Some words

LONG is the word that comes to mind first. Running Partner (as opposed to partner Partner, who in this recent Southern cold spell has used the words "crazy" and "insane" MUCH more than necessary when describing my running) and I did our first real long run this morning.

We had done other long runs, but this was the beginning of the Long Runs. It was 14 miles Long. Our running trail flooded this week, inconveniently, because with my recent needing a break I REALLY wanted to NOT run hills. But without the nice flat trail, the ONLY flat place near us to do a Long Run, we did 14 miles of hills.

The next word is Fuel, or Food. When not doing long runs, I don't use "fuel" and "food" interchangeably. But during, it's really all about keeping the body going. The fueling did not go so well this week, until after, but more about that in a sec. I was out of Clif Bloks, which I have used in the past on this current round of training and they usually are pretty great as far as fuel goes. Not as nasty as a gel, but still easy to get down. So I had a bunch of Sport Beans, which are like jelly beans but have extra stuff (and taste pretty much like, oh, jelly beans), so i put them in my pack and didn't think too much about it. Until about mile 9, when the Sport Beans started feeling not so sporty in my stomach.

Thankfully, there were no explosions of any kind, just some actual stomach cramps, which I don't think I've had since, like, junior high. RP thankfully had some bloks which she shared in true RP fashion, and they helped, but the damage was done. I suffered through the last little bit of the run and was OH SO GLAD to get home. More so than usual, even.

When I got home, I had some Luna drink (this blog is starting to sound like it was sponsored by stuff!) and then things settled down. And for the first time on this go-round, I went with my family to the IHOP and loaded up. It was SO good. Nothing like a long run to make you appreciate your fuel. I mean, food.