Juliana Moves

I am happy to report that I had a much needed, confidence boosting weekend of training! If it hasn’t been obvious enough on the blog, I have been whine whine whining about training throughout the summer. The conditions have been horrible, I’m constantly dehydrated, my skin is chafing in new and cruel ways, and I have felt like most runs have been an absolute slog.

In the midst of all this complaining, I’ve been trying to be as steady and consistent as possible, while still allowing myself to take breaks and sleep and just recover when I really feel like I need it. Every workout I’ve done has felt stronger and stronger, and most of my longer trail runs have gone very well. I’ve been building some legitimate fitness, but not without the summer struggle! It has taken a lot out of me mentally.

That said, this weekend I was feeling weirdly excited to do my training. The weather had improved, I felt pretty well rested, and we didn’t have any weekend plans that would make me feel rushed at all.

I kicked it all off by doing my workout of the week on the treadmill at my gym on Friday night. Rather than slog through the humidity, I decided to head indoors. I did this last week too and strangely loved it. The treadmills are really nice, the gym wasn’t too crowded, and I could lock in. Patrick also came and did his own workout and a short run. It went great! It feels nice to have my legs turning over underneath me so quickly.

Since I was running later in the evening on Friday, I decided to move my shorter run of the weekend to Saturday so that I could ease my way into the weekend. I still woke up earlyish but slept a lot and got to have an easy, chill morning. We even organized our dressers! I had 15 miles on the docket, so I headed out at 10 am to ensure I wasn’t procrastinating too much and could have a full afternoon afterward. I have a bad habit of wanting to sleep in and not rush, but then also feeling stressed about starting my run later in the day. It’s all very dumb and I’m working on it.

I did a big loop on the trails in Arlington and cut back through where we used to live. The perk of running on busy Saturday trails? Seeing all the other fall marathoners out there. It was nice to not be alone out there!

It did feel a bit hot on Saturday, but it wasn’t unmanageable. I mostly listened to an audiobook (The Love Hater by Katherine Center)! Unfortunately, my SI joint was killing me after. I’ve had my SI joint issue under control for many weeks so I was stumped. It made me worry for my Sunday run, but I did some of my exercises, took an Aleve to help with inflammation, and hoped for the best as I went to bed that night.

Sunday was a big, big day. 28 miles in Shenandoah! I picked out a route called Kick Ass Pass from the VHTRC website but modified it to finish at Elkwallow Wayside so that Patrick and I could meet there and we could get food after. 

I was nervous for many reasons. Where to start?! 

1. I wasn’t feeling super confident in my ability to actually complete the run. I have no real reason for feeling this way except that the summer has felt draining.
2. I had attempted this route before and bailed out because I felt so bad. The first 5 miles of the route are a huge climb.
3. My SI was feeling okay but I wasn’t sure how it would hold up throughout the day.
4. The forecast was a bit warm and rainy and I didn’t want to be that uncomfortable (or soggy).
5. The route had over 7,000 feet of elevation gain. Yikes.

All in all, my worries were entirely unfounded! I was so pleasantly surprised by how good I felt and how well the day went. I felt strong on the climbs, enjoyed running the runnable stuff, and ate and drank pretty well throughout the day!

I did bushwhack through some very overgrown sections of trail but the briars weren’t too bad. I just got about 398 spiderwebs directly to the face. Also, Patrick dropped me off at the trailhead and then parked at Elkwallow to do his own shorter run. I had promised to text him whenever I could find service but otherwise kept my phone on airplane mode so that the battery would last. I had more audiobooks to listen to (finished The Love Haters and then started The Shippers also by Katherine Center)!

I managed to text him once and then couldn’t find service again later in the route. Let’s just say… Patrick did not like that. Usually I would’ve carried our spot tracker but I genuinely assumed I’d find service! How do I have better service in the remote national forest than in this busy national park?! It makes no sense. Anyway, it would’ve been a total nonissue, but after he finished his run he decided to do my route in reverse to find me. Problem was, he left the parking lot through a different exit than where I entered. We genuinely missed each other by two minutes. I even left a note on his stuff for when I had come by the car because I assumed he was still doing his run. Oops!  Patrick was relieved and aggrieved when he finally found me. I had no idea, since I had no service, so I was just psyched to have a running buddy!

He joined me for the rest of my run and then we had an absolutely delicious dinner from the wayside. Burgers, fries, and a blackberry shake! Amazing. I was thrilled.

I finished my run feeling like I could’ve kept running and had maintained high spirits the whole time. Plus, it just felt so damn good to be out in the woods like that. I missed the trails and the trees. Being at a slightly higher elevation, the weather was fantastic all day. It may have gotten into the mid 70s but the cool breeze kept it pleasant the entire time.

And today? Definitely sore but not out of commission. It’s almost like all that training really has been working! 😉 I am looking forward to another solid night of sleep though. There’s another big weekend to come!

Love,

Juliana