worst. run. ever. (And travel/training question)

So, the 20 miler on Saturday sucked.

Lesson 1: Make a plan. Stick to the f’n plan. On Friday, I’d checked the forecast. Saturday was supposed to be crappy and rainy. Sunday was supposed to be sunny and dry. No brainer – run on Sunday. Figured I’d repeat the great 18 miler experience and crank it out before Sunday school. However, just after lunch, I conned Missy into letting me take the afternoon and squeeze in the run.

Lesson 2: Fuel pre-run. What you’ve got in your belly is what you’re taking with you on the run. In my case, lunch was beans and rice, and nachos and salsa. Cheese doesn’t digest very quickly. So, the whole run was a bunch of fiber trying to work its way through my system, while at the same time, burbling back up in a series of “burps”, not being able to come up with a better word for small amounts of barf in the back of my mouth.

Lesson 3: Don’t fight the body’s cycles. (TMI after the jump)

Lesson 4: When your instinct says bail, bail. After the genesis of lesson 3, I decided to keep going. Made it out to the point in the Borough, read the memorial to the brave, brave men who fought off the Royal Navy in the War of 1812, and turned around. The combination of intestinal distress and enthusiasm had gotten me to start off too fast, and to alter my stride. I shoulda called Missy and had her come pick me up about mile 12, but I pressed on.

Lesson 5: Walking is slow, slow. Still feeling crampy (not the dehydrated crampy, but the intestinal crampy), I walked most of the last 6 miles to the house.

Lesson 6: Beer makes everything better. Missy fed me pizza and beer, and I feel great today.

Man, if the Marathon is half as bad as this last super-long run was, there’s no way I’m doing it again. But, I didn’t have anything going my way, so it’s hardly surprising that things went so bad.

Due to the lack of effort, I think I’ll extend my last double-digit run next weekend from the planned 12 to somewhere north of 16.

But this begs another question entirely: I’m headed to Sydney on short notice to give a talk next weekend (2 weeks before race day). I’m flying the last Saturday, and landing on Monday. What I’m planning to do is to do:

• Skip the long run on Saturday (maybe a quick 4 or 5 with the older boy)
• 2.5 hours Monday so as to sleep off jet lag (Essentially combine Saturday’s long run with Monday’s plan)
• x-Train on Tuesday (per plan)
• 1 hour Wednesday (per plan)
• x-train Thursday(per plan)
• 1 hour Friday before heading to the airport (per plan)
• 8-10 miles Saturday (per plan, and about 36 hours after Friday’s run due to time changes)
• rest of the Taper per plan

If anyone’s been to Australia and can recommend some routes in Sydney, I’d be much obliged.

(TMI) One of the most miserable things is running and trying not to poop at the same time. I decided, as I was running through downtown, that I didn’t have to poop at the bathroom by the drawbridge. Dumb, dumb move. Got about a mile east of Mystic, and felt that crampy feeling. Choices were either leg it out about another 1.5 and poop at the Navy Rec area just outside of the Borough (Which is probably the nicest bathroom around, BTW), or to backtrack to the Y. I pressed on, which was the wrong decision – most miserable 1.5 I’ve run this year.