19 Mile long Run

After the last three days, I was a little apprehensive about the 19 mile run today. I am still in territory that is pretty rare for me. As some others runners have mentioned, that is what keeps it fresh. Those nerves and the excitement to seeing what me body has in it and what more my brain can coax out of my legs when I am  tired. I was given that opportunity today.

Got a little bit later start than I would have liked. I was up later and dined a bit later than I normally do, and it impacted the run a little bit towards the middle and end. The temps have started becoming more fall like, and it was a little chilly which is just how I like to start a run. Gives your body time to adjust to working without overheating.

I am generally going to try to be more positive in these blogs, but I am going to complain a little about the ESPN radio station. 7:30 in the morning...during football season...and you are going to give me a radio infomercial about Vitamin D supplements is absurd. A half an hour...on a sportstalk station in the middle of the morning...and  I get some idiot doctor and horrible radio personality selling snake oil. LAME!!!

I digress....

I headed towards Lion's Park which is only about 1.75 miles from home...so I filed that away for future references. When I was living here before I never really took advantage of the parks themselves. I was only there for events. Both times I have found myself pretty dang amazed at how nice the parks really are. Lions...there have been a lot of changes over the years. The Botanical Garden perimeter is really stunning. I ran along a path that wove in and out and although it cost me a second on my 5th mile timing...it was totally worth it. Just a very pleasant surprise. So now I have two parks for shorter runs that I will thoroughly enjoy visiting.

After Lions I headed down towards Central High School and up the service road to the top of Vandehi. It was quite an incline. Actually had a cool moment when three guys on bikes moved slowly by me and gave a respectful nod...made me feel good....

I turned around and went back to Central and onto the greenway. I have started taking gels again and took my second one at mile 10 while continuing to run. I did pretty well. My pace slacked a little...but not too much. I was attempting to mix in some marathon pace miles with my long run pace miles and it went pretty well along the path.

I started feeling pretty tired around mile 14. I kept chugging along and decided to end my run at my parent's house. So I went across Hwy 30 and then up to Pershing and picked the greenway back up and did the shorter path I had made a routine the last few weeks before I moved. I admit I completely stopped at mile 16 for about 10 seconds to get as much water as I could. I ran with a hydration belt, but only took one side. I didn't want the added weight the whole run. Probably would have been better off with more water. Live and learn...

I wanted to finish the run strong...I did finish the 18th mile very strong and most of mile 19 was at a great tempo. At about 18.7 on the Garmin my body gave me the "stop running or have an accident" high sign...so I was forced to pretty much walk the rest of the way. Kind of a bummer, but I had energy left, so it won't get me down.

Feeling strong even though the legs are sore. The ITB on the left hurt briefly towards the end of the run, but stopped the moment I did. I have been fine with it ever since. I did wear the compression sleeves on the calves and I am convinced that it helped a lot...even if I did look a little dorky :-)

Next week is one of three peak weeks in the training cycle...I am excited to hit it strong and get that confidence in the bank so come NYC I will be ready! Thanks for reading.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48556657