Wednesday, October 25, 2006

13 Miler - Again

Yeah, finally a good 13-miler. I kept with the same reverse route and slow pace from the 18-miler. This run felt good!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

18 mile run

lots o' running these past few weeks.

Let's start with my 18 miler, shall we?

I can't begin to explain how nervous I was about this run. I discussed the return of my hip pain in my last entry, it was my longest run to date - EVER, and my fifteen mile run wasn't exactly the high point of my training. As I digested these thoughts, I think I focused on learning from my past troubles and didn't worry about finishing. Not because it wasn't my objective, but because there was no choice but to finish.

The night before my run, I read a few chapters of my Jeff Galloway book and started thinking about visualization and creating a mantra to assist me when things got rough. As he suggests, I guzzled water until I could hear it swish, ate pasta the night before and just took it easy. I also decided that my long run route was getting stale and needed to shake things up. I didn't want to start something new and be left high and dry should I find myself caught in the midst of mountainous hills or just be uncomfortable with the unknown, so I decided to add onto the back of my current run and to start from the end. This freshened the route because I got to experience the end part full of energy.

When I started running that morning, it was much colder than my previous long runs, probably somewhere in the fifties. I started off super slow, I felt like i was crawling but knew it was important to spread my energy as thin as possible. I felt good those first few miles, like I wasn't taxing my body a bit. I kept my pace slow and felt great up until about Mile 10, where I started to work a little more. I kept on trucking and started to hit a wall around Mile 15 or 16. I started repeating the words, "Keep running, keep running," to myself and it really worked! Especially during hills. I feel so accomplished after this run. It is the first time I can see myself finishing the marathon!