Monday, September 30, 2013

Back to the Basics

My long runs are in full gear and the big day is 2 weeks away...  

Sunday morning, I headed out early.  It was a gorgeous morning, probably 56 degrees and I was ready.  I drank my SPARK and ate 3 shot blocks.  It was actually a really good run, despite some hills that I had to add in to get my miles.  Around mile 5, I ate the 3 remaining shot blocks and began the the hills.  Don't get me wrong I was tired, I stopped at a convenience store on my way back and asked if they could refill my water and I ate some Vanilla GU, this was about mile 9.  I always dread the last 3 miles of this route.  It's got long gradual hills and it just seems to take forever!  My last big hill is crossing over the interstate, on this run something odd started to happen...  My eyes got blurry, under and around my pupil.  I could still see but if I looked down it was cloudy.  I kinda got nervous, but to be honest, I wasn't going very fast, I felt strong but I was worried I was going to pass out over the interstate and fall to my crashing death off the bridge to the racing cars below...  A little dramatic, YES.  But I did think that!  Instead, I began to pray.  Prayer is my thing, if you haven't tried it, you should and if you don't want to, that's cool!  Just keep reading anyways...
I always pray before my runs for safety, endurance, strength and protection, I may cover things more than once, but it makes me feel better!  When I get really tired, I pray for a push, etc.  At this moment, I prayed for healing and for God to take control of my body and get me through whatever it was that was causing me the blurriness.  He did and that's why I love my Almighty God!  
I finished out my run and got a good 12 miler in.

However my recovery was not very good!  When I got home I began to stretch and I began to get a headache in my left eye.  Here's where the basics come in...  I should have come in and eat. but instead I proceeded to the shower and began to get worse and worse.  Light headed, nauseous, and a pounding headache in my eye. I laid down on my bed and just tried to rest.  After a little while, I made some oatmeal with peanut butter and only ate a couple of bites but I knew I had to eat something.  Finally it clicked, I bet my blood sugar is low.  I don't usually have a problem in this area, but I've been doing a 10 day Advocare Cleanse so my body hasn't had carbs, just fruit, veggies and lean protein.  I begged my daughter to go to the fridge and bring me a red can, of Coke.  I drank half of it and felt tons better within 15 mins.  So odd!  

After a long discussion over text messages, my running buddy clearing explained that not eating before my 12 miler and burning over a 1,000 calories, that my body was completely depleted.  She was right!  I just don't like to eat before I run, but long runs are different....  My body needed something to use to help fuel me.  Usually I do eat before an event, because they don't start until 7 or 8am and I have to travel, but just getting up and running it's hard for me to eat.  
(Her suggestion) Set alarm, eat, go back to sleep, set another alarm for run time.  

Basics people!  Sometimes they are the hardest part!

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