Sunday, September 18th 2011
Over the past couple of weeks, I have received a lot of positive support from people I have never met.
I appreciate all the interest and support .
But at the end of the day…
I’m just a normal guy trying to make something cool happen.
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Run: 4:41
transition: 90 minutes
Bike: about 60 minutes on my turbo
Comments:
For the rest of my life, I will never ever forget today.
I woke up at 3:30 to the sound of pouring rain.
Unfortunately, I didn’t go back to sleep so I know that the rain didn’t stop …. when I left at 10am to go to Mario’s for my scheduled 4 hour run.
Running in the rain is not a pleasant experience, but running in freezing rain, with strong VERY cold wind blowing from all directions is even less pleasant.
Today was my 7th consecutive day and the end to my 40 hour training week.
On my schedule, I had “an easy 4 hour run” followed by “a 60 minute recovery bike.”
I had a good week of training, esp. the last few days, so I somewhat looked forward to my long “easy” run.
I slept poorly – once again, I think I slept maximum 3 hours – but I woke up so early, that I was able to work for 5 – 6 hours before I had to go for my run.
(Sunday is the first day of the week for Dubai)
Anyways..
I was very tired, and felt like crap by the time I got to Mario’s house.
This “feeling like crap” was surely caused by sleep deprivation, but unquestionably, exacerbated by the terrible, cold-rainy weather…
As we both shivered in his garage, Mario explained that I would do 2 x a run route in the shape of a large figure 8.
I was happy to run a new route that I didn’t know because I figured the time would go by much quicker.
Immediately, as we started our run … the cold rain drenched me and within a minute, I was completely soaked, and very cold.
But I got into the run, and just plugged away … and tried to focus on positive thoughts.
Mario ran very well and fast, and kept turning around and running back to me, so he wouldnt get too far ahead.
He was only going to run for 2 hours and I had to run 4 hours, so I justified his much faster speed than mine by the fact I had to run twice as long.
…After what I was certain to be about 2.5 hours, our loop led us on the steep path back towards Mario’s house.
I was certain we had run more than 2.5 hours and just assumed Mario must have lengthened the pre-scheduled 2 hour route because he felt good.
But he ran past his house, down towards another direction from the loop we had run. Obviously, not stopping … so I looked at my watch to see how long we had run.
1 hour and 13 minutes!!!
At first, I thought my watch was incorrect, or had stopped, but I quickly saw the stop watch was still moving.
It was extremely cold, and non stop pouring rain.
I felt like absolute shit.
AND!! I still had at least 2 hours and 45 minutes left to go until I would be finished.
I assume most readers of this blog have seen the movie “Aliens?”
Remember when the space ship is destroyed leaving a handful of humans stranded on a planet infested with Aliens which seemed un-killable?
When one of the character’s discovers that the rescue ship wouldn’t arrive to rescue them for at least “24 days” he starts moaning:
…”24 days!!! we’re not going to last 24 hours…
game over man…. Game over…”
That’s exactly how I felt: “2 hours and 45 minutes left on this miserable run???
I’m not gonna last 45 minutes….game over man..game over…”
Because I had slept about 3 hours … I kept telling myself how tired I was…
mentally, I was being a total pussy.
And…
Mario kept running and running and running….
Time crawled by.
I was cold, dead tired, and just barely running.
It was really “Game over.”
At the 2 hour mark, I stopped and walked about 50 meters only to discover that I couldn’t walk because it was too cold to walk – and if I did walk, it would take me forever to get back to Mario’s house so I started to run again…
Mario ran back to me and told me not to worry about my speed … just make sure I didn’t walk.
I sort of jostled along, in the form of what I expect looked like a very old man running….
At the 2:50 mark … nearing the end of lap one, Mario ran back towards me to tell me that he would run ahead to his house, prepare my drink and get me a change of clothes ready for my 2nd lap – he said he didn’t want me to stop at his house for more than 30 seconds.
I said, “ok..” but I secretly thought to myself that there was no way I would run another lap. For me, today was “game over.”
Since I have trained with Mario, I have never stopped in the middle of a workout before, he even commented about how this impressed him.
But today, I was too tired and cold to care about my perfect streak.
I must have spent the last 30 minutes of the first 3 hours thinking about stopping…
But as I ran up the steep path leading to Mario’s garage (on the way to begin the 2nd lap) I thought of this training blog, and realized that the sleep deprivation; the pain and discomfort that I was feeling today is similar to what I will feel during naseba7.
Something clicked in my head.
I quickly changed from my wet shirt and jacket into something dry.
I ate a warm chocolate chip muffin, punched fists with Mario and then ran off towards the beginning of the 2nd lap.
… the last lap was fucking miserable – absolutely miserable.
At the 4 hours and 7 minute mark, a woman ran towards me on the path I was running down….it was Sabine, Mario’s wife.
Sabine is a great friend, and one of the nicest people I know – she always takes great care of me – she is very sweet, and/but likes to talk.
She told me that she was going to run with me all the way home.
….and immediately, she began to energetically, “talk…talk…talk…talk”
She explained that she had been running for 35 minutes and was excited about running in the rain…
By now, I had been running for 4 hours and 10 minutes in freezing, cold rain.
I felt like absolute shit, and now I have a Austrian woman friend of mine who is talking nonstop running next to me…
I was too tired to feel guilty for being selfish:
“I’m sorry Sabine … you are a great lady, but the last thing I want to do right now is talk.
Even if Jesus Christ himself ran up to me right now, I wouldn’t even want to talk him.
I just want to be alone, and finish this miserable run all by myself.”
She said she completely understood … we punched fists and she ran off.
After 4 hours and 41 minutes… I finished.
Not only did I have to ride my bike, as per my schedule, but the bike is great warm down for my super stiff, and sore legs, so I actually “wanted” to ride my bike.
Today was another great experience learning how “mental” everything can be.
I came very close to “quitting” in the middle of today’s training … because I didn’t feel well.
However, I didn’t feel well because I kept telling myself over and over that I didnt feel well…
Mentally, I was a total pussy.
The 2nd lap was cold and miserable, but I was mentally stronger … therefore, it didn’t seem to be as bad as the first lap.
When in fact the 2nd lap took me nearly 25 minutes longer than the 1st lap did.
Next time you are about to stop something in the middle of it; about to stop something because you are in pain, or you are tired, or you just don’t feel well .. think about how good you will feel when you do finish.
and then just keep pluggin away….