Sunday:
Today's run was 10 miles at my race pace or slightly above race pace. The skies were partly cloudy with nice temps but man was it windy. The goal for the day was to keep may pace below 8:59 a mile. I felt pretty good at the start, but the first couple of miles my legs were feeling a little tired. Probably because I ran so late in the day yesterday. I had the wind at my back for the first couple which helped deal with the tired legs and that's why may pace was so good. No complaints here though, I'll take it where I can get it. You can see when I had the wind in my face because my pace took a freaking nose dive on miles 4, 5 and 7.
It was grasshopper city out there today, and I hate those damn things. They would just jump out of the grass and with the high winds they would fly right into me. Other than food for other animals and wrath of God type stuff what the hell is a grasshopper good for anyways!? I digress, my pace was quite good on the last three miles, but I have to be honest, I planned my run to have the wind at my back for them. :) When I got back I hit the deck and did 2 sets of 20 push ups.
It was grasshopper city out there today, and I hate those damn things. They would just jump out of the grass and with the high winds they would fly right into me. Other than food for other animals and wrath of God type stuff what the hell is a grasshopper good for anyways!? I digress, my pace was quite good on the last three miles, but I have to be honest, I planned my run to have the wind at my back for them. :) When I got back I hit the deck and did 2 sets of 20 push ups.
Monday:
rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest!!!!!! Did I mention it was a rest day :)
Tuesday:
So before I went to bed last night I checked to see how many miles I was running this morning and I was super excited to see it was only 4 miles. Even though it was at my slower easy pace the lack of distance allowed me to sleep in almost a half hour longer than I have been. I got up and took the dogs out for their morning potties and did my morning pre run ritual, which basically consists of eating 2 triscuits, taking two bee pollen capsules and drinking a half bottle of water. After that I played with the puppy and talked to Mandy for a few minutes while I got ready to go. It was another chilly morning so a skull cap instead of my visor and I added a pair of gloves and a hoodie as well. Once I got going the cold didn't really bother me all that much. If there was a moon out this morning I couldn't see it, and with a clear sky the stars were shinning quite bright. I wish I would have stopped to take a picture, but I didn't think it would really show up that well on film. The run itself went good. Ever since the temps and humidity have dropped my runs seem to be getting better and better, which is no surprise, but the confidence is coming at a great time. I kept my pace pretty steady and didn't really push it to hard because tomorrow is my final 20 miler and I really want it to go well.
Wednesday:
Today was a little bittersweet for me as I had my last 20 mile long run for my marathon training. The weather was the absolute best I could ever ask for. Clear blue skies, mid 50's for temps and little to no wind all morning so I think God was treating me for all my hard work I have put into my training.
Last night when I put together my route for today, I really wanted to challenge myself a little and get as much out of this run as I could. I designed my route to give me as many hills and elevation changes as I could make. I ended up hitting 4 highway overpasses and a few roads with some rolling hills. The other thing I planned out was my nutrition and hydration plan. The final
map for the marathon came out yesterday and has the location of all the
hydration stations listed on it. I have been eating a Clif Shot Block and drinking water at 2 mile intervals. The hydration stations are not at even intervals so I need some advice. I spoke with my buddy Thomas who has a couple marathons under his belt and with his advice I decided to keep my nutrition plan the same, but I changed my hydration to match where the fluid stations will be during the race. I also got a new piece of equipment that I now plan to use for the race. I was hearing good things about the Flip Belt and it definitely lived up to it. It is basically a infinity belt that you step into and slide on like a pair of pants. It is made of a stretchy material that is sewn into a hollow tube with slits for you to slide all sorts of things into it. Once you fill the belt with whatever you need to carry, you just flip the belt so the slits are now on the inside which keeps everything from falling out. I had my phone, two packs of Clif Shot Blocks, two granola bars and a pack of gum. Everything stayed right where I put it, I hardly noticed it the entire run and it was very easy to access what I needed once I got use to it. Below is a picture I grabbed from their website to give you an idea of how it fits. If you wanna check it out click here Flipbelt.com
As far as the run goes, well just like the other two, it was long. I think the first mile was a little suspect as far as what my pace shows, but I am sure it's right I was
feeling pretty good at the begining. As the run progressed I was
feeling really good, and obviously my pace shows it. I wanted to stay
around 9:45-9:55 per mile, but as you can see from my pace chart I was
actully sticking to the low 9:40s to high 9:30s.
