Back to the grind...

As Tim predicted, there was no way that I was not running today. After stretching a ton, I set off with Mom's group (2:2). My ankle felt great...my legs felt great...things could not have gone any better, honestly. Until the rains came, which was pretty quickly...it poured on us from about mile .5 until the very end. We were slated to run 8.5 miles from the Concord YMCA in Brentwood. It is a pretty difficult run, it is flat at the beginning (and end because of it being an out and back), but then gets really hilly in the middle.

We plowed through the first 3.5 miles easily to the water break...from there, I took the last of my Hammer Gels (orange flavor) which tasted terrible. I purchased some GU (strawberry banana flavor) for next week, we will see how that goes. We are supposed to eat something once an hour to give our bodies something to break down and get energy from. I really like the ideas of gels...they come in small packages, so that they are easy to carry, but as of this point, I have not found a flavor that agreed with me. Maybe the Strawberry banana will work...anyhow...the gel did not kick in until around mile 4.5...so I had a rough mile in there...a funny thing happened though at mile 4.75...we had not turned around. Apparently, the course was mismarked, no worries, instead of 8.5, we would do 9.5, which would be the most we have done so far.

I was fine until about mile 7, that is when I started to hit a wall...I am thinking it is because I had had a glass of water, glass of cytomax, my hammer gel, and that was it...no breakfast of any kind. My next step is to find something I can eat for breakfast before the long run that won't make me want to drop a deuce during a race or long run. Anyway, at this point, Mom was getting a bit tired too and our mantra that we repeated a bunch that got us through the rest was "coffee, hot tub" due to we were going to go to Starbucks after the run and then to Mom's hot tub after that...

Not only did we make it, but we finished in pretty stellar fashion considering I had not run in 2 weeks and Mom had not run in 3 weeks...

Joe and Mom 9.5 miles 02:06:31 13:25 mile...
Karen 9.5 miles 01:50:00 - approximate time...

So, we got our coffee, got back to Mom's and WHAT! Gordon made pancakes...what a great surprise. So, long story short, great run today. I still feel good...I think I finally have the right shows, I FEEL NO PAIN...I may be sore later, but I do not hurt like I have. To close, here is an interesting statistic...using the finish time calculator at runnersworld online, after our run today, our predicted finish would be 2:54 minutes for the half. Now mind you, I have several goals in mind for this race.

1. Finish
2. Beat a 3:30 time...
3. And this is the big one...beat 3:00, I would be ecstatic if I could accomplish this...

Even at running the 2:2, this puts us in a good place...


Thank you for your support.

J

I did not spellcheck or grammar check this, so sorry if you find anything messed up.