Reading time: ( words)

Goal

My long run for the week was down in mileage from previous weeks. It’s a “rebuilding” week to gear up for next week’s 18-mile push. So I took advantage of the “lower” mileage to try out a new piece of gear that will help me stay hydrated on future training runs.

I picked up a Salomon Advanced Skin 5 Set hydration vest to replace my bulky winter-weather-intended Camelbak backpack. It’s tons lighter, the material is nice and stretchy, and it feels like it conforms to my body much more naturally than the Camelbak.

It comes with two soft flasks for the front, and has pockets in the back to support a 1.5 L bladder. I picked up a bladder for it in case I need to max out my water intake. I sweat a lot so replacing fluids can really be a thing.

For this test run I decided to fill up the bladder and both flasks to see how running with a full load feels. Its heavy, as you’d expect with 2.5 L of water strapped on you, but the weight distribution wasn’t bad at all. It felt balanced and there was no real sloshing.

So running extra miles this week (the extra mile in my previous training run plus the Run Lucky 5k instead of doing cross-training) meant I was tired, probably overtrained, and I should have taken a rest day before attempting to run again.

But I’m stubborn and someday that’s going to catch up to me.

Result

The weather was warm and I was thankful to have the water on me. I started off a minute slower than my pace from the past two runs, thinking that would be sufficient to pace myself for the run, but my pace kept sliding because I was tired.

Halfway through I was getting achy, sore, and mentally I was starting to suffer. My pace slipped down into the 12’s and it was a struggle to keep going. I was not feeling it at all.

The last two miles were really rough. I was gritting my teeth for the muscle pain in my legs, and at one point I was yelling at myself, quite literally, to keep going. I was also frustrated because at this point 12 miles should be “easy” for me. But my week of overtraining was really hurting.

I finished my run without stopping, but it was a struggle.

Data

Notes

I was parked by the wind sailing park area, and a group of guys were there with their wind sails, drinking beers, and having a good time. They were friendly enough and one guy asked how my run was. I told him it was pretty intense. He asked how far I went, and I replied with, “12 miles”, to which he said, “daaaaaaayyyymmn”. It was pretty funny. Sail on, dudes.