Running exhausted

And that's exactly what I did this weekend.

Hubby & I closed on a new house Thursday afternoon.  We spent that evening at the house cleaning, from around 4pm til about 9pm, took a late shower, and were in bed around 10. 

Friday, we were up early, around 5 - him off to work, me to the new house to clean - which is where I spent all day.  He joined me after he got off work, and once again, we worked til around 9pm before calling it a night, heading back to the duplex for a shower and some sleep. 

Wishful thinking - the shower went great.  The sleep... not so much.  Tossed and turned all night - a combination of soreness from all the cleaning and moving, and not being able to keep my brain from making to-do lists.

So, of course, the 5am alarm came waaaaay too early.  It was time to get up and get ready for the scheduled 18 mile run.  Despite the moving and cleaning, I knew my long run still had to happen if I was going to keep that sub-4 marathon in my sight. 

So run we did.  It was a horribly humid morning.  Tropical depression Isaac was making his way through the midwest, and although it was dry when we ran, we felt like we may as well have been running under water.  The humidity was somewhere around 85%.  Breathing was difficult, my legs were exhausted, and my lower back was killing me.  Mind over matter though - one foot in front of the other - constant forward motion.  I knew it was going to be a slow run, but I had no idea how painful it was going to be.

I completed my 17 mile run the Saturday prior in 2 hours 22 minutes, an 8:23 average pace.  I was thinking that the 18 would probably take me 2:40 to complete, considering.  Yeah, not so much.  The first loop was roughly 6.7 miles and I struggled to maintain what should have been an easy pace, just under 9's.  The second loop was the same 6.7 and I walked up the big hill at the end, finishing with an total miles average of 9:04.  The remaining 4.6 miles were the worst.  I managed to run the first 1.5 miles, though slowly, but dropped back to a slow jog/walk up the hills just-get-it-done method after that.  By the time I finished, I had a 9:30-ish average pace... waaaaaaay worse than I expected.

The worst part was how AWFUL it FELT!!  The 8:23 average for my 17 the weekend before felt 1000x better than my 9:30 average for that 18.  Oh well... I'll just chalk that one up to being exhausted, both physically and mentally.  I'm going to focus on the awesome 17 miler rather than the rough 18... trying to remind myself of the advice that I give everyone else:

You have to have the bad days to really appreciate the good ones.

(The run did have one bright side - I had awesome company for every step of the way.  I couldn't have done it without my RP's - they really kept me going.)



The rest of my weekend was pretty much a repeat of the beginning... after breakfast and an ice bath, we spent the rest of Saturday cleaning and moving.  And then repeated this again on both Sunday and Monday.

We do have something to show for all the hard work - we have spent the last 2 nights in the new house.  It's an awesome place and it is coming together nicely.  Lots more to do, but we'll get there one small step at a time.  My family (parents, sisters, grandparents, aunt/uncle/cousins) and our friends have been a HUGE help - each one helping in some aspect, be it cleaning or moving.  They have been life-savers!  Not sure we would have survived it otherwise and we owe them all so much.