I must admit, I haven't followed my training as I should. I've missed some long runs and quite a few midweek runs. I wonder if I would have stuck to the plan how much better I would feel and how much faster I might be able to attempt this marathon.
As hard as it was to complete the 20-miler yesterday, it wasn't a death march. I felt OK when I was done, albeit a bit sore (especially in the glutes and hip flexors). I ran out of water around mile 17. As I plodded along, I reached my arms back to squeeze my Camelbak for just one more drop. Suck it up, princess...there's an ice cold beer waiting for you when you get home. (Beer is a great recovery drink for long runs. So is chocolate milk. I had both.)
So I got out of my soaked, sweaty clothes and threw on a suit to go out on the deck to enjoy my beer and stretch. Next thing I know, I woke up with a pretty bad sunburn. Oops!! That's going to make my next run a little uncomfortable.
This past week, I logged 48 miles. 48 MILES! My previous best week was 31. This is a huge milestone and I am guessing the midweek miles helped me with my 20. But, again, making it through this week reminds me of what I had missed in my training. But what's done is done. My last long run of 17 was a bit of a death march after mile 15. But I ran past 16 miles before I really started to second guess why I was out there running well over 2.5 hours. This is a learning process for me. I actually do enjoy running and seeing the process of improving. And if I don't make StG a sub-4 marathon, I know I am going to get a huge personal record (PR) over the Las Vegas fiasco of 4:47:xx (part of which was extremely poor race organization, but I still take blame for undertraining).
I have 40 days and one more 20 miler and a 50-mile week till the marathon.
Speaking of logging miles, the Taco turned 200k this week!
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