With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

easy two mile walk. muscles are very sore, so lots of stretching in between sitting through sessions of conference.

Sore muscles made the first half mile very hard.  I'm not sure I can even call it running.  It felt more like gimping along.  And it was slow.  But I'm glad I did it. 

physical therapy stretches & strengthening

60 degrees with light rain.  9:46 first mile, 9:13 second mile. 

Saturday's 20 is looming large.  I'll have a great running partner, so that will make it easier.

Legs were sleepy, but I was happy to be out running in the rain again.  Except for the mist on my glasses, I love the early morning light rain runs.

My goal this morning was to try and run slow and easy.  Trying to get used to the pace I'll need to keep for the marathon.  I over did it on the first mile and got in at a 10:40.  So I tried speeding up a little...that's easier said than done.  I'll just say the 10:40 was my warm up.

I managed to keep around a 9:40 for the next 5 miles.  I guess that's better than a 10:40.  My legs were still a little sore from Friday, but I can feel the pain is going away. Tomorrow is my tempo...I think it's a 7 miler.  I just want to make sure I'm not pushing too much and push into an injury. 

 And how exciting...I forgot to say that I was happy on Saturday when I put my 100th mile on my new shoes.  I love them & can't believe how the miles add up.

Tempo run today.  I don't usually run 8 in the morning, so I woke up early to make sure I'd have time for all of it.  I'm beginning to question my sanity when I wake up at 4 am so I can log extra miles.

Warm up mile, 1600x 8:00 (4 times) with 800 recovery jogs, cool down for 1.5 miles.

Not sure on my pace for the warm up...I kept my tempo paces pretty even.  3 were under 8 and one was just over 8.  The last mile of the cool down was a 9:30.  My legs were tired there at the end. 

Did a quick cold water bath while I ate my warm oatmeal breakfast.  That was weird, but I thought the warm food would off-set the cold water.  And I'm not above weird.

Later, I was trying to do my physical therapy strengthening exercises, but half way through, I saw the comforter hanging off the end of the bed, and I pulled it over me and fell asleep.  I knew I wouldn't sleep long because seminary boy would be home in the next 10 minutes.  So I just laid on the floor and took a nap at 6:30 in the morning.  It was great.

Did a little running after school.  I had my old shoes, and I forgot my knee brace, so it was a very slow and short .75 run.  I transitioned to the bleachers and walked the bleachers for 20 minutes.  It was slow, but I like to feel those glutes engaged on the bleachers.  I can just imagine them getting firmer....  but it's all just in my imagination.

I wanted to run and sleep in this morning.  So I comprimised and slept in a little and ran a little. 

My legs are still a little tired/sore from last Saturday, and I know I'll need them strong for this Saturday.  I don't want to over-do it with training, but I don't want to under-do it either.  If I run a couple more miles today after school, then I'll get around 40 miles in for the week.  That's 5 miles more than last week, so I'm improving my mileage slowly.

warm up mile was 9:40, then the other 1.4 miles were around an 8:55. 

After school, I ran for a couple of miles around the adjacent neighborhood.  Tried to run moderate.  I think both miles were sub 9. 

Didn't have a chance to cool down & stretch afterward.  My groin was sore all night.  I made sure I stretched plenty before going to bed.

I was up late, I knew I needed my sleep, and since my groin was a little sore, I knew I needed to rest it before the 20 miles tomorrow.

So I slept in and worked on only my strength training/stretching.

Why is it that my lazy mornings are always the days I can't get to work on time? Oh yeah, I know. Today I was making the lovely chicken tortilla soup that I'll be enjoying for dinner. Gotta love the crock pot soup in the fall (only in my perfect fall-soup picture, it wouldn't be 86 degrees outside).

Stayed up late Friday night because I was so excited that Terri was in town to run the 20 with me.  I ate my soup and made oatmeal/whole wheat/flax seed cookies.  Good stuff.

Woke up and had my regular breakfast and tried to drink some extra fluids. 

The weather forecast was rainy and a little breezy, so I wasn't worried about being hot. Big mistake.  It was just humid, no rain, and the sun seemed to beat down with a vengeance on us from miles 2-20.  The shade of trees occasionally was a welcome break from the sun.  There wasn't any escaping the humidity.  It seemed to just sap our strength.

We ran a 7 mile loop, so every 7 we were back at the car for more water, gatorade, etc.  I can't remember well enough to break it all down, but we started at a good pace, and ended up with a slower than expected pace.

I did my Gu at miles 5,10, 15.  I think I would have liked to have had another one at mile 19, but I managed okay without.  I did need extra gatorade and water the last 7 miles.  I'm glad they have water & gatorade stops every other mile for the last few miles of the race.  I'm sure I'll need it.  At mile 18, I had some digestive problems.  It wasn't good.

BUT...I did finish all 20 miles, and the great part was that I didn't get leg cramps after I was done.  The increased sodium and the bananas 3 days in a row must have paid off. 

I did have problems with the tops of my shoes feeling like they were too tight after mile 14.  I had to unlace and release the tension on the top of my shoe a couple of different times.  I guess this was due to my feet swelling? 

Went out for steak dinner later Saturday.  I ate too many rolls before my meal came out, and couldn't even finish the steak...but I like leftovers, so it's all good!

I think our overall time for 20 miles was 3:39.  That's an average 11 mm.  I'm blaming the heat and humidity.  It was 87 degrees with 87% humidity.  We ran from 10-2.  It got overcast and cooled off as we were doing our cool down walk at the end.  Go figure!