That Plus 10 Miles

Another 16 mile run. This time I had to drag myself out of bed and felt like the run was doomed for the first few miles. And rationalized all the reasons why I should cut the run short.

But I didn't. I got far enough away that I had to complete the run to make it back home. I felt better the second half of the run too. I have a new fuel belt which made hydration much easier. But the daunting fact that I have to do today's run PLUS 10 miles is nagging at me at the moment.

My wonderful fiance is planning to run the last 8 miles of the marathon with me so I think that will help-- I originally asked him to run the last 6, but the course comes by our house at mile 18 so it makes sense for him to jump in there. His training consists of running my Tuesday run with me each week-- 4 miles or so and playing ultimate frisbee a few times a week, but he has entertained the idea of running the entire thing with me a few times.

Ice bath-ed again and will ice this complaining IT band a bunch today. And now it's off to relax at a friend's cabin for the holiday weekend.

Longest Run Ever (Again)

I am enjoying this phase of my training-- every week is a new "longest run ever!". This week was a 16 miler. I kept right around the 10 minute mile pace, and felt really good throughout. 16 miles is a LONG way though! I covered some serious ground in and around Portland. But it's a fabulous way to get to know a new city!

I bought a "real" fuel belt on Sunday and will start working on the hydration element of my running. The fueling I think I have figured out, but generally I don't drink any water at all while I run (including on my long runs for 1/2 marathon training). But that approach is just not going to work now that I am above 10 mile runs every weekend.

This week my challenge is to not slack on the mid-week runs either... we'll see how that goes.

In other news, I have a new job, and need to figure out how to work my runs around my new schedule.

Where I've Been

With big plans to keep on track with my running schedule while traveling, backpacking, moving and visiting friends and family we left LA at the end of June. We landed in Portland, our new home, last week. The running plans were adhered to on occasion, but largely proved to be impossible due to a) grizzly bears (more on this later) b) being in a new place every night c) other priorities.

I think the other priorities is something a lot of athletes, and runners/triathletes especially, run up against time and again. There is a time and place to organize your life around running and while on a vacation planned for three years with one's significant other, it's to everyones advantage that running be a "only if it fits in" activity, rather than what the day is planned around.

We were quickly at elevation in the Grand Tetons at the beginning of July, and able to squeeze in a run on the main road in Tetons. We were staying at the Jenny Lake campground, a highly coveted tent-only site, with a lake at its edge. Boyfriend wanted to run around the lake on the hiking trail, but having spent a summer in Alaska, I realized that running in grizzly country is a quick way to incite a bear's hunting instincts. So we ran on the highly traveled road and saw zero wildlife while we were out there. Two weeks later a fellow backpacker in Glacier National Park relayed a close-to-home scary story about a runner being mauled on the Jenny Lake trail. Very glad we ran on the main road!

We got to our premiere destination, Glacier, July 21st and spend an amazing 18 days there. We hiked over 100 miles during the course of two trips, and I ran exactly zero times. I managed not to feel guilty about that for 17 out of the 18 days though! On July 25th, at the top of the highest pass we climbed Boyfriend proposed to me- making his moniker slightly outdated at this point, since I said yes!

The leg strengthening effects of that much hiking and many days of big elevation gain were indisputable! I was happy to be coming back down to sea level and reaping the effects of being at elevation for a month too. I started back into my running plan the first morning we were in Portland and have been generally on track ever since.

Yesterday was a 14 mile long run, which ended at 13.7 thanks to record-breaking heat and the realization that I HAD TO HAVE WATER right at THAT moment, and was in front of a Starbucks. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Starbucks while I am running- bathrooms & water at reliable intervals!) I hopped into the ice bath and spent the rest of the day re-fueling, as my body was definitely in "how do we recover from that again?" mode.

The rest of the month will be intense. I said to Fiance "the only things I am allowed to do in August are run and apply for jobs", and so far I've been relatively true to that. The time and the place for running to be the priority is now until October 5th: The Portland Marathon.