The Super Bowl, my last long run, and my experience with a 5-hour energy drink

Everything hurts.

My back hurts. My legs hurt. My ankle is on ice (more for caution than need). I am tired. And fairly whiny.

Yesterday, Kelsey and I finished up our last long run before the New Orleans Rock and Roll Mardi Gras Half-Marathon, which is this Sunday. We had planned on running 12 miles in about two hours and 10 minutes, giving us enough time to get ready for church. However, after about an hour and 55 minutes and having run only 10 miles, we decided to stop at that.

It wasn't a pleasant run. First off, we had run an "easy" six miles the day before. And they were easy! However, we discovered there's a reason why training schedules tell you to rest the day before a long run. It's the pain. The aching in your legs, the feeling that they're turning to lead, and the inability to run much faster than a slow walk.

The five-hour energy drink I took right before our run did NOT help, either. Pass the coffee, please. Kelsey and I had discussed drinking one before the halfie, but we wanted to test it beforehand. Good call. So I took one. A full one. And, yes, I read the instructions (somewhat blindly, as I was driving over to our running location and it was 6:40 a.m.) saying something about take half if something, something, something. Whatever, I drink six cups of coffee a day; what's this going to do? (Turns out if it's your first time to drink it, you should only drink half....Ohhh....)

I drank it down quickly, took my asthma meds (which also hype me up a little) and drank my pre-Gatorade drink, because, yes, I do think the 1-2-3 Gatorade system that the commercials advertise works. I did notice my eyes were just a little bit wider when Kelsey and I started running, but I did not feel overly hyper.

Now, granted, I don't know if it was the energy drink, the lack of sleep, the lack of carbs (two slices of low-carb bread and a Snickers bar should not have been the only carbs I consumed on Saturday), or the running, but about six miles in, I felt this awful knot in my stomach. My running slowed even more. When I'm running around a 14-minute mile, you know something's up.

Therefore we stopped at 9 a.m. Ten miles. One hour and 55 minutes.

To add to the "what I did that was not smart" moves, I did not stretch afterward. Frankly, I didn't have time. The fact that my hair was dry for church was no small miracle. And then after church, we headed down south for a Super Bowl party about two hours away. When there's a line of scrumptious food that makes your mouth water by just looking at it, who's really thinking about needing to walk around and try to stretch?

I did make up for the carbs I lacked on Saturday, though. Oh, did I make up for them...

And, speaking of the Super Bowl, congrats to Green Bay. I really didn't have a dog in this fight, but I was happy to see the Pack win -- mainly because a dude who is an alumni from my college was on Green Bay's team.

At any rate, today I am sore all over and NOT running today. I've got 9 miles to do this week between Tuesday and Thursday since I'm supposed to (blessedly) rest Friday and Saturday. And then...we run...