2 good runs and a really bad one

I ended up only being able to run twice last week due to work, as opposed to my usual 3, but I felt really good on both of those runs. No hip pain or leg pain, and I FINALLY feel like I'm over my sinus infection. So I wasnt too worried about my 18 mile run on Saturday. I'm at the point now where every long run is my longest run ever, so its nerve wracking and exciting at the same time. The weather has been pretty seasonable up until this point, but Saturday was warm and very humid. Something I'm not acclimated to. It was an out and back course, mostly on the Indian Creek trail. I felt good the first 7-8 miles, and then I felt my feet starting to blister up. I typically get blisters on the bottoms of my pinky toes, so I wasnt too suprised. They werent bothering me, so I didnt pay much attention to it. When we got to the aid station at mile 9, my turn around point, there was a first aid kit, so I sat down for a sec to pull my socks off and put vaseline on my toes. Yikes! My blisters were pretty big already, and they had blood in them. Not what I wanted to see. I could also see that I was starting to develop blisters on the sides of my big toes. But still, none of it was bothering me all that much. I took a couple of extra minutes at this aid station making sure I got in plenty of fluids, then headed back for the last 9 miles. The same girl that I had ended up running with on my 16 mile run was also turning around at that point, so it was nice to have a partner. We got about 2 miles, then made a wrong turn, adding about another mile to our total distance. D'oh! Thats one thing I hate about Olathe, the subdivisions are laid out horribly and its easy to lose your way. We got back on track, and I was still doing ok for another couple of miles, though my hips and knees were starting to get sore, and my blisters were becoming more painful. By the time we hit the 14 mile point, the blisters on my pinky toes hurt so bad that I couldnt put any pressure on the outside of my feet. Which meant that I was rolling my feet in, causing blisters to form on the inside of my feet as well. Also, me rolling my feet in was killing my ankles and knees, so I had to resort to walking the last 4 miles.

I felt like SUCH a loser! All of these negative thoughts kept going through my head, and I convinced myself that I wouldnt be able to do the Lincoln Marathon, and I wouldnt be able to do IMFL. Our run had started at the Gary Gribble store, and I had planned on going in to buy some new socks when I finished, but instead I just went to my car and sat there and cried for about 5 minutes. I felt like there was no way I could achieve all these goals I've set for myself. What a baby I was being! So I sucked it up and made myself start thinking good thoughts. By Sunday I was feeling a lot better, and was encouraged by the fact that my joints and muscles were barely sore, and my blisters had gone down quite a bit. So today I'm feeling even better, and my blisters are just about gone. I might go for a run tonight, or I might ride, depending on how my feet feel when I get home. But one thing is for sure, I REFUSE to have another day like Saturday. I absolutely will not let myself get so down about a bad workout. Everyone has a bad workout from time to time, and its no reason to throw in the towel. Last summer Joe Friel gave a talk at HalfMax about the power of your mental state, and one of the things I took away from that is that every single workout you do, you should file away something positive in your head. So my positive thing from Saturday is that despite the pain I was in, I DID finish my 18 miles. I resisted the urge to flag down a car and hitch a ride back to the starting point. So, yay for that :)