RUN (and walk!) 30 miles in Greensfelder
Oh man, TV is gotta get healed. This running alone to podcasts is good for only so long...
My original plan was to run the course laid out for the recent 50K in this park, it was a two loop run that was close enough to the truck for me to change plans if needed. But I immediately changed course, changed again, thought it'd be more fun to do the 50K someday with TV on board, and ended up doing something entirely different. I've been encouraging myself to branch out and "just run". Don't watch the clock, do the math, etc. Good time for it I guess.
I ended up going north towards Rockwoods and hit the end of Greenrock at 6.2 miles. Bathroom and water refill at the visitor's center, then the 2.5 quarry loop, then off for some other Rockwoods trails. I wasn't decided on a few things, like how long I was going to spend here, when I'd head back to truck, and my in-run math was as usual pretty bad. I wandered east, found the kiln trail, looped up that rocky mostly-walk mess, came back, thought I'd found another trail, but ended up mostly-walking again before I realized that I was somehow back where I was before....Ugh... All this and just over 15 miles...
I was starting to get bored. I was up. Down. Up. Down. I'm referring to moods, not hills. The podcasts continued, they were good and varied, and I don't think I could have gone on without them!
Bathroom and water refill. Back on Greenrock at 18 miles. At 19 miles a sharp pain came on under my ribs on the right side. It stayed about 30 mins, then disappeared and I forgot about it. The miles ticked by slowly. At mile 23 I started up Overlook, up that loooooong rocky hill, around mile 24 I was on Beluah and struggling on the rough dirt tore up by horses. Around mile 25 I fell on ???. At mile 27 I decided to head back to the truck to get a bite of my egg+potato recovery just to have some mental stimulation. Jelly beans sounded really good for some reason...
By this time, I was wiped, but terribly determined. Even if I have to WALK the last TWO F^CKING MILES. So off I go, 1 mile out and 1 mile back. I picked the easiest trail I could get to and just my luck it trended downhill. Great. Uphill on the way back.
A Pro You podcast was on for this last segment, encouraging me to continue. I went, and went, and went, and OH GAWD THE GARMIN SAYS 28.5. Keep Going. FINALLY I get to turn around, by this time walking, and the podcast is doing a "take 5 deep breaths meditation" with of all things Yanni playing in the background. New songlist addition?!
I was able to run in the last half mile, again that up and down and up and down feeling helping me out. I did a parking lot loop until the Garmin beep for 30.
Felt so good to be done! No blisters, no injuries, no big physical complaints. Mostly mental. My fueling was boring -- powerbar and EFS -- so that's gotta shake up A LOT.
My back was OK the whole way, terribly tired that night but not pained.
Today was the first day of a new weekend Routine, part of my Cue-Routine-Reward re-working I'm doing. Success! And it did help!
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