22 Miles Closer to Beantown!

Let the countdown begin. I am one month away from the Boston Marathon. After today's run, I can confidently say that I am ready.

Today, we completed our longest and toughest run of this training cycle. 22.1 miles of hills. It wasn't all uphill. There was plenty of downhill. Both can be equally brutal to your body. That was the goal for today really. Feel the pain and experience the pros and cons of running up and down. That is the Boston course afterall.

We started at Porter Middle School at 5:55am after carpooling from Runtex. The run starts downhill. We run North on Lamar towards the lake...North Side of Trail...Lake Austin Blvd...The hill climbs begin with Scenic...to Mt. Bonnell...back down Mt. Bonnell...35th...Exposition where we experience a series of hills...back to Lake Austin Blvd...Back on the Trail...Cross Trail and Head into the Barton Hills Neighborhood. They don't call it Barton Hills for nothing. More climbs. Big Climbs. This is Miles 16-18. We're tired and it's been drizzling all morning. Oddly enough, we're all feeling strong. I was having a little lower GI disturbance, but nothing that took me off the course at a moment's notice. We weren't running at a blazing speed, but that's not the point of the long run anyway. We go down a big hill. My knees are feeling the downhills. 3 miles to go and it's relatively flat the rest of the way. We're told to pick it up for the final miles. Surprisingly, I'm able to pick it up for the last 3 miles. Again, nothing too fast, but a noticeable pace change to take us home. We all felt great at the end. More sore than tired. We actually finish the workout by doing 3 sets of strides (high knee sprints) to open up our hips. It feels good. We're finished. We're ready. Very Ready.

I remember when running this distance in a morning would basically waste me the rest of the day. I came home and did nap for about an hour, but spent the afternoon with Shawn shopping, looking at homes and decorating styles. It felt good to not be totally useless for the whole day.

Tomorrow's schedule--1 hr swim followed by 25-30 miles on the bike. I bought a new seat today so I'm crossing my fingers. At this point, I hope my legs are recovered enough for a good ride.

Total Running Time: 22.1 Miles in 3:16:40 (8:55 overall pace)
Mile 1 8:37
Mile 2 8:45
Mile 3 9:19
Mile 4 8:46
Mile 5 9:13
Mile 6 9:10
Mile 7 9:05
Mile 8 9:00
Mile 9 8:32
Mile 10 9:40
Mile 11 9:02
Mile 12 9:03
Mile 13 9:02
Mile 14 7:03??
Mile 15 9:39??
Mile 16 9:12
Mile 17 9:04
Mile 18 9:25
Mile 19 8:58
Mile 20 8:28
Mile 21 8:29
Mile 22 8:24
Mile 23 1:03

Nutrition:

5am whole wheat tortilla with organic PB, 12 oz of Gatorade
6a-9a 2 Clif Shots and Gatorade on the Run
10:30am Bowl of Kashi with blueberries and yogurt
11:30 am 1/2 whole wheat tortilla with turkey and slice of veggie cheese
2:45 pm Peanut Butter Clif Bar, couple of pieces of beef jerky, 1/2 soy latte
5:45p-6:30p Early dinner at Eddie Vs with Shawn: 1 slice of bread, salad with blue cheese, apple slices and green beans, we split a Snapper entree (it did have a butter sauce) and more green beans with onions and sun-dried tomatoes, we split the Godiva chocolate brownie, coffee