Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know when you read this post you will be thinking "seriously? you consider that failure?" but remember I'm a meathead. That's the reason I'm running this 100 miler because why shouldn't I be able to run 100 miles? I don't particularly enjoy running. I haven't experienced that "runners high" yet... I am waiting for it, but have not experienced it yet. Instead, I am sticking to my mileage plan, planning my week around the amount of time I have to run, and ultimately running this 100 miler because I would be upset if I was not able to run a 100 miler. I understand it is a physical feat that will push me to my physical and psychological limits over and over again. I will have to sacrifice a lot in order to fully train for this race. AND, no matter how much I train, nothing will fully prepare me for the actual race. BUT, in my head, I just don't see why I should fail at this. Why can't I run a 100 mile race?
So this brings me to my first failure in my training so far. At Gustavus, the coaching staff plays different sports at noontime. In the winter when the ice hockey rink is in we play noon-puck; there is noon-hoops; and when the indoor turf is put in (in replace of the hockey rink) or when it's nice enough outside, we play noon-time boomtime which is soccer. We have dubbed it boomtime because when people who don't know how to play soccer play the sport they "boom" the ball. We have played twice so far this spring, once last week and the second time was this past Tuesday. I haven't played soccer in a while, thus, I knew I would be sore. If you're not used to shooting a ball then your groins and hip flexors are overused and become tight. To be honest, I shot the ball way more than I needed to, which meant my right hip flexor was feeling it going into my long run for the week.
Usually, my long runs are on the weekend. However, this past weekend I was recruiting and coaching in Vegas and quite frankly was not going to have sufficient time to run 21 miles. So, we altered my training program so I would be running 21 miles on Tuesday. After boomtime. My mileage leading up to it was minimal... Thursday I ran 7.5 miles, Friday was a day off, Saturday was a day off, Sunday I ran 4 miles, and Monday I ran 4 miles. Then I boomed at noon on Tuesday and at 4:00pm I set off for my longest run yet of 21 miles. But I didn't make it 21 miles. In reality, I only made it 19 miles.
Two miles in my right hip flexor/groin was hurting. 10 miles in when I met up with Hubey to run I was in a good amount of pain. 13 miles in I was performing the superman stretch on the side Old Minnesota (the main street through St. Peter). 16 miles in I thought we only had a mile to go. 17 miles in I found out we had two more miles to go and hit my first "wall" in running, which I'm very happy only lasted about 1 minute before I came around again. 18 miles in my coach said "I'm happy this is happening to you, you need to experience some adversity while running." 19 miles in we finished and I was barely able to complete a lap walking around the track I was in so much pain.
At the end of the day, my coach told me it was not a failure. I completed my single long run for the week and even though I was two miles short, it's more important to take care of myself and avoid injury than to get so caught up on numbers. Another runner friend tried to put it in perspective and stated "when you are running your 100 mile race, you won't be thinking, 'if only I had been able to run 2 more miles on Tuesday, March 25th, this would be so much easier.'" But in my mind, I was suppose to run 21 miles and I was unable to do so. Failure. Failure and I are not friends, which meant I moped for an entire evening. I'm slowing getting over it, but most likely it will be my motivation going into my next long run. On the bright side, minus my hip flexor, I wasn't sore the next day, so I guess that's a small victory.
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