17 miles

“Pain is weakness leaving the body.”

I told myself this at mile 14. It wasn’t encouraging to my aching body. Nevertheless, I completed 17 miles. I ran 5 of those miles, however, with a full bladder. Why? Because the first bathrooms that I pass on my run were locked. I have no idea why. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen them closed, and of course it was the first time I really had to use them. Thankfully, I made it to the second set of bathrooms, 5 miles later, without any accidents.

Including bathroom/drink breaks, my pace was pretty much exactly the same pace at which I ran my 14-mile-run. Although it’s nice to know I’m not slowing down as the miles keep building, I really would like to see myself getting faster. I’m praying that the cool weather coming this fall will somehow impact my pace, but I have a hard time trusting in temperature alone to get me across the finish line under 6 hours…

Dilemma. Yes, I can switch from the marathon to the half-marathon. And I don’t even have to decide until October. But, it makes sense (at least to me), that I should try to decide sooner, so I can train accordingly.

The Hammer HEED was great. Lemon-Lime tasted completely different from Gatorade’s Limon-Lime or Limon-Lime Sports Beans, but it seemed to do its job and definitly has a conservative amount of sweetness to it.

On a side note–school starts again Wednesday, and I move into the dorm on Saturday. Class work load might be the sole determinator of whether I drop down to the Half. School definitly should come first. Theoretically, I have time to both study and train. The one difficulty, though, is having the disipline to do both with 100% effort. But such is life, I suppose.

Update: ITBS

Apparently, I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m sure you already figured that out. The iliotibial band does NOT run from the hip to the inside of the knee, as I inaccurately asserted in a previous post, but it runs down the outside of the leg to the outside of the knee. (Although I still think I saw “inside” in some article I was reading…)

Therefore, I have no idea why my upper leg randomly feels tight at times. I’m still doing as much stretching as possible, but I still don’t do enough.

The 14-mile long run went well. I need to start deciding when I’ll be stopping at aid stations and then mimic the same conditions on long runs (only 4 ubber-long ones left!). Yesterday I bought two single-serving pouches of Hammer HEED, the energy drink mix that will be used at the race. I normally use regular Gatorade powder (cheeper), but I decided that I needed to at least try this new stuff. And you never know–I might like it better.

ITB Syndrome

Apparently, ITBS is what has been plaguing my left thigh for a couple of weeks. I had never had any problems with the ITB whatsoever, so I’ve never stretched it and didn’t consider it when my leg started hurting in a “non-sore muscle” way. Until, that is, the weird feeling started alternating between the thigh and the inside of the knee. Bingo.

Now I’m doing the stretches, but I’m really opposed to backing off of my training plan. I am, however, starting to second-guess my marathon goal, and somehow the half-marathon looks so much more appealing. Is this just a mid-training psychological battle or are the recent injuries a sign of what is to come?

Marathon Ambition

It seems like whenever I try to update, I always get sidetracked and never get back to finishing. Anyways…

In an earlier post, I mentioned possibly running the Outer Banks Marathon in November. Well, instead, I decided to go for the City of Oaks Marathon. Same month (before my 20th birthday), a little sooner, a little closer to home, and a little cheaper. So I’ve registered, and I just completed week 14 of this plan. However, I must say I’ll definitly go back to creating my own running plans after the marathon. But for now, my only goal is to finish the marathon within the maximum time allowed–6 hours. I know that is plenty of time  for most people, but I run slow. So slow, in fact, that you probably can’t even imagine. Seeing that this marathon has significantly fewer participants than the other well-known events, I may very well be the last person to reach the finish line. I really don’t like that idea, but… it’s worth a shot.

I contemplated settling for the half-marathon this year. It’s a more logical step-up from 5K races. I would have more confidence, and I would also have time to throw in some speedwork into my schedule. But, I know that if I completed the half-marathon, there will always be the “what if.”