Seattle - I'm ready to Rock'n'Roll

So I went for my 20 mile run yesterday and I FEEL GREAT!

After the 17/18 mile run I felt awful, like I could barely finish and like doing the marathon was a big mistake. Yesterday I did the 20 at a better pace than the 18 and I felt like I could have kept on going and my legs feel awesome today.

I paid more attention to my pace, and especially my hydration and nutrition, and the weather was certainly cooler and less humid, but whatever it was, it was great.

I can't wait to get to Seattle!

June 10 - VF loop run

I met one of the new folks from red group (USA Fit) tonight at Valley Forge. It was a good think that Sam & I had plans or I would have skipped the run because it was gloomy and humid and looked a lot like rain.

She's at the fast end of red, and I think she might be a yellow, and she was pushing the upper limits of my pace. It was good though, to feel like I was working hard. We eased off a little on the 2nd half of the run (thank god!) and averaged about 11:30 miles even with all the walking at the beginning. It was a good outing and I'm glad I had her to meet or I would have missed it for sure.

Legs are feeling great and I'm looking forward to big miles this weekend as a last push for Seattle. Hopefully I can knock out 20 on Saturday.

My mysterious ankle injury seems to have spontaneously healed itself after the 18 miles this weekend. Thank goodness!

I'm super excited about the upcoming trip.

General News

On Sunday, Brian & I went out for a nearly 18 mile run. Well, it was kind of a run, kind of a walk, kind of a hike. No matter -- we were out in the sun moving for about 4 hours and very close to 18 miles. It was hot, it was sometimes fun, and ultimately I think it was good prep for Seattle.

We started out with the plan to do the Audobon Loop (hilly 4 miles) then an out on the Perkiomen to Pawlings Road connecting to the River Trail and then heading over to the Valley Forge loop before heading back to the car. We ran into a little trouble connecting to the River Trail because we decided to try to use VF trails instead of the road and they weren't very clearly marked and the grass was super high and overgrown. That part was fun and frustrating and ultimately we wasted so much time that we decided to forgo the loop for just a straight out and back along the Schuylkill & Perkiomen trails.

We also saw three snakes! One big dead one, one big LIVE one, and one tiny cute one that I had to rescue from being smooshed by zooming guys on bikes.

Running was mostly good, sometimes difficult. Tried run/walk for the last five miles and learned that my intervals were too much running for when I was tired. Galloway suggests 2/1 for my pace, which I thought seemed too wimpy, but now I think that's probably right on.

Hopefully the weather this weekend will be good enough for another long run and some more experiments.