretty tough. Luckily, you still have time to figure it out (you're training for LA, right?

    Today I fueled every 4 miles or so and it seemed to help. Do you think that might help you?

    Good luck finding the key. When you find it, please share.

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  6. Your pictures are great. I wish I could carry a camera with me when I run, but it bugs me too much. I cramped in the last mile of my 18 miler this week. I need to work out a formula for fueling. I've never had one, so I'm all ears once you rediscover yours.

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  7. I wish it could be as easy as go back to running for the 'enjoyment' of it, and throw pace/time, etc out the window.

    Since you're in training, I just hope it's temporary. I think most runners suffer a funk every now and again. Chin up and keep chugging forward Glenn.

    Oh, and see you soon at TP!

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  8. Shuffling is SO not fun! Why suffer through so many long runs? Just do what you can until your marathon and then suffer and shuffle just that one day. No? ;)

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  9. I am sure you will figure out what you were doing before. personally I know that I cant eat ice cream the night before a run or race. It just makes me feel like crap! Just keep thinking positive! We are all rooting for you!!

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  10. Looks like we both had fun along the shore yesterday. I'm back to truly appreciating this place.

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  11. I hope you can figure out what's different. Are you eating the same amounts/types of food during the week?

    You posted some gorgeous pictures. The weather looks beautiful after those massive storms.

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  12. i hope you can figure it out! for me though, sometimes a long run is good and sometimes it's just ...not. hopefully there's a piece of the puzzle that was missing and once you 'replace' it things will click naturally again.

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  13. I hope you get your LR magic figured out. Doesn't sound like a fun way to spend miles 15-20. :(

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