Days 70-76

Wow - what a week it was!

Day 70 I intended to go to yoga after school but fell into a deep sleep coma and missed it!

Day 71 I did 30 mins on the bike before school. I enjoyed the change of pace from running!

Day 72 I lazed about.

Day 73 My buddy and I ran 5 ks before school.

Day 74 was a rest day. My three days of no exercise this week actually had a purpose ... I was saving my energy ready for the BIG ONE on Day 75 :)

Day 75 I did 20ks! Even as I type that I can't quite believe it. I woke up at 3.30 am and was running in the pitch black by 4.20am. It was a hot, humid morning with zero breeze. Given these yucky conditions I didn't know if I'd manage to do the 18-20ks I wanted to do. But I had my secret weapons. For the first time ever I had some "Gu" energy chomps. I popped one of those babies every 3 ks and I don't know if they worked or not, but at least I felt like they gave me an energy burst. I also had a few sips of Gatorade every 3ks or so. (Again a first for me). As I had not run that far before I was a little concerned about how my body would deal with the extreme amount of exercise and THE HEAT. Oh boy it was a hot one. I therefore decided that Gu and Gatorade were the way to go!

I felt great for the first 3 laps (10.2ks) and it was at that point that I thought I probably had this run in the bag. Lap 4 (up to 13.6ks) was the biggest mental hurdle for me and I knew if I could succesfully complete that one then I would be fine. I ran Lap 4 really well and felt great. Into Lap 5 (up to 17ks) I started to think of reaching 20ks and it went by pretty quickly. I also had a quote going through my head that Estee Lauder said ... something along the lines of "When I thought I couldn't keep going, I did not give up. My success is based on persistence, not good luck". Lap 6 (the last one) was a killer! All of a sudden my legs were so heavy and I felt like I was barely going forward. A nice man (who had also been running since 4.20am!) passed me (going the opposite way!!) and gave me some lovely words of encouragement. I thought ... just don't stop! I then walked about 1.5ks at the end and I am not joking when I say that even walking was very gruelling! I was looking at my legs willing them to keep moving!!! I wanted to walk to get all the lactic acid moving. I didn't time myself but I think the run took me over 2 and half hours ... now that is a damn long time to run for (in case you were wondering!!).

All in all I was very proud of myself, but oddly enough I did not even feel as proud of myself as after I did 17s a few weeks ago. I think I was just so exhausted at the end that I couldn't even muster up any emotion!!! I now reflect back on my 20ks with wonder and can't believe it was actually me who went that far! I am glad it's done.

I thought that would be the end of my long runs for a while (until it cools down again) but now I am feeling an odd compulsion to do another 20k run in a few weeks! We'll see :)