{"id":253,"date":"2013-04-08T23:11:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T23:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=253"},"modified":"2013-04-08T23:11:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T23:11:24","slug":"total-bonk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"Total Bonk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bonk.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all been there at one time or another.\u00a0 Wikipedia describes \u201cbonk\u201d or \u201chitting the wall\u201d as a condition that endurance athletes face when glycogen stores are depleted and this manifests as sudden fatigue.\u00a0 I describe it as those moments when I\u2019m running and I want nothing more than to lie down right where I am, with my cheek to the ground and never move ever again.\u00a0 Not even if someone offered me a million dollars. But knowing that if I do cave to that temptation, I will lay there in the fetal position until wild animals come to drag off my rotting carcass.<\/p>\n

Today I had to do a 20 mile training run.\u00a0 Total bonk. \u00a0I knew by the time I reached the end of my driveway it was going to be rough.\u00a0 My body was tired, I hadn\u2019t carb loaded appropriately and it was hot.\u00a0 Trust me, I am NOT complaining about the heat, I\u2019m just sayin\u2019.\u00a0 It was a delightful change from what we have grown accustomed to this spring.\u00a0 But my body hasn\u2019t had time to adapt to the humidity.\u00a0 Seriously, last week when I did 19, I was wearing gloves.\u00a0 And today I had to stop at 4 different places to refill my water bottle.\u00a0 Welcome to marathon training in the Midwest.<\/p>\n

I tried everything to enjoy running today, but it just didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 I listened to the words of each song on my ipod, hoping that something would inspire me.\u00a0 But it seems that the line I heard at only a tenth of a mile in kept replaying over and over in my head.\u00a0 \u201cLife ain\u2019t a track meet, it\u2019s a marathon.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m not even going to tell you what song that\u2019s from because then I have to admit to the trashy, inappropriate music I listen to.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure some of you will google the lyrics out of sheer curiosity, don\u2019t judge me.<\/p>\n

When my Garmin beeped at mile 4, my body said, \u201cAre you kidding me?!\u00a0 We have to do that 4 more times?!\u201d\u00a0 My brain said, \u201cYep! \u00a0And we\u2019re gonna be that much stronger for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the point where I finally got to turn around and head home, I celebrated, for about half a second, before I realized \u201cHoly Schnikes!\u00a0 I have to do it all again.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 3 miles left to go, I was like, \u201c3 miles.\u00a0 What\u2019s the big deal?\u00a0 That\u2019s a 5k, we can whip that out no problem.\u201d\u00a0 Except for the fact that by that point, my pace had slowed nearly to a crawl and I began to wonder if I would even finish by dark.\u00a0 (I started at approximately 10:30am)\u00a0 I had eaten a pack of Cran-apple Gu Chomps, a Berry Blast Powerbar Gel and almost an entire package of watermelon Sports Beans.\u00a0 And yet, my body felt depleted, drained and dead.<\/p>\n

1.9 miles to go, I walked long enough to eat the last 4 sportsbeans.\u00a0 Keep going.<\/p>\n

Only .7 miles left, I stopped at Mobile on the run to fill up my waterbottle that was completely empty, again.\u00a0 Could I have made it the rest of the way without more liquids? Probably, but I needed water (and a 30 second break) to boost my morale.<\/p>\n

You know you\u2019re tired when you think to yourself, \u201cThe faster you run, the sooner you\u2019re done\u201d but you just can\u2019t make your body move any quicker.<\/p>\n

I finished my 20 miler at the end of my street, but I wasn\u2019t home yet, so I kept running, or shuffling rather, until I got to my house. 20.23 total miles for the day.\u00a0 Ouch.\u00a0 I hurt.<\/p>\n

Sometimes when physical strength fails, we have to rely on mental toughness.\u00a0 Mental toughness is when our brain convinces us to do something that we really, really don\u2019t want to. My brain made my body keep moving when I really didn\u2019t think I had the physical capability to keep going.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to listen to our bodies, if there is an injury or some logical reason to stop running, we should.\u00a0 But \u201cI\u2019m tired\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s hot\u201d, those are not reasons.\u00a0 We have to train our bodies to go farther and faster, and we have to train our brains to see through the excuses our bodies make when they hurt.\u00a0 My brain got me through that run today.\u00a0 My brain, and my heart.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said it many times, where I lack in ability and speed, I make up for it with determination and heart.\u00a0 I know what I need to do and I get it done.\u00a0 Today was no exception.<\/p>\n

Just go one more mile.\u00a0 Just get up this hill.\u00a0 Just\u00a0make it\u00a0to that fire hydrant.\u00a0 Just go one more step.\u00a0 And another.\u00a0 And another.\u00a0 Some days are just like that.<\/p>\n

On my way in to work this afternoon, armed with Ibuprofen, GU Brew Recovery and CEP sleeves, I got a phone call that I didn\u2019t need to come in thanks to the Cardinals who \u00a0demanded the attention of the vast majority of West County St. Louis today.\u00a0 Oh, Praise the Lord, I have never been so happy to live in St. Louis on the day of the home opener in the Lou.\u00a0 So, what did I do?\u00a0 I took the rest of the day off.\u00a0 And I went to get a pedicure.\u00a0 I think I earned it.\u00a0 The best part?\u00a0 The color I picked is called \u201cIt\u2019s my year\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0Heck yeah it is.<\/p>\n

So what else can I say about that brutal, painful, grueling 20 mile run today?\u00a0 Two words: Bragging rights.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This is how RRG wrote today’s post<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bonk.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all been there at one time or another.\u00a0 Wikipedia describes \u201cbonk\u201d or \u201chitting the wall\u201d as a condition that endurance athletes face when glycogen stores are depleted and this manifests as sudden fatigue.\u00a0 I describe it as those moments when I\u2019m running and I want nothing more than to lie down right where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-randomthoughts","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-45","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}