Sweet 16 Aftermath

The aftermath of the sweet 16 was not nearly as bad as the event itself. Thanks to my wonderful massage (kudos to you, Nancy!), I was hardly sore from the 16 mile disastrous run. The next week went just fine and I followed my training schedule perfectly.

Saturday I met my group out at Waterfall Glen to run just 12 miles. Shoot. That's nothin'! And the run proved great! I ran the first 8 miles literally without stopping. I noticed something odd, though. One of the people that I usually run with, Isaac, had decided after the disastrous 16 mile long run that he needed to adopt a run/walk strategy if he was going to make it through the long distance runs. Up until this point we had all just been, well, running. So, when we started off on our 12 mile trek, Isaac set his watch and stopped after the first 8 minutes to speed walk for a minute and a half. Well, I wasn't stopping! My heart rate wasn't even up yet and we hadn't even rounded the first mile! So I kept going....and so did the rest of our little group.

I slowed down at the first water stop to take off my shirt (luckily I was wearing a tank top underneath!) and Isaac blew past me. No biggie. But I spent the rest of the first 8 miles trying to catch up to him! He stopped for a water break at mile 8, and that is the ONLY reason I finally caught him. At this point I had run 8 miles non-stop at a pretty decent clip and had just completed the hilly part of the course. Running 8 minutes and walking 1 1/2 minutes sounded quite enticing....especially since Isaac was keeping his pace ahead of me.....so I joined in.

The last 4 miles went by very quickly, and with all of the energy I saved during my little walk-breaks I was able to run in the last portion at about an 8 minute mile. Not bad considering I just completed 12 miles. And, we finished before the rest of our group. I am now sold on the run-walk theory....especially in the aftermath of the Sweet 16. And, changing my strategy gives me the opportunity to say that the 18-miler will be different...even if everything else remains the same.