My Running Weekend

Up real early Saturday and out the door by 06:30. My plan was to run 20 miles. I wanted an easy course so I chose Lunken Airfield.

I left my car at about 07:09 and it was still dark and cold. No wind but it was still much colder than I anticipated and I almost returned to the car for gloves and another jacket. By the time I got to mile three I had warmed up nicely and was feeling pretty good. This good feeling continued through 10 miles. I pit stopped at the car and grabbed my gloves, more water and some raisins before heading out for loop 3. Interestingly there were only a few people on the course when I started but as it got light and warmed up it seems like people just multiplied exponentially. But I digress. Loop 3 was fine until about mile 14 when my calves really started to ache. I finished loop 3 (15 miles) and really struggled with continuing; I was in a lot of pain physically but mentally I was determined to finish. The last loop was a real struggle but I persisted and finished just under 4 hours.

I think it was my first 20 miler in over a year so it felt really really good to get it done.

This afternoon I ran for about 40 minutes at EI. The trails are in perfect shape. I was pretty stiff but it felt good to get my muscles warmed up and stretched out. I work tomorrow so I'll have a day to recover before getting out again on Tuesday. Hopefully the rain we're due to have will either wait until I'm finished or be light enough that I can run despite the wet.