Nobody’s Perfect Part II – how the rest of the day went

Alright folks, I’m back at it.  Yesterday was a pretty interesting.  As you all know, my day didn’t start out quite like I had planned it to.  They don’t always do.  None the less I put my head down at work and was able to get the things done that needed to be.  I’m going to have to head in their later this afternoon (after training of couse:) since there is still a lot of work to be done before the 18th gets here), however were just 16 days away from pencils down so its not all that bad.  And once the 18th gets here man-o-man, watch out!

Anyway lets get back to yesterday and how my day ended up.  I understand that you all must be dying to know if I got my run in or not.  Well…I DID!  I got out of the office around 5:45 last night, headed to the apartment to gather my run stuff, then headed to the canal path down by Towpath Bike Shop.  As I began my run I felt great, the sun was still out and it was warm enough to run in shorts and a long sleeve.  I was cruising along for the first 30 minutes as a I warmed up while I headed in the Fairport direction on the crushed stone path.  Around the 30 minute mark it was time for me to speed up a bit and that went just fine to.  However right in the middle of that first tempo set I started feeling the most dreaded feeling you can get when your on a long run, a long way from home.  (Stop reading if you get grossed out easily)

I think its safe to say that when training for long distance racing or I suppose any training where your gone for over an hour at a time the threat of having nature call becomes a reality.  Most of the time when its #1 its just a simple pull to the side of the road and your done with it.  However, when the brown demon strikes you 6 miles from home and all the public restrooms are locked because its not summer yet, well then my friends you have what I liked to call a “CODE BROWN”.  Code Brown struck me during my first 15 minute tempo interval, I ran 1 mile hard then proceeded to use nature as my bathroom.  Thats as far as I will go in grossing you guys out but I will just say that when this happens you just have to weigh your options.  So I did the deed and kept on moving along jumping right back into my tempo interval, after I finished that up I wound up in downtown Fairport (for those of you who know the Canal Path locals).  It was at this time my stomach really started doing flips.  I was a pretty distance from where I had started so the trek that I had in front of me was not something I was looking forward to.  I also had another tempo interval that I really wanted to finish since I was already half way through my workout.  I desperately tried to get into one of the public restrooms at the Fairport canal park place but they were locked up tighter than Fort Knox.  I then knew what I must do, and that was to HTFU and get back to my car, and that is what I did….with one more stop.  I just had to, my stomach was going crazy and I was in bad shape so I had to use the woods for the second time.  I then proceeded to have a very good 2.35 mile tempo interval.  Don’t ask me how I think I have always had a good mind for blocking out whatever is going on around or inside of me when I really want to concentrate and get something done.  I say this because as soon as I got out of the tempo interval the pains came back, so I recovery paced the last 10 minutes, made it to my car, and got home.  I thought all was well however about 10 minutes after I got back to my place the pain came on full force and I was just laying on my bed starring at the wall waiting for the stomach ache to pass.  I hate that feeling!  Its like someone is twisting your insides.  Eventually it passed enough to allow me to fall asleep for a couple hours.  At that point it was around 11:15PM and I needed to get some hydration and food for the morning so I went to Wegmans and stocked up.  None the less here I am at Starbucks on another Sunday morning preparing for another day.  The stomach feels good this morning, I’ve loaded it up with some pre long workout foods and a little coffee and everything seems to be on the straight and narrow.  So I guess all in all yesterday was a success.  My body just made me work for everything a little bit harder.

Like Peter Reid said :”This one is kind of sadistic. I always had this problem of my stomach shutting down during the marathon of an Ironman. So I thought if I could run with my stomach shutting down, I could do it in a race. So once a week I would sit down and eat nachos with really spicy hot sauce. Then I’d get my running gear on, go for a run and of course, my stomach would shut down, but I’d just keep going. They were brutal training runs. But then on race day, when my stomach would shut down I’d think, “I can deal with this.” I’d be able to keep going. Doing this paid off so many times over. I’d do this 10 weeks out from Ironman until two weeks before race day. It’d be a horrible run, but it had a huge impact on my overall race performance.”

I guess I was training myself through the pain, haha!  I just hope its not like that every time.  🙂

So for now I am going to get on with my day.  It’s looking like a short swim outdoors at midtown to kick the day off, then some trx to get my core back in shape (way to flabbly and unappealing at the moment, and oh yeah core strength is a building block of the multisport just to let you all in on that big secret).  Then its onto the main set of a 4 hours bike/run brick with multiple bike intervals scattered in with run intervals to spice up training a bit.  I’ll be biking on my trainer indoors for up to 40 minutes, then jumping outside to run.  I will repeat that a few times.  Sure it eats up all my clean laundry but what the hell, it will be fun!

And to all the Train-This people out their, GOOD LUCK AT THE SPRING FORWARD this morning.  It’s looking like you have some great weather for it.  And oh yeah…RUN LIKE THE WIND TRAVIS EARLEY