Fifty at Fifty

Yesterday was another ten miles, right on the heels of Saturday’s 22-miler to yield my first week of logging fifty miles.  I’ve come quite a ways on this crazy trip and it was cool to think I was reaching these new heights.  Surprisingly, the ten miler came off very well --- feared I would be stiff from the long haul on Saturday but I guess the difference is running at a relaxed pace (could barely walk down steps for two days after the marathon!).

Of course this deal has involved constantly pushing outward and my exultation at completing fifty miles in one week is tempered by the realization that in just two months I need to span that distance in a single day (actually, half a day).  Well, thus far I have managed to achieve goals I could have easily dismissed as impossible by approaching their conquest a step at a time, so I’ll keep the faith.  But once again, the goal seems terribly distant at this early stage…

The rewarding thing about yesterday’s run was finally making it all the way to Kure Beach (the town just below Carolina Beach), which I had originally targeted for the twenty mile training run in preparation for the marathon.  The bad news is that it was a warm day and I packed along insufficient water supplies.  I was going to take the hydro-pack my stepson got me for Christmas on its initial test run, but it didn’t come with instructions and started sucking up time to get ready --- unfortunately I still get tense before these long runs (due to concerns over diabetes) and decided to punt because I wanted to get out before temperatures started soaring.  A bit foolish, but no serious repercussions.

The shortfall in hydration actually provided a couple good experiences.  I had drained both water bottles in my belt by mile eighteen and found it difficult to swallow the Clif Bar I was eating on the run to keep my blood sugar on track.  So for the first time ever during a training run I stopped.  Wow.

Pulled off at a convenience store at mile twenty to buy a bottle of water, finally breaking the twenty dollar bill I had tucked in my belt five months ago!  This was positive because I knew I needed to do this and convince myself it isn’t a tragedy to pause à suspect I will be doing that several times during the fifty miler, lol.

If you read my earlier posting about “Toe Painting”, the other benefit was understanding my Sports Watch a bit better.  I’ve been thinking about how to draw pictures by running and thought I could leave spaces by pausing my watch, but stand corrected.  When I got back and downloaded the run I noticed that even though I re-started my watch a bit further down the road (intentionally to see how it would appear), it connected the points with a straight line.  So darn, toe painting will be limited to a solid line, but it is better knowing that up front.

Beyond feeling really good throughout today’s run, another fun aspect was feeling like ten miles wasn’t a ‘long run’ any more.  Sheesh, I’ve come a long way, baby…

Better yet is growing confidence in effectively managing blood sugar levels during these runs.  I’ve been doing a good job, but today was more relaxed and almost second nature.  Let’s hope I can carry that feeling over to the twenty milers now.

And lest I forget, managing my diabetes will be impacted by the additional miles I’m plodding now.  Fortunately today was the first of the month, so I attempted to embed the need to ensure I accommodate nighttime concerns with the latest “Take Care of Yourself First” notecard:

The May edition of my monthly “Take Care of Yourself First” card – trying to be proactive about avoiding blood sugar dropping overnight!

My bedtime snacks are a bit more caloric than when I was a youngster (i.e., less than 50!), but you can bet I will edge them up again until I’m assured these long runs don’t send things into a tailspin overnight.  The training schedule increases to an average of 48 miles per week (from 28 miles per week for the marathon), so forewarned is forearmed.