To be honest, I never thought I’d make it 18 miles. The way my hip felt on Tuesday after 4.5 miles, I was really starting to think that I might not get to the starting line at WDW. I had a chiropractic adjustment yesterday and some electro-stimulation to my right gluteal region. Still, something felt a little wrong deep in my hip. I went to a party on Friday night and had nothing but water to drink, but I was out late, so I held off my run until twilight. I left the house at about 5:30 PM not really knowing what to expect, but thinking I might not be out for long.
I wanted to run, though. Deep down, I knew that I’ve come a long way since I started this training program. I focused on a mantra – 18 pain free. I walked a mile as warmup. I had no pace goals and no real plan for the run. It was kind of a “screw it, let’s see what you can do” type of thing. So, after my warmup I started running.
I started out at about an 8:30 pace. Usually, I would think that was way too fast, but I was far to worried about my hip to think about my pace. I was just letting my body do what it wanted to. I drank too much water just beforehand, so at around 2.25 miles, I stopped for a pee….the first time I’ve had to do that in a training run and another lesson learned. I then ran to my usual drinking fountain and stopped for another walk break.
My hip felt great….my whole body felt great. I was taking longer walk breaks, but my pace while running was between 8:15 and 8:30 per mile, so I was making up for that. When I reached 6 miles, a consumed a Clif shot and drank some more water. My hip was still feeling great and at that point I knew I had 18 miles inside of me. I continued running between 8:15 and 8:30 minutes per mile, stopping for a walk break whenever I encountered a water fountain.
I began to feel sore between miles 13 and 14. Everything seemed to tighten up a bit, but there was no serious discomfort. My walk breaks became a little more frequent, but I manged to run my way to the 18 mile mark and finished in 3:08:52. Not great, but given the circumstances, I was overjoyed.
Planned workout
1 mile warmup
18 miles at whatever pace
1 mile cool down
Actual workout
1 mile warmup
18 miles at 10:29 pace
1 mile cool down
Great job. I know you are worried about your hip, but you should be tapering soon so that will help it get ready for the race. Look in to some local yoga classes to extend your flexability in the place of one of your shorter runs. Or maybe pick up a yoga tape.