running: the dawn

I may have gone overboard with Tonia‘s advice to “run slow” in order to run fast on my long run yesterday.  We ran some parts so slow we may have been walking

It was a beautiful day.  I’m talking blue skies, birds singing, flowers blooming, gorgeous.

I have a new favorite 20 mile route.  It is the perfect route for several reasons:

1. The course follows two consecutive figure-8 patterns.  This allowed me to place water jugs at three places that we ended up passing twice.  While this might have been over-kill, it was amazing to have water that often.  Yes, I still carried my handheld with me, but I was able to refill it often.
2. Rolling hills.  While I was driving out to place the water I noticed that it’s almost all up or down hills.  There may have been a couple sections where it stayed mostly flat, but not much.  Especially miles 10-12.  Those were some beastly rolling hills.  I say that this aids in the “perfect” status of this route because I really have come to enjoy hills.  Yes, they slow my pace and make my heart rate skyrocket, but they are not at intimidating as they once were.  So, I say: bring it!
3. Starts at my house.  For most of our weekend runs, KT and I have driven to a spot, parked and then run.  This time because of time constraints we wanted to start running right away.  It was amazing to have the finish line be my front door.  The whole route ended up being 20.5.  Perfect.
4. We got to run by 6+ lakes.  I may not be an “ocean” or “beach” girl but I LOVE a good lake.  There’s something calm and peaceful about the water.
5. Dirt roads.  Not all of it are on dirt, but there were two sections that we found were dirt roads.  This really seemed to cut down on the trauma to my legs and feet.  I felt so excellent the entire time.  No knee pain, no hip pain.  It was awesome.

My enjoyment of the run was only clouded by KT’s agony.  Bless her heart.  She was feeling strong up until mile 15.  After that both her body and her spirits seemed to crumble.  This is not a good situation, especially when we were still 5 miles from the end of our journey.  She pushed as much as she could and ran for another 2 miles.  The last three miles were a combination of running and walking.  I could tell how painful it was for her and I wished that there was something that I could do.  But in those situations there is nothing that we can do except walk along beside our friends and encourage them.  She was a brave little soldier and made it all the way back to my house.

So my second 20 miler down.  Only one more “extreme mileage” run in this training cycle (I consider any double digit run starting with a 2 extreme) in two weeks.  Did I mention that I’m running the Rockford Marathon on May 16?  KT decided to sign up for that, since she isn’t going to be able to come with me to San Diego.  I told her that I would sign up so I could run it with her and support her to the finish line.  I’m counting it as my last long run before my three week taper.

Today I feel amazing.  Well mostly.  My legs, feet, and hips all feel great.  There is a strange dizziness in my head.  Not sure what that’s about.