Hitting the Road for 19 Miles (and for Work)

Wow, running 19 miles was appreciably harder than the previous long of 17 miles, but it feels great to be on the edge of another milestone and about to hit 20-miler status. Late Friday night I decided to bump my long run up to Saturday morning due to expected showers all weekend, so I really didn’t eat properly the day before. The first 7 miles or so was running in a light rain, which was somewhat refreshing and a nice change of pace, and I felt really great for the first few miles after the turnaround at mile 9.5. As expected, my lack of preparation the night(s) before caught up and my last few miles felt a bit sluggish, also due in part to the rising temperature and humidity after the early rain.

The real challenge to my running starts this week, with business travel the next few weeks, and all of October before the race, it’s going to be hard to get in five days of running, especially 10-milers on alternating Wednesdays. Worst of all, my business travel is in urban areas without running trails, so I may have to endure the boring, less effective treadmill…not to mention the repetition tweaks and injuries that it causes. Add to that a long commute to a new project in Bethesda when I am home and diminishing sunshine as we hit fall, and logging 50 miles some weeks may require creative scheduling on weekdays.

But no one said it was going to be easy.

Week 9 Summary  -  (11 Weeks to Go)
Tues	4 mi
Wed	9 mi
Thurs	4 mi
Sat	19 mi
Sun	- rain out -
Total Week's Mileage: 36 miles

For total 20-week training plan from previous blog posting: Click here.