20 - 4 = 16

I guess it was a self-fulfilling prophecy when I said in my last post that I didn't want to jinx myself. I had one of my two 20 mile runs scheduled this weekend and I didn't get it done. I did 16 miles. I told myself when I started marathon training this year I wouldn't beat myself up if I didn't train hardcore and for the most part I haven't. Mostly because everything has been going so well. But yesterdays long run brought me back to reality and humbled me a little.  As you can see in pic below, it was sunny and in the mid 50's. What you can't see is the wind. It was howling out of the north at 15-20mph. At times I had a hard time hearing my headphones. I guess I should have gone to church.


Pray for me!

Below is a pic I took (but zoomed in little) last weekend, but it shows the hill that I ran yesterday, twice. I mapped out a 10 mile route and then would simply turn around and run back. Easy peezy, lemon squeezy, right? Not so much. In the pic below, I was running with the wind from mile 6-10 and at one point a paper cup blew past me going the same direction. What you don't see in this pic is the hill I had to run up to to get to this point. I guess that's why they call it Apple VALLEY.

Pilot Knob road - facing south (this pic is from 5/8)

Now here is a pic I took yesterday coming back, miles 10-14, into the god forsaken wind. I was actually feeling pretty good at this point. My time at the 10 mile turnaround (and water bottle fill up) was 1:22. But the next 4 miles kicked my ass.


Pilot Knob road - facing north

 Another indication of the wind, the reeds on the lake were leaning over. Subsequently, I felt like I was leaning the other direction into the wind.
Anyway, around mile 16 I was coming down a hill (big suprise) when I decided to step off the spacious path and run on the grass. I guess I was hoping to lessen the pounding my legs were taking on the downhills, but that turned out to be a bad idea. As I tried to step to my right onto the grass, my left foot didn't quite make it all the way over. I stepped on the side of where the path is higher than the grass and turned my left leg/knee. I didn't fall, but I had a little "hitch in my giddy-up". I walked for a minute, then tried to run, and it kind of hurt. I decided that I didn't want to push it and called my lovely wife and daughters to come pick me up. As they pulled up about 15 minutes later (I probably covered another mile between my walking/running), I hear my 4 year old daughter yelling out the window, "DADDY! Are you alright?!, Are you bleeding!?" That's her way of gauging a "real" injury. I told her I was fine and she seemed a little disappointed, but concerned for my well being non-the-less. We went home, I took an ice bath, followed by a shower, and had lunch with my girls.

The reeds and trees are not supposed to be bent like that.

I was feeling a little down after my disappointing run yesterday as I told myself not to "skimp" any of my long runs during my marathon training. Then my friend emailed me this morning about a runner who died at a local marathon and I thought to myself that I have no reason to complain. Sad story as the guy was 35 years old and ran a time of 3:14:39 (BQ). I look at yesterdays disappointing run as a small blessing, it got me to spend a little more time with my girls.


Feeling better! Suns out, guns out!

Anyway, I felt pretty good today on my 3 mile lunch time run today with no knee pain, so hopefully it was just a little "tweak" and no real damage was done. Also, it was nice and sunny today (and not so damn windy!).

Later!