Fuelling the Long Run

This morning I had one objective – to complete a long run.  I was aiming for eight miles and wanted to set myself up for success.  I know from my last long run that without fuel and water I start to flag and lose energy, so today I decided to try and fuel my run.  Whilst at the supermarket yesterday I picked up a bottle of Lucozade Sport to see if it would help.  The run itself went reasonably well.  It was pretty much plain sailing for the first six miles.  I went up some hills, down some hills and generally trudged along.  I sipped the Lucozade every couple of miles to give me a boost.  Things were going so well that at mile six I decided to commit to completing ten miles instead of eight, but then things started to get difficult.  Out of nowhere my legs seemed to get really tired and I could also feel a cramp starting to develop in my right side.  This didn’t bode well for the remaining four miles.  However, I did not want to stop and was really determined to complete the distance.

I decided to just carry on and if things got really bad I would stop.  It seemed like a reasonable plan to me.  I carried on for the next two miles and everything was fine.  My legs were flagging but the cramp never fully developed so there was no reason not to carry on.

At mile eight I was pretty much spent.  I really wanted to stop but was motivated to continue for the next two miles so that I could be a double digit runner.  Those last two miles were hard.  I was pretty much checking my Garmin every half mile or so to see how much distance was still left to cover.  I repeated several mantra’s over and over – ‘pain is temporary, pride is forever’, ‘difficult is worth doing’ and ‘running is a mental sport [and I am insane!]’. 

Once I hit mile nine I knew I was going to be able to go the distance, but that last mile felt like it lasted forever.  I also felt like I might throw up but I was so close to finishing that I couldn’t stop now.  I persevered, carried on and slowly but surely saw the distance increase on my Garmin – 9.5 miles, 9.6 miles, 9.8 miles.  Then before I knew it I was done and had completed ten glorious miles.  I ran double digits and couldn’t be prouder.  This is something that I never thought I could do in a million years but I did it.

My mileage stats:

Mile 1: 09:36

Mile 2: 09:22

Mile 3: 09:33

Mile 4: 09:35

Mile 5: 09:45

Mile 6: 09:31

Mile 7: 09:44

Mile 8: 09:27

Mile 9: 09:35

Mile 10: 09:20

Total distance: 10 miles.

Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes and 36 seconds.

As well as fuelling during the run, I also made an effort to refuel afterwards.  I have heard that chocolate milk provides a great ratio of carbohydrates and protein to aid recovery so that’s what I went with.  It hit the spot and was so cool and refreshing, which was definitely welcome after a hot and sweaty run.

This was such a difficult run but I am glad that I didn’t give up when the going started to get tough.  I figured that it is the difficult runs that actually make me a stronger runner and if I gave up every time things got tough I would never achieve anything.  Running isn’t supposed to be easy and that is kind of why I like it – I like to do something that challenges me and to achieve goals that I set for myself.  Today, I exceeded my expectations of what I could do and I am pleased that I pushed through the pain.  I proved to myself that anything really is possible.