Running on the last day of vacation is comparable to listening to nails being dragged across a chalkboard all day (I just got chills up my spine).

Before we headed out on our long run, Mr. B and I had to pack and be out of the house by 11am. I mean who doesn’t love to pack and do chores right before they run a half marathon. I was not in a happy place. Thank God Matt and Elizabeth were there to help us clean up. Otherwise things could have gotten ugly.

SUNDAY:
Me:12 miles. I was worried about this run. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, my legs were tired, and we started our run late, like 10am. Good thing Jesus had mercy on our souls because the weather was cool and partly cloudy. If it hadn’t been cool, I wouldn’t have run.

Matt and Elizabeth ran the first six miles with us into town. It was nice to have a change of pace and people to talk too because those six miles flew by. Once we split from Matt and Elizabeth, I took off and almost killed Mr. B because I was running 9 minute miles. Dumb idea. At mile 8 I was dying. Does that ever happen to you? Do you ever just bolt and don’t realize the consequences?

Anyways, the last four miles just sucked. It felt like we were running forever! We stopped and walked half of mile ten and eleven because there was no gas left in the tank. When my garmin read 12 miles, I swear I could have fallen over dead.


Mr.B:  12 miles. Miles 1-3 weren’t bad.  This was our third run to town from the house so the scenery was familiar (I like that, some don’t).  I have logged enough miles to know when I’ll start to loosen up so I was looking forward to mile 4, and I was right.  Miles 4-9 went by quickly for me.  We had a great pace, and other then stopping to make plans to meet up for lunch at mile 6, we didn’t waste any time.

Mile 10 wasn’t that bad, but mile 11 sucked.  I passed a honeysuckle plant on the bridge and said to Lauren “that smell just made me realize how hungry I really am.”  Apparently I need to work on getting more fuel into my system because I crashed big time.  Like Lauren said, no gas left in the tank.  All in all, we got ‘er done.

Total Miles Week Five:
Me:24 miles
Mr. B: 24 miles

REFLECTION:
Me: Take care of your body. Sleep, eating the right kinds of food, and limiting the booze intake will greatly improve your performance. Sometimes I forget that I am not eighteen years old so when I have four glasses of wine the night before a long run and think everything will be fine, yeah….it’s wishful thinking.
Mr. B:  Coming back from running on flat ground and heading straight to the hills of Steamboat may have been a bad Idea.  I have been fighting some stiffness in my soleus muscle on both legs since I got back and did a little googling.  Apparently hills can aggravate these little devils.  This muscle is where the Achilles attaches to the calf.  When he gets tight, you can damage your Achilles.  For me, the tight feeling usually goes away after a few miles, but this week it just didn’t and now I’m paying the price.  Time to give my legs a little R&R.  Not a bad excuse to get a message though.

Catching up?
– prairie fire training week one
– prairie fire training short run: week two
– prairie fire training long run: week two
– prairie fire training short run: week three
– prairie fire training long run: week three
– prairie fire training short run: week four
– prairie fire training long run: week four
– prairie fire training short run: week five