2 Miles Last Year to 12 Miles This Year

Waking up at sunrise to run did not happen during the week. I realize with my work schedule and than my afternoon relaxing time with my family puts me to bed around mid-night and if I wake around 6:30 am I am getting 30 minutes less sleep than I need.

I still trained in the afternoon, but learning quickly that the sun bearing down on me and the heat is not my cup of tea. I really started training and racing during the "off season," which is during the cold seasons. I did run last year at this time, but was trying to reach 2 miles straight. Now, I do a easy run of 3 to 6 miles and my long run has reached 12 miles. This causes me to be out longer and for it to warm up considerably during the run.

On Tuesday of last week I went out to run 6 to 9 miles. I made it through 3 easily and felt great, but once I started the next 3 the sun and heat made me dizzy and my muscles cramped up. I had to end the training at 6 miles, which the last half was running and walking mixed.

On Wednesday I went on my hill course of 2 miles. Planned to have 2 to 4 miles. Made it to 2 and same feeling came over with a touch of sickness in my stomach. 80 plus degrees at 3 to 5 in the afternoon is too intense for me so far. I went home and did my excercise ball routine twice through with adding lunges to it. Felt great.

Yesterday, Saturday, I woke at 6:30 am and got ready to run at 9. My plan was to run 12 to 15 miles. I ran a half marathon once. My longest training run before that was 9 miles. I ran a 10k in an 1:00:00 than took a water break. I ran the next 5k in 30 minutes and ate orange Hammer Gel. The 9 miles at this point felt strong and endurance wise easy. The next 3 miles felt strong with my energy pumped back up, but my left hip, kness, and ankles started to hurt really badly. I didn't really hit the "wall" so to speak till mile 10.5 or 11 where I started running/walking. (During the half marathon race I hit the wall at mile 9ish). I still did this in about 30 minutes. I believe the gel gave me an amped up feeling where that round felt mentally like my first lap. Took off too fast at the start of it.

I know my endurance can hold out now. My mental state too. I just have to get where I am during a training run and translate it into a race day. Training I am by myself and can get into a rythem that is good for me and also sometimes get me PR's in my training runs. Once I have people around me I try to match their paces and this hurts me.

I am hoping to figure this out during a race next Saturday.