My long week seems to have wrapped up with an even longer weekend … It started out on Saturday as I had a 20 miler scheduled, but somehow I found a way to hit the wall at about mile 17 or so and because of that, I ended up wrapping up the run at just 19 miles instead because I didn’t feel like pushing it was going to do me any good based on the way I felt.

It was extremely warm on Saturday and that sun was HOT, but I think I know where I may have gone wrong in my preparation .. I just don’t think I hydrated enough Friday into Saturday before I headed out for the run. I had my fuel belt on (approx 30oz of water), plus I stopped at a water fountain at mile 6 and then stopped for a 20oz water at around mile 13 .. I also took down two gels in that time, so i’m not sure I did too bad from that angle, however I was completely dehydrated by mile 17 anyway, even with all those provisions … When I weighed myself after I got back, I was almost 10 pounds under my starting weight, and that was after I had consumed another 32oz of Gatorade. It was pretty scary and I looked kind of thin…

The one major thing I did notice though that could have contributed to the issues was that when I was running east into the direct sunlight, it almost felt like I was melting, literally like my skin was dripping off me .. Thankfully the whole run wasn’t in that direction, so I had the opportunity to cool off running into the light breeze from the west. I tried to get out pretty early to beat the heat, but I didn’t get out as early I think I would have wanted to. I ended up heading out around 6:15am, instead of around 5:30 like I would have liked to however i’m not sure if that made any difference in the run.

So I was terribly disappointed yesterday, but I still got a good week of training in regardless. I’ve wrapped up the endurance mesocycle and am now heading into the endurance and speed portion which means .. DOUBLE SESSIONS! Great, running in the morning, and running in the evening, it should be fun. I’m glad that I started to ride my bike 2 nights a week to get used of working out after work, because i’m going to need it now..

Speaking of my bike, that brings me to the second part of my weekend that made it ‘long’ .. I headed out for around 18-20 miles on my bike. I picked a nice open road course heading out route 222 to Kutztown, real nice scenery and roads (so I thought). I’ve always feared getting a flat tire and being far away from home, and well, it happened today. I noticed it after I hit a railroad crossing pretty hard although i’m not sure that is what caused the flat.. the good thing is that I was only 2 miles from home.

My experience was a miserable one, its great that I had a road patching kit, but I didn’t know how to use it or how I would even know where to patch. I was able to get enough CO2 into the tire to get it home, which is when the real fun started. I learned how to take the wheel off, pull the tube off, find the hole, patch the hole and put it back together. I also realized that I have Presta tire valves (didn’t know there were two types)… The good thing is that I now know that I should carry a spare tube with me because I have NO idea how I would find a hole in a tube on the side of the road, it’d be easier to just put a new tube in it and be on my way.

I’m expecting this week to be better … i’ll be at the beach, so a change in scenery although the training doesn’t let up. I’ve switched two days around so I don’t have to try and get 15 miles in while on vacation, thats kind of tough.

Its possible that I’m going to attempt a duathlon or a triathlon next year and maybe ease up on the marathons .. i’ve got the urge to try something new, I just have to get better at cycling and swimming. My wife thinks i’m crazy, but she thought the same thing when I said I wanted to do my first marathon, and look at me now.

Lets hope for nice weather this week while i’m at the beach .. no blog updates until Saturday at the earliest.