Sticking to the plan

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Ouch, ouch, ouch; now paying the price for one long tough 22 mile run... It was a miserable day for running today with heavy rainfall and gusty winds as another big system moved through.

Yesterday was a completely different story with a mild springlike day, sunshine, mild temps near +5C (40ies F) and NO wind! I even met 2 (count em, two!) runners while heading out the highway for an easy 8 miles. Finished with a set of 10 strides (more like pick-ups; just not feeling very fast or smooth). The run went fairly well otherwise but still have various aches and the beginings of a cold with a ticklish/flemmy throat.

As I said, today was a completely different story with nasty weather that reminded me of the KV marathon last fall with cold rain and wind. But I guess it could have been alot worse, and it is February and not October, isn't it? And so after delayed things as long as possible, waiting for the wind to drop and rain to stop, and even the temps were rising, finally got on the road at mid-afternoon. Even tried to convince K who was on MSN to join me but he already had pressing commitments (he says ;-)

Conditions were decent for the 1st part of the run with very mild temp of +9C, no wind and just a slight drizzle. Did a bunch of zigzags around town for the 1st hour before refueling at home and heading out of town to complete the almost marathon. Over the last few miles it really felt like I was running a marathon, the weather closed in, steady cold rain, legs and mind tiring, just one more mile, just one more mile. It's not fun at this point but you still can't cut the run short, the plan says x and we're doing x, so shut up! Finished the 22 in 3:13 and barely able to walk down the driveway to the house. Man that shower felt nice!

The purpose of these extra long run is the subject of much debate in the running world. Some plans max out at 20 and others actually go overdistance up to 28-30. I'm convinced that there is a benefit to the extra distance and can feel it working just sitting here on the couch. I'm especially partial to the idea of doing long runs by time on your feet equivalent to your expected marathon time, which for me is in the 3:10 to 3:20 range.

Total for the week is 77 with 2 doubles included, both new records. Total for January was 298, didn't make it to Frostbite Falls with the rest of the gang cause I got lost going in the wrong direction with all the running. Looking over my plan it says to re-evaluate now to see how I'm feeling at this point (I was worried about handling the extra load). (Ahhh, time out for ice-cream and peach cobbler, mmmmmm feeling much better) Besides being tired and sore I think it'll be all right, final report forthcoming.