Another week in the books and another week closer to my sub 3 marathon. This week did not have a lot of excitement in regards to training. I was just trying to get some basic miles in and allow my body some time to recover from Ragnar last weekend. Two of the days I had to wear pants once and tights the other because it was in the 40's. Fall has definitely arrived and it's great for running. I even broke out my gloves. This is the best time to run and I just hope that the weather is similar to this in 7 weeks when I toe the line in Philly. All my runs were not boring this week though.
Friday I went 6 miles and finished thinking I was going to have to consider taking off my long run on Saturday. Whatever is going on with my ankles/calves, it was more painful that it has been. It's not like a muscle pain as it is a tightness pain. I seem to be able to run through it as well and just ice it when I'm done. I was doing some reading about similar issues and it appears that stretching helps a lot with icing too. I think they may have mentioned resting but my eyesight got blurry as I read over that part so think it must have been a typing error. Oh well. I did not run today and to be safe I soaked my legs (up to my knees) in an ice bath. You sure can feel how that helps...love me some ice baths. I'm sure my run yesterday did not help much.
I had to get a long run in for the week and decided that I would give it a go to see how my legs held up. 16 miles was on the agenda and the weather could not have been more perfect. I ran along the parkway towards the lakes and was feeling really good. After a few miles I started to come up on a guy that was running at around an 8 minute pace. I knew this because I was running around 7:30's and closing on him pretty well. This is normally not something worth mentioning except for the fact that he did not seem to like that I passed him. This was evident because he started to pick it up and started to draft me. Two weeks in a row that a jackass decides to draft me. This guy was doing it outside of a race which was just annoying. I found myself picking up the pace some to lose him and he started to fade. Then we came to a fork in the path where runners go one way and bikers go the other. My new friend decided that he would take the bike route which was shorter. We both ended up at the intersection ahead around the same time and I darted across without waiting for the light. I don't like waiting for a walk sign for two reasons. One, I'm not walking. Two, if I can make it across then there is no sense in waiting. So, I take off while he is there waiting. A little ways down the path I hear him catching up until he's close behind me again but does not pass. At this point I really started to get annoyed. Ahead was Lake Harriet and I was going to just stop to drink some water and let him go one way while I would go the other. I was running 16 miles and he was probably going like 5 or so. No need to have him tempt me to run harder than I needed to. It turned out that he stopped in the potty and I just took off. The lakes were busy but not too busy. I really started to feel good and enjoy the run. I got to the north end of Lake Calhoun and that was my 8 mile spot to turn around and head back home. The run back was not too eventful but that may have been because I got lost in it all. My stride was smooth and my pace steady. I felt like I could have ran for the entire day. There was no pain anywhere, which was somewhat surprising because my feet usually bother me at these distances. My 16 miles concluded with me feeling like I just started.
My confidence could not be higher right now. The miles get bumped up a little more this week with some speed stuff built in there as well. I'm pretty excited for the speed stuff. I have a fishing trip with my brothers so the long run on Saturday is going to be tricky to fit in. If anything, I'll find somewhere to go which should be an adventure. For now, I'll just enjoy some football and enjoy this day off. Tomorrow, back at it. As always, see you out there.
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