3-27-10 14 MILES!

Today I ran farther than I have ever run. Ever.

I started my lovely Saturday by waking up at 5:30am, feeding the baby, getting some breakfast and then getting dressed. By 6:20 I was up at the park running around the track, it was dark and cold, there was still a little snow on the ground from yesterday's weird storm. I hoped to get in 4 miles before 7am so I could pickup my basket of produce that I had ordered from the food co-op. I finished my miles (after a lot of starting and stopping), picked up my produce, drove home dropped it off and then went to meet Karri. We drove down to the elementary school where she was picking up her produce and started our 10 miles. The time went by quickly and I walked less in that 10 miles stretch than I did in my 4 miles. It warmed up and turned into a really beautiful day. Our run was great we made pretty good time, we were back to the school by 9:30 For some reason her Nike+ and my Nike+ was different. Mine said I was only up to 13.36 miles so I did a quick loop to the soccer field and then ran back to my car for exactly 14 miles.

It feels good to know I can do longer than a half marathon, I was worried for a while because when I did the half a few years ago I was in so much pain the last 3 miles. I have confidence now that I can continue to keep adding miles without killing myself.

As far as my new gadgets go, the water bottle was great, I really didn't use it much, maybe twice and I still had some water left when I finished. (Perhaps I should be drinking more.) But it stayed in place and didn't bother me at all. The knee braces were fine, I guess. My knees still hurt towards the end but really didn't bother me the first 11 miles. I am finding out now that the body glide, anti-chafing product didn't fully live up to my expectations. The good news is half of me is "un-chafed" the other half didn't fare so well. Oh well.

I am feeling okay now, I can feel it in my knees and calves when I go up and down stairs but other than that I feel good. I think it has something to do with the ice bath. I have been doing (short) ice baths after my long runs. It hurts to get in, it is hard to stay in, but I think it really helps get the swelling down and I feel like my muscles recover a lot faster after long runs.

This week I ran 26 miles. That is a lot of running.