I survived....

...my last 20-miler of training!!!

Pretty much because I'm lazy, I'm going to cut and paste an email I just sent to my running buddies Louise and Maria that sums up my feelings at this point:


I did 20 today. My last one! I know 4 weeks out is pretty long but some sites/books say the "conservative approach" is good for people with minor injuries (like my shin splints) so whatever, I'll go with it. I have a half-marathon next weekend so I didn't want to do the 20 with only 2 weeks to go. I guess I could have added 6 or 7 to the race next week (like you were gonna do)....but oh well :) I'll probably keep my weekly training the same until the last 2 weeks, because I haven't been running an enormous amount of miles during the week anyway, and just shorten the long run.

It's funny, because when you do your 2nd or 3rd really looong run it does somehow get a bit "easier"...although I was delirious for like the last 3 or so...knew I could do it but don't know how it happened. Finally the end appeared. Mentally it was tough, but also easy because we know we can do it!!!!!! By the way I tried out GU Chomps for the last two long runs, and I really like them, even better than Clif Blocks. I think the gel is just nasty and doesn't always agree with me. I also tried the Extreme Sports Beans with Caffeine...nom nom! They are good.

Oh also I heard something really good from a running website that says you should think of your 16-20 milers not as the first 16-20 of the marathon, but as the LAST. It's more similar to the last part because our bodies are already so fatigued from all the training. This was a relief to think about today, because after 20 I was like "there is no WAY I could run 6 more right now!" Haha.

So...yeah.

I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon (holy crap, is it 6:30 already!?) resting my feet on a bag of ice and water. It really helps!!!

'Til next time.