Sunday Long Run - Inside Sadness and Madness

Plan: Plan A was to do all 14 miles on the track
Plans B+, B and B-  were to do incrementally less distance on the track and add in treadmill distance.
Plans D- and forward involved both treadmill and some amount of elliptical miles, which is a thing I'd use in some of my older marathon training days.
BTW, I've done a 10 mile run all on the track, and an 11 mile run mostly on the track and ending on the treadmill.  And every time I'm all "never again", but this winter has been rough.

Actual Mileage: 14 miles total.

Route: Indoor track, 6 laps is a mile basically.  And then, a little bit of treadmill because I was done with turning and corners.

Weather: Weather is the reason I'm inside.  We're having record cold weather for March.  It's the middle of the day and still not above 0* air temperatures.  And then there's wind. I've run outside during the polar vortex when it was this cold, but that was a very short run (3 miles).  I couldn't be outside in this for a long run without a related lesson in treating frostbite.

Wardrobe: To make myself feel better, I wore my favorite summer shorts and summer singlet.  I wore my Xero Prios, and this marks their longest run as well. So far, I'm thinking they will be my race day shoes, but wishing I could get a long run on concrete done in them before the big day.  Thus far, I'm not sure the snow will be melted here before the race.

Execution:
Warm up: The track is about 40 feet short of "6 laps is a mile", so I walk an extra 40' for every mile planned as part of the warm up.  And then I did about 0.5 miles of walking to get started.
Running: I have been listening to The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin since this run, and I'd hoped I'd be done with the book by the end of this run. I did really sink into the book.  We're into the Taft Presidency now.
Cool down: Somewhere after lap 72 but before lap 78 I felt a real twinge in my knee (inside leg on the turns) that meant "WTF, I am so done with all these turns", so I abandoned the track and lap 78 (13 miles), and did my cool down on the treadmill.

Nutrition: Best part of running inside is not having to carry everything with me at all times.
I had a water bottle and gummy chews.
I took water and 2 small chews every 3 miles.
This run was fasted because I was still full from last night when I woke up.

From today, I learned: I learned a lot about my mental health, and how to approach hard things.  Here's the back story.  I'd thought to do a long run Thursday, but I felt lousy, and didn't have enough daylight (afternoon run).  Then I'd thought to do the long run on Saturday which had the better weather of the two days, but I generally felt sluggish and lousy on Saturday so that didn't happen either.  So, I'd spent several days trying to plan a pleasant long run, then not getting it done, and feeling BAD about not getting it done.  Plus I'd had some time to dread the massive amount of time I was about to spend on the track.  And feeling BAD about not getting this done outside.
When I got to the gym today, I approached it more like my job.  No emotions; I just need to make this long run happen; it's my marathon training job for today.
And, I'm glad it's over, but it was okay while it was happening.  But also, I never want to do this again.

Bonus: There was a basketball tournament downstairs from the track, and there's these vendors that sell donuts and today sausage apparently.  I really hate the smell of food wafting up to me on the track.  Vindictive me is all "I should call the Minneapolis health department, because legit, there's no water, these food service people have no way of washing their hands or any utensils when they serve this food...." all so I don't have to smell your donuts while I'm running.