So this morning, I finally got out of the house (after nursing my feet post-city chase) for my long run, 14k. Finally the heat has passed, and the humidity has dropped off in the Ottawa region. I got up, had breakfast, and got my butt out the door for 8am.
The weather was perfect, it enhanced the run instead of dragging me down. I felt lighter and quicker than I have in quite some time. However, soon after the 3k mark, I started realizing my first error of the day. I decided to run on Tuesday, which in my neighbourhood is garbage day. This means piles of stinky hot trash, on my sidewalk path. And although the trash in my little ghetto (yes, I call my neighbourhood a ghetto, we did have a recent shooting, so I think it's fair!) is collected much later in the day, on every road I seemed to run down, garbage trucks were out in force. At about 4k in, I actually had to turn town a road and run about 100ft behind a garbage truck which was just steaming with stink. Thankfully, in the competition between Pamela B and garbage truck over 1km, I won! But seriously, I ran behind 4 garbage trucks and a recycling truck over an hour and a half (ok, an hour and 40 minutes).
My second error was realized at about 8k in, when my brand new shorts kept riding up and I started getting the dreaded chub rub. I knew the new shorts were shorter than my usual, but I didn't think it through far enough to put some body glide on my thighs in advance. So I spent the rest of the race doing a weird shake thing to try and get the legs to stop bunching, and writhing in pain from the rub, rub, rub! OUCH! But, lesson learned. Never try new shorts/shirts/equipment on a long run!
Oh, and finally, I realized that Jelly Belly Sport Beans are not for me. Chewy, overly sweet, and gross in my stomach. So I have bought some of these:
Hopefully I will be able to work out which fuel works best for me over the next couple of weeks. I can't believe I am already half way through my training program, and 2/3 of the way to running a half marathon! And you know what? It feels GREAT. Yeah me! :D
One of the things I love about running is that you always learn something new! Glad you at least had good weather on your side
ReplyDeleteOwwwww! I learned about chafing the hard way just over a month ago, my thighs had what looked like rug burn on them and hurt for days.
ReplyDeleteFor gels I'm a fan of one called carb boom.
My runs are starting to get longer with HM training. I'm scheduled for 7 miles on Saturday. I'm going to have to start thinking about some fueling options, too.
ReplyDelete2/3 of the way to a HM...way to go! :)