It always feels good to reach a milestone. I reached one last night when I ran the longest distance I"ve ever run. Ever. 15.2 miles. It was supposed to be a 14 mile run, but I was feeling good and I guess I got a bit carried away. Actually, it was due to (mis)estimating my mileage by time as I was running. I estimated a mile too much. Well, 1.2 miles too much. This run was, of course, part of my marathon training plan.
Speaking of, the training is going well. I am now in week 3 of my training regimen and I'm starting to get used to the patern of things. Eventually I think I'll move my long runs off of Mondays and to Saturdays, as running 18 or 20 miles in one weekday evening could be a bit much. As it was, my 15.2 miler yesterday took me over 2 hours. That's a long time to be running!
I like the training program so far, and so far, my body is holding up well to it. I've run about 3 40 mile weeks so far and will do a rest week (30 miles) next week. 30 miles may still sort of sound like a lot until you realize that there is no run over 8 miles (usually no run is less than 9 these days) and that there is no long run to speak of. There also won't be any speedwork or tempo runs. I'm sure it will feel like a vacation for the legs.
I took my first ice bath yesterday. It was cold. I did like it, though. It made my legs feel really good. Running for a long time is always hard on the legs so it feels good to numb them with the cold. And I guess the cold is good for them anyway. We don't have a proper tub, so I took it in Christian's little toddler tub, crouching down on my knees to immerse my lower legs. My feet don't like extreme cold, I've discovered.
I did my first speedwork session of the training program last week. Loved it! I always like running fast, and doing 1600 intervals made the 8 miles go by super fast. From a mental perspective, that is.
The marathon is approaching! Now that it is February, it seems like it is getting closer and closer!
