Weeks Eleven and Twelve: 16 mile run
These two weeks were very difficult training-wise. I took a long time to recover from the previous 14-mile run, and I was travelling Thursday-Monday of the following week. So I ended up doing the buddy run, but skipping my OYO run on the weekend. In addition, the travel and the jet-setting caused me to catch a cold, cough and fever. I therefore had to miss the track workout and cardio workout for the week just before the 16 mile run. In fact, until the day before the run, I had some fever and I was not sure whether I will be able to go for the run. Thankfully, on the day of the long run, I felt about 80-90% fit, and I decided to go for it.
The route was the second half of the Nike marathon- in San Francisco. It involved some gentle hills around Lake Merced, on the Great Highway, and in Golden Gate Park. It was a beautiful route, although I was in no mood to enjoy it. I was completely focussed on completing the run. I managed to do so, although I was extremely extremely exhausted after the run. In fact, I had to walk more than half of a mile between miles 14 and 15. After that, I gathered enough energy to finish up the run with a slow jog. I took more time than normal to finish this run. I was just glad that I finished without injuring myself.
The most surprising part was that although all kinds of muscles were aching a lot on Saturday and Sunday, I was back in full form on Monday. This was an unexpectedly fast recovery. On Tuesday, at track we had hill repeats, and by then I was perfectly fine, even on the hilly terrain. I am so happy to be back in action after a week of anxiety.
Moving forward, we have a relatively relaxed week, with buddy runs and on-your-own runs of 5-6 miles. The next weekend run is the toughest run of the training season- at Woodside. It is a hilly course, and we are running 18 miles. The hill repeats will definitely help in handling that run.
The route was the second half of the Nike marathon- in San Francisco. It involved some gentle hills around Lake Merced, on the Great Highway, and in Golden Gate Park. It was a beautiful route, although I was in no mood to enjoy it. I was completely focussed on completing the run. I managed to do so, although I was extremely extremely exhausted after the run. In fact, I had to walk more than half of a mile between miles 14 and 15. After that, I gathered enough energy to finish up the run with a slow jog. I took more time than normal to finish this run. I was just glad that I finished without injuring myself.
The most surprising part was that although all kinds of muscles were aching a lot on Saturday and Sunday, I was back in full form on Monday. This was an unexpectedly fast recovery. On Tuesday, at track we had hill repeats, and by then I was perfectly fine, even on the hilly terrain. I am so happy to be back in action after a week of anxiety.
Moving forward, we have a relatively relaxed week, with buddy runs and on-your-own runs of 5-6 miles. The next weekend run is the toughest run of the training season- at Woodside. It is a hilly course, and we are running 18 miles. The hill repeats will definitely help in handling that run.