Sunday Runs

I love my long runs, being outside watching the world change week to week, feeling my body change, pushed to limit its never been, listening to the sounds of people talking, cars going by, the sounds of the park and the neighborhoods and getting to know my running group better. I love my long runs... but I miss my Sundays at church. I've been listening to the sermons online (you know when my computer has been working) but my new adventure is to see if I can download them onto my ipod so I can listen to them while I run. I do a lot of soul searching and praying on my runs. I spend a lot of time counting my blessings and working things through in my head especially on the runs where I'm by myself. I just miss that congregation of God's Love I get from going to Church. This week I run a Half Mary in Sac. There will be no time to go to Church even if I fly home. I hope that I can sneak my ipod (I know bad bad bad) and listen to the last few weeks sermons if I can figure it out.

OMG, I ran 16 miles, my longest ever so far last Sunday. I can't believe I forgot my Superfeet Insoles, no wonder my feet have hurt ALL week. We went to Upper Park along the fire road but there are so many rocks that my ankle kept turning. I'm glad I ran with Vicki so we could take the levy together and cut 2 miles off the bumpy part of the route. Of course we missed out on 1 mile of up hill and one mile of down hills that we got flack for from one of the coaches. I felt pretty good, you know tired but that's OK. I consumed about 50oz of water, one lemon lime GU packet and 1 bag of Luna moons on that run. I don't think I consumed enough food throughout the day though. By Tuesday I still didn't feel like me. During that run I did great the first two sets of 10 minute runs at threshold then lost it during the third. I got dizzy and nauseated to the point I was afraid I was going to throw up on the football players in the middle of the field. Not that they aren't used to it I mean they do go to Chico State! Puking is a requirement practically but that's usually at the parties not the middle of the football field you know. I noticed even when I stopped my heart rate stayed high... too high for too long. Although I thought I was staying hydrated I'm afraid I might have just had some residual dehydration for that long run. I need to be more aware of what I'm drinking too because I think my electrolytes were off too. Usually I'm caked in salt after a hard run, but not Tuesday night. So I drank a G2 I got from Safeway and had another 16oz of Gatorade in the morning and I've felt so much better since then. Still tired but better.

Sunday I'm running a half mary in Sac by myself. I don't know anyone who's going to run it so this will be a fun solo run for me. Problem is I don't know how I want to run it. Do I do marathon pace through out so I know how it feels or do I push it and try for 9:30's or better for my miles? Should I start at marathon pace and ease into a faster pace working on negative splits? I don't know! I guess it depends on how I feel when I get there hu?

Got a 3 mile run lined up for today and 3 miles for tomorrow that should put me in at 32 miles or so this week. I hope that's enough. Am I running enough? I don't want to be too tired on Sunday. I wish I had someone to just tell me what I should be and shouldn't be doing. That and I need somebody to make my food and feed it to me too. Ahhh the dreams you have of hitting the lottery. Shouldn't I be dreaming of mansions and fast cars? No I dream of someone telling me how to run and eat... oh and someone washing my hair and making it cute everyday. That sounds like heaven to me. I'm going to try to download those sermons now that we're back to Heaven again. lol