{"id":438,"date":"2016-08-19T13:50:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T20:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/srmcreative.com\/runblog\/?p=438"},"modified":"2019-12-27T22:53:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T22:53:37","slug":"my-fall-apart-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/2016\/08\/19\/my-fall-apart-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"My Fall-Apart Week(s)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to do this.<\/p>Me<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve thought that before. I know I have. I get deep into a training cycle for a big race, and then I hit a point where everything goes to hell. Something that\u2019s been working stops working. Social obligations keep interfering. Some part of my body starts to hurt in a way that isn\u2019t normal. Whatever it is triggers a collapse that\u2019s a combination of both mental and physical. My carefully-made plans for training fall to pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Oh, who am I kidding? My training plans are never planned carefully!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually I get there and I think, \u201cThis has happened before. I can get through it.\u201d And by the time I get to race day, it\u2019s a distant memory that I\u2019ve glossed over in my mind. I proudly recall training for my race. I grunted through the pain, figured out how to make it work, and persevered. I forget that along the way, I nearly broke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this one feels different. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m \u201cnearly\u201d breaking, I feel like I\u2019m broken. I need to say it so I remember it, because I can just about guarantee it won\u2019t be the last time I feel like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I officially started training for my 100K at the end of June. It was hot. I trained through July, and it got hotter. I was adding more miles, which meant I was running longer into the day. The longer into the morning I ran, and on to the afternoon, meant higher and higher temperatures every week. August continued the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bought a new ice chest to replace the mini-sized one I\u2019d been using for a couple of years, and started filling it up with ice, ice water, cold drinks, and cold, juicy snacks (lots of orange slices). I ran short loops of 3-4 miles over and over and over again, filling my hydration pack about halfway full of water and ice each time, and extra bottles with water I carried for the sole purpose of spraying on myself to cool down. I packed ice in the chest pockets of my vest and in my bandana each time I returned to my mobile aid station (read: car) to cool down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why short loops? Mainly so I could consume and unload all my water relatively quickly each lap. I could have carried more and run longer loops, but your water gets hot fast. Even loaded with ice at the beginning, it starts getting pretty warm after about 4 miles. You go much longer than that and it gets downright hot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a good system. Just about as good as I think is possible to come up with. But even with all that, it\u2019s still miserable grinding out miles at noon when it\u2019s 95\u00ba and climbing. I did it until I couldn\u2019t stand it anymore, and then I broke down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My second-day runs have been virtually nonexistent because the Saturday long runs wipe me out so hard, I just can’t make myself get up early enough to avoid another scorcher on Sunday. So I end up missing it, week after week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I seriously can\u2019t stand the thought of going out for another long run in the heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve got to keep training, but I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to do this. Me I\u2019ve thought that before. I know I have. I get deep into a training cycle for a big race, and then I hit a point where everything goes to hell. Something that\u2019s been working stops working. Social obligations keep interfering. Some part of my body… Continue reading My Fall-Apart Week(s)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trail-running","category-training","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azventurer.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}