Marathon Training: Week 9

We are officially past the halfway point in our training.  I can't believe I've made it to this point.  After this weeks 18 miles, I only have one more distance I haven't conquered yet- besides the marathon, obviously!  It's also a reason to celebrate- nice, spring weather is finally on it's way!  For the first time, our early morning runs were in capris and long-sleeve T's!

Monday: The schedule called for a 7 mile, "hill" training run... however, our early morning coordinator- Rosemarie- was unable to run early that morning.  And considering the hill workout Carrie put us through on Saturday, neither one of us felt up to running up and down a hill.  So we set out on 7 relatively easy miles.  My legs felt like lead, and I just couldn't get going.


Wednesday: I woke up feeling good, surprisingly ready for the 7 mile tempo run we had scheduled.  Can I just tell you how bizarre it is that 7 miles is now our weekday run?  I ran my tempo miles all under 9:00, which was exciting to me.  I think I felt the need to redeem my 10k from the weekend before.  I ended that run feeling better than I had on a weekday run in a while.

Friday: Instead of doing our long run on Saturday, it was easier to put those miles in on Friday.  Kala had to go out of town early Saturday morning, and I was anxious to get these 18 miles out of the way.  We were looking for a change of scenery, so we met at a park on the other side of town. 

We did a 5.5 mile loop through the park, back to our cars for fuel and water.  After some tummy and blood sugar issues on the past couple of long runs, I decided to try a different gel.  Accel gel has protein mixed into the formula, so I thought it was worth a shot.  I'm happy to say this is my new go-to fuel for long runs.  My stomach didn't hurt once and I didn't feel lightheaded or woozy.  Plus, I felt strong until the very end of this run.  In fact, this might have been my favorite long run to date!

We stopped once during the second loop of our run to potty.  I had some sport beans, and the caffeine in those really gave me a boost!  I really think the combination of a gel with protein and taking in more fuel during the run was KEY!

It wasn't until the last two miles of the run that I started to even feel tired.  And I was so angry, because I knew at that point, I wasn't even feeling tired physically.  It was all mental!  I started singing an old Rebecca St. James song- "You make the road rise up to meet me, You make the sun shine warm upon my face... God I lift You high, You are my Abba."  That helped, and before I knew it, 18 miles were done!  Another personal distance record for this girl is in the books.

Unfortunately, I once again messed up my garmin during the run, so my times are a little off.  I only show 17.25 miles, but Kala assured me I ran the full 18.

Long Run #9: 18 Miles
Average Pace: 9:35 (according to Kala)
Total Time: 2:56

Mile #1:   9:40
Mile #2:   9:20
Mile #3:   9:34
Mile #4:   9:12
Mile #5:   9:46
Mile #6: 10:04
Mile #7: 10:08
Mile #8: 10:04
Mile #9:   9:51
Mile #10: 9:33
Mile #11: 9:42
Mile #12: 9:20
Mile #13: 9:31
Mile #14: 9:39
Mile #15: 9:33
Mile #16: 9:44
Mile #17: 10:00