Day 1, Week 8: I embraced a universe of suck during my long run.

You know how I know fall is here? (Or autumn, for you fall aficionados)

• Leaves turn pretty pretty colors
• Temperatures go down
• I freeze to death after a post-run shower.

Right now I am currently freezing after my long run, wearing two pairs of pants, a shirt, and not one but TWO sweatshirts.  When I start dressing for a polar vortex after a 50-degree run, it's fall, ya'll.

It's also fall when I do runs in the rain.  Which suck enough, but this run...I thought last weekend was bad.

This run was worse.  Buh. 

I knew it was going to rain today, and I knew I was going to have to do a 20 mile long run in it.  I wasn't looking forward to it.

Note headlamp because DARK running later.  Bummer.

So I timed it so I would run in the late afternoon as the rain ended.  According to the weather forecast I looked at, I would run in a light rain for about an hour, tops. 

Nope.  I rain in the rain the whole freaking time.  But that wasn't the worst of it.  I also had a side stich from the first half mile (you read that right - the FIRST half mile) that just would not go away.  Well, I don't know if it was a side stitch or the fact that I did a new ab workout yesterday that hurt about an hour after doing it.  It sure felt like a side stitch when it first started, but it never ever went completely away.  By the end of the run my entire abdomen was sore and tight and was pretty much a thorn in both of my sides.  If I stopped running I felt fine, but once I started running it was like someone pulled a drawstring on all my ab muscles and then tied a knot in that string. 

And then in mile 7 my headphones died.

It was all I could do not to lift a certain finger for this picture.

By mile 12 my abdomen hurt, I had no music except what I could blast out of my phone from the inside of my neoprene holder, it was still raining...and then it got dark. I made a deal with myself at this point - make it to mile 17 and I could do the last three on the treadmill in the house where I would have crazy things like light and be dry.

I did make it to mile 17, and after getting on the treadmill to finish the last 3 miles the pain in my abs was so bad (bad is in "abs so sore I thought someone was punching me in the gut") I had to call it quits.  I figured I had sucked it up for a little over 17 miles and sometimes you just have to listen to your body, especially when it is screaming "Will you STOP ALREADY you JERK?"

The only nice thing about the run was my Brooks mesh running jacket, which was actually perfect for this run.  Since it is all mesh except for the shoulders, I could wear a t-shirt underneath and not overheat-but I had the needed arm coverings to be warm enough when I was running into the wind.

But I wasn't thinking about the positives of this run.  All I could think was, "Run YOU SUCK I freaking DARE you to COME AT ME BRO"

I don't even know what that means.  But I am freaking glad that run is over.  You know that phrase "embrace the suck?"  Yeah.  I embraced a whole universe of it today.


Today's take-aways:

• I'm still freezing to death. I may sleep in all these clothes.
• You gotta have the runs that suck to appreciate the runs that don't.  That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.
• I will greatly appreciate not having an eternal side stitch.
• So the Dick's where I get my energy gels no longer sells energy gels (!!) and I had to use Sport Beans and it's hard to actually chew and run for me at the same time.  Buh.
• Enough learnings.  Time for sleep.

Tomorrow's workouts:  Upper-body weights and hopefully my abs will have recovered.