End Game
I tried getting the gears going again this morning, but felt off kilter enough not to bother pushing the limits and just did a half mile around the neighborhood. It's tough to resist the urge to try and run off the discomfort. Better to wait another day...maybe another day...
I'd have to look to be certain, but I think that the past 4 days have been the longest bit without running (other than post marathon) over the past year and a half. I'm still waking at 1:30-2:30am so I've needed to manage what to do with those moments. An injured rest is much different than a rest day. A rest day feels great. A injured rest feels anxious as though I should be out there in the dark cold hours of the morning clicking off the miles.
I still have some things that need to happen this cycle
1. Fueling: I should have started this sooner, but with waterbottles freezing and hardly being able to feel my fingers, it made it tough. In all likelihood I'll be ok on this front as long as I do what I did last time. I'm not using any new kinds of concoctions.
2. 10 miles at Marathon Pace: I've done 9 miles at goal pace twice and struggled 50% of the time. I would like to get at least one nice 10 mile practice in before race day. One run without freezing weather or downpouring or blistering wind. I recognize this is a bit of a skewed run at this point because my legs have been rested.
3. New shoes: I got fancy new shoes that need a trial run. They are supposedly "super shoes" but that doesn't guarantee they are super for me. I tried them on briefly and the impression is positive, but standing in a shoe is not the same as hitting the pavement. If I don't get practice in the shoes, I'll use my current racers even though they started to give way a bit on my sore feet at mile 18-20. Was it the shoes or was it the 18 miles before. Probably the later.
4. Weather: It could be blazing on race day. There's nothing I can do about that happening. I think the average training temperature has been about 20 degrees the past three months.
All these elements can be performed at once, and having covered the marathon distance in the past I'm not overly concerned about the long 16 mile run scheduled. My previous 2 16mile runs felt solid and consistent with one another. They didn't feel like a million bucks, but certainly like they should have felt for the number of miles I had on my feet at the time I ran each of them.
Perhaps some of this chatter of mine is trying to persuade myself it is going to be alright. I'm not adjusting my goal. I'm sticking to the 3:15:00 and still think it is with in reach because of the high level I paused at last week. Even if I didn't run for another 5 days I think I'd be able to pull off a win. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
