Pavement Kills

Welp...that run on Saturday kicked my butt!!! Chris and I ran all on pavement- from home, up Canal path in B'ripple, back down on Monon, around the downtown canal, and back home. I covered 24.9 miles but that included a little walking/food break. I probably ran 22-23 miles or something close.

During the run, I felt pretty good overall. It was weird how little muscles that I had forgotten about started to hurt at different times during the run. All of a sudden the side of my knee would have pain, and then my ankle...I have no idea how just a few months ago, I only ran on pavement. As Chris said, no wonder people hate running. I would too if I didn't do trails- well maybe.

I don't know what the exact temperature was during the run. I know we started at 4am and it was about 41 degrees, and then the temp dropped to about 18-25 maybe. I only had little $1 gloves on and my hands felt fine until the end.

Note to reader: My hands seem to always be freezing, running or not running, and lately after my runs- my fingers will turn white for about 40 minutes. I don't know why they're white but they are.

Now this was scary to me on Saturday: After about 19-20 miles, Chris and I stopped to rest for a minute. I took off my gloves and looked at my hands. I kid you not, my hands seriously looked like HUGE MARSHMELLOW WHITE PUFFY HANDS! I was so scared because they looked gigantic and swollen and puffed out. What the heck does that mean? They were a little numb and I couldn't even fasten a safety pin...but why did they look like that? Do either of my 1-2 readers have any medical explanation/advice?

The other day at work my coworker said my fingernail beds looked blue and that it could mean there's something wrong with my blood or whatever. Who knows if that's true- but now that I had huge puffy hands (and Chris didn't (!)) I'm a little worried. Maybe I'll ask the doc next time I have a visit.

After the run, I seriously crashed and took a six hour nap!!!! I think half of it was becasue I haven't been getting much sleep the past few weeks, and the other half was from the long run on the pavement. My body was so sore. It's just weird because I can run 32 miles on trails, and feel fine the next day and I'm not super tired.

Now I'm a little worried because Chris and I are going to run a half-marathon on pavement on 3/29 and then a full marathon on pavement on 3/30. If I hadn't run last Saturday, I wouldn't be worried because I wouldn't have remembered how much your body gets beat up.

These two races aren't the main things that worry me. What is is that the following week, 4/5, I still want to run a 50K in Chicago on pavement. It's close to home- I've done it before- so I want to take advantage of this race. Today's the third day since Saturday and I'm not sore anymore. I figure after waiting one week, I'll be fine again to run on pavement. Which is true.
I haven't signed up for it yet but I probably will in March.