20 miles

Yesterday I completed the first of four 20+ mile runs I'll do in preparation for the marathon. I came down with a cold last week so I scaled back some of the runs during the week but still ended up with over 40 miles for the week.

Saturday I went out on a 3 mile recon run to see how the roads/sidewalks were for the upcoming 20 mile run Sunday. To my surprise things were pretty dry. I also wanted to see if this cold was serious enough to postpone the Sunday long run. I can't say there wasn't discomfort due to the cold but I decided I'd go though with the long run.

Sunday I headed out about 12:30 the weather was perfect, Sunny 40F light wind from the South. I dressed lightly because I knew I'd heat up fast in the sun. I started out by doing a 3 mile loop that was the Southern most part of the marathon route last year. Then I headed North for about 5 miles and snaked back West to the office arriving there at about 9.5 miles. I refilled the water bottles and started back South. The wind although light was chilly while running into it. I tried a little different route back to try to avoid as much wind as possible. I consumed some energy gel around 10 miles and felt really good through 14 miles. Around 14.5 miles I had a little ankle pain in the right ankle. Seems like I start to fade a bit around that point and I think I start to run really loose and sloppy when I get tired. I really have to concentrate to keep what little (and probably improper)  form I do have from getting really bad- once I do that the little aches and pains start to go away. The legs were getting tired but I've definitely felt a lot worse. Took a few short walking breaks to change playlists on the iPod, switch out water bottles, and wait for traffic. Around 17 miles I took more gel which carried me to the end. No cramps, no severe dehydration, no injuries.  I ended up averaging 10:10 miles. I'm feeling good about the pace, my goal for the marathon will be 9:45 miles. The first 12 miles were under 9:45 so I'm not that far off. The body is recovering nicely too. I hit the fluids hard and iced the legs a bit. I was sore yesterday evening but by this AM I was back to normal.

While I was out running the river was cresting. Because it was a nice day there were many people out and about. As I passed the Main Ave. bridge I could see there were probably 50 people taking pictures of the flooding from the bridge. I saw a school that had a couple of military trucks loaded up with sandbags, a neighborhood stockpile of sandbags with some Bobcats ready if the water got to high, and a couple of National Guard guys walking the dikes. Other than that is was a regular Sunday. Funny how calm it was this year compared to the chaos last year. I kind of feel bad for the journalists that got sent to Fargo to cover the flood this weekend because it was really uneventful for them. Thankfully it appears to have caused very little damage. Now hopefully we can start the clean up and get on with spring.

This week I've got about 30-33 miles of running planed. It's a lower mileage week with a 10-11 mile long run on Sunday. There will also be some speed work and some hill workouts... yippe!