Going long

I managed to run 20 miles yesterday in 3.5 hours!!  This time included two potty stops,walking to eat goo, and a stop to buy water, so I’m guessing I maintained 10 minute miles the whole way.  After two days off due to weather, my legs felt strong and the miles weren’t too hard.  My hip had a dull ache for much of the run, but nothing too intense until the last mile or two. (Side note: I always think the last mile or two of any run is difficult, no matter if I’m running 20 miles or 6!)  I will admit that my hip started to bother me alot during the last couple of miles, but my mind was taken off of that pain by suffering caused by freezing cold wind off the Hudson River.  Why is it so damn cold already?!  However, despite that pain, today my hip doesn’t really hurt very much at all – it feels a little tight, but not sore.  I feel as though all of the stretching and rolling I’ve been doing has been working (knock on wood) and my hip is slowly starting to feel better.

One thing that did happen on my run was a bad tummy reaction to the goo I ate.  This paragraph is about to delve into the world of TMI, so feel free to skip ahead.  I usually eat the PowerBar Vanilla gels, but I bought a couple of chocolate ones because they have caffeine and I am a caffeine addict.  I noticed during the Staten Island Half that my stomach didn’t love the goo I ate, but didn’t think too much of it.  The yesterday, within 5 minutes of eating the goo, I had to make an emergency pitstop because I thought I was going to puke.  I didn’t think there would be that much difference between the different types of goos, but apparently there is.  I really hope my stomach isn’t rejecting all goo, just the chocolate ones.  I’m going to switch back to vanilla flavor for my next long run and see how my stomach does with that.  Has anyone else had a bad reaction to chocolate PowerBar goos before? I really hope I don’t have to figure out a new fuel source before the marathon!

Speaking of the marathon, I can’t believe I have only one more really long training run before the marathon!  Yay!!!  This training period seemed much shorter and less exhausting than for the NJ marathon.  I’ve trained for a shorter period and I think I was fitter starting out, so the training has seemed less difficult.  Another strange thing is that I haven’t gained any weight so far during training.  I weighed myself this morning and I’m at my usual weight – this is so strange for me because I always put on 5+ pounds while training.  I like to say its all the muscle I’ve gained, but I think it’s honestly just the side effects of carb loading and increased ice cream consumption.  I’m happy about this but it’s also unusual….I guess I still have about 5 weeks to gain that weight so maybe I shouldn’t say anything too soon…..

Ok back to doing work.  Lesson planning, grading, and all that jazz.