everything & more

The Eau Claire Marathon yesterday had perfect conditions and would have been a bummer to miss even though I wasn't treating it as a race. A course that followed residential streets and pathways with several bridge crossings over the river. Many turns and hills to keep it from being monotonous. Erik emailed me friday mentioning a last minute decision to register and wanted to do some of the miles together. Once we took off I let him go and began fidgiting w/my iPod while my bottle hung from my pinky finger. I didn't want to risk pissing of his parade knowing I'm far from 100% w/an IT band problem while he's down for the same reason as me. Turns out, we'll have to try again sometime as he clocked a time near what I had in mind if I'd been healthy. From training efforts leading up to that morning I found 7:45-8:15 pace safe but uncertain how long I'd be able to tolerate the moderate pain upon arrival. With only a couple twinges felt between miles seven and eight I would stride thru my 10 mile split on the fast end of my comfort range. So, I eased up realizing things can change very quickly as a person gets further in and since I've never made it past twenty miles running continuous I listened to myself. Completing the next 10 miles I saw my split to be 8-minute pace and had difficulty believing there was no soreness and fuel levels seemed adequate. I was now entering a place unchartered by me! This final 10k was run swifter than any other portion of my marathon and it came as an elated sensation. When done I had a skip in my step as I spotted Jen and Tony in the parking lot from the chute. I've finished in better times for the distance in the past but this is how I hope they all end in in future. Alternating walk-jog-walk-jog in the home stretch is really demoralizing. At this moment, I'm not beat up at all except for my left quad caused by overcompensating the injury and will resume as planned w/training but on the bike only until I rid of this nuisance. Plus, I'm ceasing to take pain reliever meds to see where damage to my tissue might be.

Week of April 27-May 3

Monday
commuter spin: ~1/2 an hour

Tuesday
road bike: 2 hours 1 minute @ HR of 111

Wednesday
AM run: 7 2/3 miles in 57 minutes @ HR of 146
PM road bike: 1 hour 20 minutes @ HR of 119

Thursday
swim: 10 laps

Friday
commuter spin: ~1/2 an hour
run: 7 1/3 miles in 55 minutes @ HR of 136

Saturday
run: 22 minutes @ HR of 135

Sunday
run: 26.2 miles in 3 hours 23 minutes @ HR of 150