Week 27: Eight miles

And, that's it! Long runs finished, only one week until the marathon!

I did go to the gym this morning to do my run on the treadmill. It worked pretty well -- and since there were six inches of snow on the ground when I got up this morning, and it's been snowing off and on all day, and is supposed to continue to snow tomorrow, it seems to have been my only option as well.

Started out with a slight glitch -- I arrived at the gym at 9:30, only to find that the staff didn't arrive until 10 am. Oops! I'd forgotten to make note of the hours, but just assumed that they'd be there earlier. No problem, I went to Kmart and sat in the parking lot reading my mail for half an hour, then drove back.

I started out with an hour on one of the treadmills upstairs, thinking I'd want to take a break after that and maybe try one of the other machines. The hour went by easily enough. The biggest problem with that machine was that it made a horrible squeaky noise the whole time, plus I was so electric I shocked myself every single damn time my hand brushed against the metal railings.

After that, I thought I'd try a stepper for a little while and then finish on another treadmill. I was going to do 30 minutes on the step machine, but it was hard and tiring and I quit after 15 minutes and went downstairs to use one of the fancy new treadmills down there. This one was at least quieter! I started out to do 45 minutes, but then I accidentally tripped the emergency stop after about eight minutes, so I reset it for 45 and finished up. That gave me my full two hours and eight minutes or so, which is how long eight miles would take at my 16-minute-mile pace.

I went ahead and did my ab work and stretches there, then changed clothes and headed to my mom's for dinner.

And that was that! Final weekend long run finished! Now I've just got two little 30-minute runs this week, and then the marathon. I'll probably end up doing my first 30-minutes indoors on the trampoline, but the weather should clear up in time for me to do my second midweek run outside, as usual.

Go me! I actually got through the whole training without missing a single long run. Haven't missed a midweek run yet, either, and don't expect to. I may not do my fastest marathon, but I'll be able to do the best I'm capable of at this point.