You really can’t roll out of bed and run 3 hours

The only picture I took today during the run on the San Dieguito River trail. The depth perception is off, but the lighter rock up top is from a separate peak more in the distance. The sky really was that blue!

I love the rock formations on this trail (same one as last week) – we see the dark granite that I shared last week by the river, then the clay infused red rock and then the sandstone up at the top.

Today though, I proved to myself that you cannot sit on your ass for a week and then just run for 10+ miles and/or 3 hours. (Not that anyone didn’t already know that…hah!)

Renee had to run for 3:45 – I planned on hanging with her for 2 hours on the run out and then to turn back. Since we first start out going west for a 3.5 mile out and back and then head east, I figured it would take me another hour to jog/walk back to the car. If you are familiar with the area – I ended up running with her out to Hernandez Hideaway which was about 4.3 miles east of the cars. So we were a hair under the 8 mile mark out there. We took a porta potty and energy bean break and she continued east to loop around the shore of Lake Hodges some more. I headed back. And I lasted for about another 1.5 miles and then my left knee said “NO!” The t-band had been tightening up gradually and I would stretch it out every time we stepped aside to let a mountain biking group go by and again pretty extensively during our snack break, but it was done.

So then I started a slow, sad looking jog that I would maintain while footing was solid. As soon as the trail would get rocky, I would walk. I kept up this alternating jog/walk routing until I reached the damn. That’s when I found out that the worst thing for a tight t-band is a DOWN hill trail. Oh my GAWD did it hurt!! Walking, running, hobbling…didn’t matter. For the last 3 miles of the trail I considered it a bird hike 🙂 I treasured level ground and even the uphills. And I utterly cursed those down hills – and there are a lot!

I laughed at the end because it showed I covered 12.16 miles at a 16:21 min avg mile pace. When I parted ways from Renee at the 8 mile mark, we’d been maintaining a shade over 13 min mile pace. I took those last four miles SLOW!

What’s my lesson? If you had no time to do a damn thing all week, don’t think you can run for that long! With daylight lasting longer, I really should be able to do a Wed or Thurs run after work and I really need to if I want to keep exploring these awesome trails.

This is what I get for a) writing again nearly every night (sold 7 posts this week!) b) catching up on cleaning my house c) spending all day Saturday weeding the front and back yards (still need to do the side and the hill) and d) laying on the sofa watching tv or reading (horrors!)

This is why I said 2013 is not my year to aim for long distance races. I know I don’t have consistent time to train. And that’s OK! Now I just have remind myself that long distance fun runs need to have some limitations as well!