If you haven't figured out by now, my run was a little bit of a killer. I had everything going against me - I didn't run this week (bad mistake #1), I didn't hydrate before the run (really, really bad mistake #2), and in the 11-12 minute mile group, we started out and hit those Austin hills with a 9:30 pace WITH walk breaks...that means we were running around a 8:30 to 8:40 mile (really, really, really bad mistake #3 and stupid mistake #1). Then there was the heat and humidity factor. Remember me talking about fall a few posts back? Yeah, fall is gone. It's dead. It was replaced by 83° heat at 7:00 in the morning. Oh, and this blanket - yes you read right - blanket of humidity. I was drenched in sweat by the end of my run - soaking wet from head to toe.
Lessons learned? You betcha. First of all, I will never, ever again in the 20-something weeks left of this program and in the rest of my life leave my house to run without drinking at least a glass of water. That put me in such a bad position! I downed all the water in my hydration belt (21 oz.) in the first 3 miles. When we had a water stop, I had to refill my bottles and then I downed all that in the next 3 miles. And then after the run, I had at least 3 Ozarka bottles of water, plus some when I got home...and I'm STILL thirsty. Bad, bad bad.
Lesson number two. Never again will I be "too tired" to run during the week. Thirty minutes is all that is required of me, not a lifetime! I think I can squeeze in thirty minutes to keep my endurance up.
Lesson number three. If my pace group is being competitive and thinking that we need to keep up with the 4:1 group (four minutes running, one minute walking; I'm in the 3 :1 group), then I will fall back into the slow 3:1 group. Because there is nothing more horrible than having a quarter of a mile left to go and feeling like every muscle in your body is glued to the ground with some super sticky super-glue.
7 miles next week on the "scenic" route...which I have a sneaking suspicion means more hills ;)
Here's to Austin!
