17.3 miles

After last week's embarrassing attempt at a 16 miler, I was dreading this week's 17 miles on the schedule.  I mulled over the disastrous long run, and decided that I must be doing something wrong with my training.  The road to a marathon shouldn't be this hard.  People enjoy the long runs.  I keep thinking about the email I had gotten from Flying Pig Marathon that said, "trust your training."  But now I was starting to doubt my training schedule.  The ramp up in miles was too difficult, and shouldn't I try to focus on getting the long runs in rather than try to increase in mileage for the other runs during the week as well?  Not that training for a half marathon should be anything like training for a marathon (they're very different beasts so I've been told many times), but last spring I was hitting longer and longer distances with ease and excitement.  This spring, the long runs seems to fail miserably.

This week, I decided to go back to what worked well last spring.  I decided to keep my mileage low during the week, nothing more than a 10k.  And well, to start drinking beer.

The beer thing is secondary, I'm sure.  But I remembered that there were two things I did a lot of last spring.  I ran a lot and I drank a lot.  And that worked very well for me.  So, I'm going to drink more beer.

I ran only twice since the 11 mile run.  A slow 4.5 mile run in which I tackled hills and decided to just explore a neighborhood.  I didn't want to run, but I thought I'd at least get a slow on in.  I ran again on Monday on the treadmill, doing intervals.  I would do 5 minutes at an 8:34 min/mile pace, slow to a walk for 2.5 minutes and repeat for 6 intervals total.   With a 1 mile warmup, it ended up being 6 miles.

Well, something worked better this week.  Despite the anxiety about this morning's long run, it felt much easier than last week's 11 mile.  I was hoping to go 30k, but I got started late this morning and a scheduled lunch date meant I had to cut it a bit short to only 17.3 miles.  I started slow, and got about 12.6 miles in 2:10.  I felt pretty good throughout most of it.  Only in the last couple of miles did I think, "I'm ready to stop running now."  Don't get me wrong.  I'm tired as all hell, and my muscles feel like dead weight, but it's a good kind of feeling, rather than a "I feel like I'm going to die".

I also bought new shoes the other day.  My first pair of running shoes were purchased at a New Balance outlet store and I knew nothing about how I ran or what I needed.  I just picked up a pair that looked pretty.  My next pair were purchased at Movin' Shoes, and this time, they at least looked at how I walked and whether I overpronated.  They recommended some shoes and I picked one out.  When I ran the Madison half marathon in them, my feet rubbed in them in all kinds of wrong way and I ended up with quite ugly blisters.  So back to Movin' Shoes.  This time, they recommended me to size up.  I tried on the Saucony Kinvara 2's and I just knew that these were my shoes.  Lightweight and for neutral feet.  I loved them. 

But 3 half marathons and nearly a year later, it's time to think about new ones.  I heard that the Kinvara 3's hadn't changed that much from the 2's so I purchased a pair at Movin' Shoes and thought I would love them too.  Nope, they rubbed my feet in the wrong way, and I started getting chafed and bleeding on my left ankle.  Back to Movin' Shoes.  After they were unsuccessful at tracking down a pair of Kinvara 2's for me, I walked out with a pair of Adidas Adizero Adios 2.  Also lightweight, but with a more significant heel to toe drop, they were incredibly incredibly ugly.  I had a choice between a motley yellow with pink accents or a bright neon pink with purple accents.  I went with the pink.  I ran my 17 miles in them today, and while the fit seemed fine (no blisters, or rubbed skin), I wished for a bit more cushioning at the midfoot.  By mile 14, the concrete road felt a bit much on my leg.  Maybe it's something I'll get used to, or maybe I'll take these back.