Week Twenty

Twenty-three miles today! I was a bit worried about it, since I've missed the last two ten-mile runs, and haven't even been able to get all my maintenance runs in. I've been tired, and busy, and allergic, and running back and forth to Tehachapi buying a new home (which I'm very excited about, but it's a lot of work!). Last weekend, I had to go back down to meet with the seller, who was only available on Sundays, since he works every other day of the week. I'd hoped to be able to fit in a ten-miler on my own when I got back, but the six-hour drive from here to there takes too much out of me. I shouldn't have to go back down until after the sale closes on November 1, but then I'll be making trips down to start working on getting the place fixed up to move into, so I may end up missing some more runs in November, but I'm going to try hard to get as many done as possible, since the marathon is coming soon!

Anyway, the twenty-three miler went really well, considering. I need new shoes pretty badly -- my feet were feeling the pounding of the pavement—and I hadn't gotten around to stocking up on goo, so I didn't have my usual snacks, but in a way I think that worked in my favor, because I ended up eating some different things that turned out to make me feel pretty good. For one thing, I'd bought a Starbucks Frappuccino at the corner store last night and drank it this morning for a little boost of caffeine and milk before the run. So I was feeling pretty peppy right off the bat. Then, one of the people in my group gave me a couple of goos, so I had those. And then, when we passed by our starting place at mile 15, our volunteers had pizza for us! (Probably for the people finishing, but hey! If we'd waited until we finished, it would have been long gone!) Now, ordinarily, I'd never eat anything that substantial during a run, and especially not pizza, but I was really hungry today for some reason, and I just couldn't resist a slice of cheese pizza. And it was great! Really gave me a lift. Also did my usual trick of taking aspirin at about 15 miles, and that also helped me feel better for the last stretch. So I finished the run feeling pretty good. Tired and sore, but not exhausted or wiped out.

The route was similar to the twenty-miler, with a few added bits. It was the same three-loop course, first going around the polo field and then down Sunset to Pine Lake Park and around the lake. Then we continued down Sunset to Ocean and back. Second loop was up Great Highway to the Cliff House, then down Great Highway to Sloat and back. Then the third loop was through Golden Gate Park to the Panhandle, out to Masonic and back. It was a cool and cloudy day for the most part, with the sun only breaking through for an hour or so, which was nice weather for running. We finished in about 6:40, running a 2:2 run/walk ratio, and a target pace of 16 minute miles. Averaged about 17:39 minutes/mile with bathroom and water breaks and so on, which is just about right.

I'm pretty happy that I was able to do so well on a twenty-three mile run, even after missing two weeks of long runs. Go me!