painful 15K

This one hurt. No two ways about it.

The temperature was cold for this time of year (30F, -1C) and it had snowed a few inches, but the roads were clear with small slush puddles. Good! I would be able to walk outside this morning! It was beautiful with the snow on the trees, and I took my camera to take a few shots for this post. All the photos were taken in Liberty Park; sorry for the blurry ones - I had my small camera, and frankly, I wasn't feeling well and didn't concentrate on getting good photos.

My legs were still feeling pretty sore from the last week's intense workouts, but I figured I was up for 15K, and I think I would have been except for the GI problems that I had. I have to get back to watching the amount of fiber I eat the day before longer walks. I already watch my dairy amounts, but the fiber is critical too I think. I ate a big salad at lunch yesterday and a nice bowl of strawberries & mangoes. Then what I believe was my fatal mistake: I had a bag of popcorn as an evening snack while reading Harry Potter to Calvin. I will NOT do that again.

I got dressed to walk, and opted for tights and fleece on the bottom and a long-sleeved shirt and fleece on the top, with gloves and a headband. That was too much. I was overdressed and I should have known better. I got walking, and about 2K I had to tie my shoes (I love the NB 205s but the laces SUCK and are always always coming untied! Note to self: must double knot before EVERY walk grrrrrr!), and then at 3K I was way too hot and had to take off my fleece. That's a bit of a project, as I wear a reflective vest over the top which has to be undone, and I have to take off my gloves and pepper spray (it has an elastic band so you just wear it over your hand) to undo the vest and then unzip the fleece and tie it around my waist. It was worth it though, as I immediately felt better and was able to crank out some nice kms.

Other than my legs being way more tired than usual, kilometers 1-10 were mostly uneventful. I got to 5K in 31:47, and to 10K in 1:04:17 (2nd 5K was right at 6:30 pace, at 32:30). By 10K though, my legs were most unhappy. I feel sure that if it weren't for the GI problems which started about then, that I still would have been able to finish at about 6:27 or 6:28/km pace. However, that was not to be. I got some nasty cramping around 10.5km and it really slowed me down. Thankfully, I had wondered if this might happen and decided to stay around Liberty Park (and near the restrooms!) for the last part of my walk. I was so relieved to stop for the restroom at 11.6k. I'll spare you the details. I wondered how I would manage to finish, as I felt just lousy. But I got out and kept walking, though I wasn't able to push much at all, and my HR was lower for the rest of the walk. I felt weak and wobbly and just wanted to be done. About 13K, I was leaving Liberty Park to head home when it started to snow lightly. I still felt rotten and was pulling off lousy times (last 500m splits were 3:20, 3:26, 3:23, 3:24, and a horrible 3:42), and the snow got harder and harder, mirroring the ugliness of the walk. By the time I had only 500m to go, it was snowing very, very hard (it actually was very beautiful this morning with the snow on the trees, but I didn't care much because it all hurt so much!). Yeah, my last 5K was a very slow 33:45 for a total of 1:38:02 for the 15K, a 6:32/km pace with ave HR of 150. Actually, if the last 5K had been even 33:00 that would have been OK...and except for the GI issues, it probably would have been. Oh well.

I was very relieved to reach home (and the bathroom!). I'm proud that I finished. It was ugly, but I really don't care. The thing that matters is that I got out there and did it.

Garmin connect data here.