Marathon Week 16

This is a mixed post because I'm technically in week 16 of 18 right now; week 15 was the climax of my training but I was too blasted to write anything.

The new shoes are doing great. It seems the self diagnosis was correct and the tenderness is slowly receding. The legs adjusted pretty well to less arch support, which I'm building my own theories on after reading about the barefoot runners. We'll leave that for another post.

This past weekend before my long awaited 20 miler, the boys and I loaded up for our traditional November camping trip to the Sipsey Wilderness, which is the third largest US wilderness east of the Mississippi River. I couldn't wait to get to our camping spot with the viewpoint of the pic above. Beautiful.

I guess what makes this trip so special is the fact that we just get to be a bunch of dudes sitting around the camp fire with no plans or worries except maybe what we're going to eat next, ha!

We woke on Saturday morning to a cool 40* F temperature and luckily my sleeping bag was rating for just that temp. I was like a little kid though because I couldn't wait to wake to the smell of campfire and the taste scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon and some smooth community coffee. Hold. Let me wipe my mouth.

After breakfast we struck out on a hike that's in the middle of one of the most beautiful places that Alabama has to offer in my opinion. I think the trail is just over 2 miles but your attention is so rapped up in your surroundings it would probably take you about 3 hours one-way.

Small waterfall after small waterfall and rock face after rock face, just amazing scenery to say the least. Too bad it's not too mountain bike friendly.

After jumping in what had to be about 35* F water, we made out way back to pack-up and head back to reality. I tell you that stream would make for the best ice bath a cyclist could stand. I probably should have stayed a little while longer to prep the legs real good for the next days run.

So, Sunday I woke and you would have sworn it was race day. I'd never ran 20 miles before but it was staring me in the face daring me to try. I strapped on the new Asics and it was party time until about mile 16.

If you've been following previous post you know that I've been taking on 8 ounces of water and a gel every 4 miles, that seems to be to right amount for me. Well, when I started back after mile 16, the legs didn't like it, the muscles weren't firing. I was experiencing something foreign to my training, no range of motion, lol! Not good.

I did like every other stubborn endurance athlete would do and started running, not painful, just stiff. They finally loosened about 1/2 mile later and I was on my way to reaching a goal never achieved....20 miles!

I finished in exactly 3:00 hrs with a 9:00 min/mile pace and there was a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, I had reached the pinnacle of my training. Sigh.

I'm very thankful that I've reached this point with no major injuries, considering I've never previously ran more than a 5k. I'm now a little more than 2 weeks out and I'm ready to tack on another 6.2 miles. I'm still battling a realistic finishing goal. I want a 3:30 so bad but I wouldn't be disappointed with a 3:40-3:45.

Oh yeah, check out the new Switchfoot and John Mayer CDs, great running music.