Training - Week 11 - Week 9 of Marathon Training - 16 Miles...New Route, New Pain

This is the first of 5 big long runs coming up for me in my training over the next 5 weeks as I fully prepare to tackle a marathon. I had to rework my schedule to get this long run in before heading to Indiana. I took yesterday off after my body just felt worn down and rugged after the BIX and trying to run afterwards.

I woke up early this morning to get out in the cooler temps and it was so nice to not be hot. I loved the weather this morning. It was in the 60's and perfect. I had to get out very early(I started my run at 4:45) because my wife has some Google Doc training for her school this morning.

I decided to take a whole new route to mix things up. I ran down the Duck Creek bike path and headed towards Davenport. I have never ran this way before in all of my runs so this was all uncharted territory. It was nice having somewhere new to run.

Everything felt great during the run except the bottoms of my feet and my knees. The last six miles my knees were giving me some excruciating pain where I really considered stopping. The rest of my body felt good. Had my knees not been in pain or my feet I think today was one of those days where I could have ran forever.

I just don't think my body has recovered from the BIX completely yet. My muscles are slowly getting back to normal, but my joints are still in recovery mode.

I wish I had my phone with me to take a picture early this morning when a deer was all of 4-5 feet from me just staring at me while I ran by. It had a look like, "Look at human being a fool running so early in the morning!"

Now I just need a nap and something to work out the stiffness and fatigue in my legs.

I ran the 16 miles in 2 hours 22 minutes which is an 8:53 pace. This is a nice steady pace and if I can keep that pace for another 10 miles then I will achieve my goal of running my first marathon in under 4 hours. I do need to pick up the pace quite a bit for my half marathon goal of running the Clinton Half in 1 hour 46 minutes which is a 8:05 pace.

Much work to do. One step closer to GETTING IT DONE!