Saturday was a long run day, and also a rather nice day weather-wise. Greg went to Fuel and I geared up for 8 miles. This would be my first attempt at some truly long distance without any carbs.
For breakfast I had a coconut milk - peanut butter - cocoa powder smoothie that I sweetened with some stevia. It was tasty, but I was nervous putting what felt like a lot of liquid in my belly right before running. I stretched some and tried to calm Harley-dog down while waiting for my own stomach to settle.
The plan was to leave Harley outside since it was so nice. No stressful kitchen. However, I didn't get out of the house without her seeing me, and she didn't like that. So I nervously ran around the neighborhood for a couple of miles listening to her bark. It was sad. I was determined to not stop and let this derail my run. But I wondered about how stressed she was, or how much she was annoying neighbors. I decided she'd calm down, and even though I didn't hear it for sure, I ran away from the barking, planning to re-evaluate the situation after a few more miles.
So my planned route changed. I just headed down Montgomery road, not knowing where I'd go. Just plodding along, thinking about Harley. I wondered if it was stressing me out, making me tense on a run I was already nervous about. However, I think it was a different stress and one which over-powered my running nerves...which may have ended up being a good thing.
I thought about turning into the neighborhood behind Dunkin' Donuts but then decided I just kind of wanted to run away from the problem. People could deal with her barking. We never leave her out barking, but I wanted to get my damn run in. She may not have even been barking the whole time. From my experience working from home, the rational side of me agreed she most likely had calmed down by now.
So I got to 4 miles and turned around. This was easy, I'd just do the same little steps through my neighborhood on the way back and all would be good. After turning around, I suddenly panicked about Harley: maybe she really freaked out and started digging under the fence. I haven't looked back behind the wood pile recently – what if there is a big hole started back there? What if she started chewing the deck? I was a mess.
There was nothing to do except move on. I tried to remain smooth and keep my posture in check. As soon as I got into my neighborhood, it was getting hard. There was about a mile to go. I also turned my ears to listen for barking. Instead of retracing my steps, I just decided to go directly past the house to see if there was a hole under the fence or what. As I got closer, silence. And no hole. Sigh. I freaked myself out for nothing, of course. After that relief washed over me, it's like everything else shut down. My pace had been slowing, but now everything felt really really hard. I just decided to not worry about it. This last mile was going to be my "cool down." I plodded along into the next neighborhood, turned around at a random house, then plodded back...to the sounds of a barking Harley. Hold on, girl, I'm almost there.
I hit 8 and then was pretty thankful to walk. I got to the house and let in Harley, who ran around the living room some. I also think Dex was stressed. I left him inside (he's a delicate flower who probably would have been shaking outside) but I think he knew Harley was stressed. It's funny how much he reacts to her stress.
So... not sure I can manage Saturday morning runs with Greg gone in the future. Not with Harley the way she is right now and the weather not being super nice where she spends more time outside. Maybe it's a schedule shift. Maybe I just play it by ear. I don't know.
Other than that, the run was good. I felt pretty steady and strong for most of the time, holding my pace back so it would be as even as possible by the end when I'd get tired.
Splits:
10:43, 10:40, 10:56, 10:41, 10:39, 11:00, 11:11, 11:11.
Breathing was good. I only drank a couple sips of water on the run. Recovery was pretty good. Had a chicken breast with provolone, avocado, bacon and lettuce with a side salad (dressing on the side). Then played games all afternoon, snacking on cheese and salami. Had the top of a piece of pizza for dinner, and an amber ale.
Today, I'm only slightly sore and my knees don't hurt at all which is awesome. Could be the new shoes? Could be the benefits of a low carb high fat diet which seems to have anti-inflammatory properties?
Looks like Casey did his 8 today. He did awesome at a 10:15 pace on a very hill route!! I'm super happy for him and inspired. I'm glad he did so well. I wish I could catch him!
So, so far so good. That was a lot of "so's". I'm inspired and encouraged by my first run with such a drastic change in my eating. I'm looking forward to figuring more out as more miles happen, getting stronger, and hopefully improving!
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