22 miles done, and time to taper

Today, I realized that the marathon is totally in the bag.

I had my 22-mile run with MIT. Toward the end, I was hurting, really hurting,  but ultimately I could have kept going for 4.2 more miles. And, coming off nearly 3 weeks of maintenance, I know I'll get it done.

In a backwards way I'm glad it was humid out. This was our first really humid run, so now I'll know I survived it come race day. Heck, we've had every other type of weather.

The run was fun, the coaches took shifts so the 3 of us running 22 had company the whole way. I remember getting a pit in my stomach at mile 8, realizing I was only halfway done. Mile 14-15 took us up and around OSU stadium so we had the fun distraction of watching the pre-game shenanigans. I started to feel really tired around Mile 18, Mile 19 felt like an eternity. After the last water stop we had 1.5 left, and somehow I found the energy to really push it in -- I think my brain and body wanted it to be done with.

22 miles in 3:49, average pace of 10:26. Splits were: 10:52, 10:27, 10:47, 10:37, 10:32, 10:34, 9:03, 10:02, 10:29, 10:19, 10:34, 10:28, 10:32, 11:17, 10:44, 10:29, 10:53, 10:26, 10:42, 10:26, 10:08, 9:15.

That gives me 44 miles for the week, my highest yet.

Maybe I'll update later with some more stats... I'm curious to see what my April total will be.

Hitting the big 2-0... Now, I feel better

Today, I got up at 4:30 a.m. and ran 20 miles. Mentally I'm feeling great, race day is approaching very quickly and getting past 20 was a huge confidence-boost for the 26.2. Physically, my legs feel pretty much like you'd expect them to feel after running 20 miles.

This week was also my first 40-mile week.

The Cleveland Marathon is now 35 days away. May 15. Just over a month from now.

Most of the full marathoners were going early so I sucked it up, woke up at 4:30, and was at Thomas Worthington at 6. The first 9 miles were very peaceful, we ran on the Olentangy Trail to the gazebo, up through Worthington Hills and back to the school. Worthington Hill wasn't that bad the first time. The fatigue started to hit as we went up the hill to the school.

We met up with the full 10:30 MIT crew at 8 back at the school and headed out again. Things were starting to get sore, but I was distracted for the next three miles because the whole group was with us and they, just starting out, had a lot of energy.  (continued)

I'm still alive, sorta

I'm still alive, I'm still around, I've just had to take a hiatus from blogging for awhile. Life has been pretty nuts, I'm in the process of moving so I've been doing a lot of packing and cleaning. Work has just been pretty nuts with the Kasich budget, and marathon training is just kicking my butt.

After the second 18-miler I just got into a real rut. I was exhausted all the time, everything hurt while running, it wasn't enjoyable at all. Then a nasty cold forced me to take a few days off. Now I'm back, and today was one of those run-past-the-turnaround-point-without-even-noticing runs. And tomorrow: 20 miles. I'm ready, I'm confident.

Cleveland marathon in 36 days. I'm ready!