Strength Training Week 7: Run for the Callipygians

As much as I should really be reviewing May I can't resist talking about last week and how my training went - mainly because I want to highlight my runs for The Callipygians and their Race for the Clock. I supported this virtual run because my dear friend Yolanda is part of it and she is a true angel and how could I not support their running group striving to get a new time clock? The running group is S.W.F.T.R., a.k.a. South West Fun Time Runners, is an area-wide running club encompassing (at least) Southwest Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and southeast Colorado. The club known as SWFTR (pronounced "swifter") was chartered in 1990. SWFTR also has a sister club based in Derby, KS, and known as T.R.R.A.C.Ks , a.k.a. The Road Racing Association of Central Kansas. {description taken from their facebook page}
I received my race package last week and was overly excited that it contained a race medal in addition to a t-shirt and some awesome reflective laces. Love winning things for being the participant that was the furthest away! And I must confess, the medal made me even more committed to doing a good run for this cause. I will get back to that later.
First, here is how my training went last week {and yes, the May review is just around the proverbial corner}.

It had its up's and down's but I feel I am more on the upswing these days. I started strong last week, which felt awesome after a few weeks of slow starts. I smashed my tempo run on Wednesday, which felt amazing after some crazy running over the weekend. Not long mileage just mileage with less sleep because we were camping. My tempo run has now grown to 6 miles and according to my plan, it should be at 4.5 miles by now. Gotta love progression! Thursday was a crazy family day and I fell short on time but knew I was still on target to hit my weekly mileage goal so I just went with the flow. Saturday was my first run for The Callipygians and I didn't feel it was enough to run just over 4 miles in place at home on my incline treadmill. I wanted more. So Sunday I headed outside with dear hubby for a couples run. My goal was 16-18 miles. I fell short. 
Sunday's run was incredibly difficult and amazingly awesome at the same time. I have a 6-10 hour window each month in which running and life in general is really difficult. This month, it collided with my long run. This often doesn't happen. I thought about bailing on the long run. I didn't want to do that. The idea made me feel weak. But I felt weak physically so I turned on my mental powers. As we drove darling daughter to our dear friends who were going to watch her I felt physically ill to my stomach. Starting the long run was going to be a big enough challenge in itself. But I did it and felt okay once I started running. That was until somewhere between 4-5 miles, maybe just past 5 miles, when I took a necessary Mother Nature pit stop. The pit stop wasn't the issue, I paused my timer for this but not at other times. I came out of the pit stop, started running, and the cramping intensified a thousand times inifinity. At one point all I could do was turn, huddle down, and not fall on my face on the side of the road. I wanted to scream. I did in my head. Dear hubby slowed and passed me up. Perhaps he feared I was going to vomit. Nope, just felt like my insides were being ripped out. It passed, I got up, I continued runing. The issue was just a few moments but it wasn't entirely gone. I slowed to walk and try to stretch it out but how do you stretch these types of cramps. I was clueless. I ran on saying I would be cramping no matter what. At 7 miles I thought of turning and just trying to make it back to our car. I thought of telling dear hubby to run ahead and come back for me. I kept running. I tried to run through the pain. It didn't really work. At just about 7.5 miles I told dear hubby we had to turn. He said "It's Okay." I probably yelled my response, "No it's not!"
I was mad. I was in pain. I didn't want to fall short on miles. But I didn't want to be laying in pain on the side of the road either. Or not completing the run I started. I was running for the The Callipygians afterall. I craved 16 miles. I accepted what was happening. I told myself, there is plenty more time in your training. On the return my cramps fortunately started easing up and finally vanished...to a degree. To be accurate, they just become tolerable. 
I finished strong and ran around our final destination just to securely cement the 15 mile run. I picked up the pace for the final mile. I earned my medal. Dear hubby never joins in on this and I know he is fully capable. He is faster than me. He can do it. For some reason, he thinks I think he is slow. He is wrong. I feel bad for keeping him at my slower pace for long runs. 

And check out these splits from this hilly course: 

During this run I consumed two Nathan bottles of VegaSport Hydration. I took a VegaSport endurance gel around mile 4 and mile 8. It was a weird fueling day. I felt no need for additional gels after my second gel.
Daily Gratitude: I am thankful for completing my 15-mile run at just sub-marathon pace.
Daily Affirmation: I am growing mentally stronger.