I forgot my Nike+ Sensor, I finished the 10 miler at more than a 15 minute mile pace was still weighing heavily on my mind, and I was starting to feel sick Sat. morning. So I had a few obstacles to overcome even before I started running.
I believe my biggest problem was that I set an early pace that was just too aggressive, so I wanted to make sure that I controlled my pace early on 13 to 13.5 minute miles that was my goal. I came up with a scheme of walking .5 miles and then running the other half to loosen up the muscles and guard against going out too fast, but I felt so good at the two mile mark and I realized that my pace was a little more that 13.5 so I figured why not continue this mode of operandi since I had such a long way to travel. As MacKnitty commented I saw them around their 7 mile mark and I was at a little more than 4 I think, and I was feeling good. By the time I reached the 12 mile mark, my feet were hurting, like the blood wanted to burst out of the skin, but I was otherwise in a good physical state. The half and half technique was paying dividends. That was until I reached Oracle which was the 15 mile mark. On the turn, I felt a twinge of a cramp in my left calf muscle as I started the running portion of my mile. But I immediately stopped, strectched and massaged the offending appendage, and it seemed to have resolved the issue. But about a half a mile later it twinged again and I stopped running. But it didn't go away, in fact the front of my leg started cramping which really worried me seeing as I had no idea of how to stretch the muscles in the front of your leg. But I eased up my walking pace and hoped that I could trudge through. At about the 16.5 mile mark I felt good again so I thought to try and run .25 mile, but as I started my hamstring started to cramp. It was at this point I felt in danger of not being able to complete the run. Yet I continued to gut it out. At 17.5 my calf was hurting at every step, my hamstring was sore and to top it off, my thigh started to cramp as well. The frustrating part was that even though my left leg was packing it in, I wasn't tired. So, with the strength of my right leg, I managed to drag the weak one in and still had an average time of 13 minutes 45 seconds per mile.
The next morning, my calf, groin, hamsting, and thigh muscles were all sore almost unbearably. After I got up and stretched, my calf was the only thing that continued to give me static. Otherwise I felt good and full of energy, so much so, that I went and did a little weight lifting that afternoon.
I lost almost 7lbs during the run and I think I lost a lot of water which is what led to the cramping. It wasn't that hot but the heat and dryness probably is what contributed to my cramping just as it caused dehydration in MacKnitty.
I to am looking forward to my run this evening, even after the pain I endured this weekend. So it seems as if I'll have to request that rubber room next to MacKnitty so friends and family can get a two fer when they come to visit.