I ran into an issue at mile 12 with my right foot. I was starting to climb one of the overpasses and I started getting pain in the ball of my foot. It wasn't to bad but I had to slow down a little bit and eventually the pain went away until I hit the top of the next overpass on mile 14. The pain was probably a 4 or 5 out of 10 and was right on the ball of my foot behind my big toe again. I almost slowed to a walk, but I changed
the way my foot was landing and kind of scrunched up my toes to take
the pressure off the ball of the foot and that seemed to help. Once I
got back on level ground and got another couple miles, the pain seemed to be gone. As I continued on for the last few miles, my pace slowly increased and I gave myself the my signature little push for the last mile.
As I write this my foot is still aching and slightly hurts when I walk around normal, which comes at a bad time because I have an event at work tomorrow and will mostly be on my feet working a 12 hour shift. I plan on wearing my super cushy shoes to try and give my foot the best chance mend itself. If I had to compare it to something I would say it feels like I pulled a muscle or something.
It was a rough, rough day. My feet are aching, especially my right foot. I must have over did it yesterday by running that far and that fast with all the hills. The aching pain is centered in the arch and a little bit in the ball of my foot and the one thing I need to give them I can't, rest. I had an event at work tonight and we stayed open till 9 when we normally close at 6pm, so twelve hours on my feet just did not help at all. I took some ibuprofen and iced them down during my lunch, but I am not sure if I can run tomorrow.
Friday:
Well I didn't get home last night till almost eleven and I pretty much walked in the door, changed my clothes and went right to bed. I made the decision to not run this morning mainly because of my feet, but I needed to get some sleep as well. The sleep did me some good and I did my best to work at my desk as much as possible. I continued taking ibuprofen and I iced my feet during my lunch break and while relaxing at home. I also used a tennis ball to massage my feet as well. As of right now they are feeling a lot better and I am going to run tomorrow, but I will stay on the flat bike path and take it nice and slow.
Saturday:
I got up and went for a 4 mile easy pace run. As it has been all week, the super thick fog was back and as much as I don't mind running in it, I hate being out there and not being able to see what's ahead of me.I have been so worried about this run because of my recent foot pain. I know I need to give it time and rest them, but time is something I really don't have right now. I have looked over my next weeks of training and made a couple of changes that will cut me down to 4 days of running instead of 5 and dropped a couple of miles off as well. Hopefully that will help.
During the run my right foot still had a little pain but was manageable. I got my new shoes that I will be wearing for the marathon and they need to be broke in, so I wore them and that seemed to help with the pain. I am assuming it is because the cushioning hasn't been broken down and is giving me the best support.
Lately my "easy pace" has been around the 9:30s, but this morning I told myself my feet and my body would dictate my pace. I started out around a ten minute pace in the first quarter mile, but slowly my pace seemed to increase. I seemed to hold steady and hover a little above or below a 9:45 pace, which was fine with me. I really didn't want to push it and the pain in my right foot never seemed to get any higher than a two out of ten and didn't give me any sharp pains just an aching feeling.
Tomorrow is a 8 mile race pace run and I am a little nervous to
run it. I want to get the miles in, but I don't want to prolong this
injury. As of now my plan is to run it on all flat ground, start out
around a 9:30 pace and slowly increase it over the first 2 miles till I
get to race pace, unless my feet have other ideas.
Week 13 begins now
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