Monday Rest Day
Tuesday Rest Day
Wednesday I went out for my first morning run in the new neighborhood, it was pretty dark out and I was glad my feet are trained to react quickly because as I ran on some bumpy/broken sidewalks there were many moments that my feet had to react to something my eyes couldn't see. I ran 5.5 miles at a 8:30 pace, it felt comfortable and easy very little issue with my left knee that had been bugging me.
Thursday (unscheduled) Rest Day
Friday Rest Day
Saturday was the big day, I planned to get in one last long run for training before starting to taper for the race. I felt a lot of pressure to really get in some good mileage as my long runs have left me with a lack of confidence lately. I felt I needed to prove to myself that I was still in race shape and I could mentally push past the discomfort it will take to finish the race. My goal was at least 30 miles and maybe upwards of 35 if all went well. I decided to solicite for some help as I planned to run a 6 mile loop around my new neighborhood 5 to 6 times and figured it was a good opportunity to run with some friends as my long runs don't usually lend themselves to that luxury.
Ryan showed up at 6am and we took off for the first loop, his personal best for distance was 6.26 and he asked how far we were going, I told him it should be a little under 6 miles and he seemed comfortable with that. This was a new route for me and it was very dark out so Ryan and I passed one of our turns. Before we noticed we had added an extra mile each way. I told Ryan well I guess you'll run a new personal best today as long as you make it back. He did great finishing 7.77 miles with me (he had plenty of energy to spare) and I minded him that the two skills I was forced to lose back in my personal trainer days were any sense of direction and the ability to accurately count to ten.
I ran the next loop solo and it went by quickly as it was shorter than the first since I stuck to the original route. After that I stopped by a good friend/co-worker/new neighbors house (Audri) so she could run the 3rd loop with me. She had recently twisted her ankle and this would be her first run on it in almost a week. We started out great but after a decent sized hill she started to really feel some pain so we decided to cut it short and head back to her place, before we got there though she wanted to keep running and so we looped around the neighborhood a few times completing almost 5 miles.
As these two were the only friends I could sucker into giving up their Saturday morning to run with me I was now back on my own after 19 miles with at least 11 to still go. Honestly thou I felt really good, mentally the early miles had gone by so easy (thanks in part to the company) that now I was two thirds done and the only thing that was a struggle was some pain in my left knee and calf cramps. Thankfully Audri had a tube of spare icy hot as mine is still packed in a box somewhere.
I finished up the rest of the run feeling pretty strong and finished it out after 30.22 miles averaging a 9:49 pace. I was hopping to add another few miles but really started to feel it in my left knee heading down hill on the last mile, so I decided its still training and to play it safe. Overall I feel pretty good about the last 5 months of training and now it's time to take it easy, stay loose and prepare for race day.
Sunday Rest and Eat Day
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