Over the hump

Wednesday is referred to as hump day sometimes. My Wednesday was a double hump. As I will be traveling this weekend, there won't be time or comfortable settings for a long run so I decided to squeeze in my 38km run, the longest of this training cycle, into a weekday. I don't know if the dread and anxiety of planning a run like that on a weekday evening is worse than the pain of actually doing it but I'm glad it is all over. Night running has its advantages. It's much quieter and a bit cooler than daytime running. It also gives a whole new perspective as you see things in the dark. Even the trails seemed different. I kept imagining giants spiders weaving a web that would catch me like we often see in bad horror movies. I saw a few other runners and quite a few cyclists out there.

The first 20 kms were easy peasy. The next 5 started to get difficult. I knew my nutrition wouldn't be where it needed to be so I brought along some gels, which is very unusual for me in training. I had the first one at km 25. It gave me a boost and something to think about other than the amount of kms left. At around km 30 I started losing it. Km 33 saw me stop for a walk break. What? A walk break? Me? I started doubting myself and that is never good. I took another gel and resolved to finish the distance running. Two walk breaks later, I finally decided to not allow myself any more breaks and run for it and ran the last 2 kms without breaking. I even ran an extra 500m to make up for it. Such is the mind of the runner. In 3h45m it's 8 minutes faster than the 38km run leading up to my 3:27 marathon. I hope that means I am in good shape.

The low 70km that next week requires will seem short compared to the heavy weeks I have endured recently. Then it's all downhill for taper until the race. Woohoo!

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend. Go get that PR!