Marathon Training, Week 5: In Which Dr. S. Tolerates My Extra-Special Brand of Neurotic

Ah, the smell of wet plaster in the morning...

Today was visit #3 to my PAMF podiatrist, Dr. Saxena.

The briefest of recaps from visits #1 & 2:

• I have a moderate case of MTSS that is most likely caused by over-pronation that isn't being corrected sufficiently by stability shoes & semi-custom orthotics.
  
• A few weeks of TheraBand exercises to strengthen the small muscles in the lower legs often corrects the trouble but in my case didn't.
  
• The next steps were to try custom orthotics as a long-term preventative measure & air casts as a temporary measure to let the damaged soft tissue heal. Also, I can keep following my same training schedule as long as I don't experience any bleeding-out-the-eyeballs levels of pain.
  
• I got the air casts but found them quite uncomfortable to run in for more than a mile and a half -- they felt like vice grips on the back of my foot.
  

(You can read about visits #1 & #2 in greater detail here and here, if you're, like, super into reading about podiatry or shin splints or Paula Radcliffe's bunions. Or if you're in the Bay Area & looking for a good podiatrist.)

So I went in today to be fitted for the orthotics. Now, I took my camera & had this whole grand plan involving documenting the process step-by-step, but it turns out to actually be a pretty quick, undramatic process and was over before there was really anything to document. (It also turns out that you have to lay face down on an exam table while you get your feet wrapped in warm plaster, so as you might imagine that is kind of a limiting factor.)

Here is a picture I found on the internet to make up for it.



It was pretty much like that.

(To prove I'm not completely morally bankrupt, here is the source.)

Regarding the air casts, Dr. S speculated that my feet were still trying to pronate since the orthotics I have aren't quite enough, and rolling against the hard plastic splints (hence the vice-grip-type pain). His take was that, since running in them for 1.5 out of, say, ten miles basically accomplishes nothing, that I should forget about them for now & try them again when I have the custom orthotics (which should take care of the pronation).

While he wrapped & molded my feet in warm plaster, Dr. S & I chatted a bit about running & marathon training in general (remember that he was a competitive high school & college runner & a 2:45 marathoner). I think if you go to see him, it's important to know that he is very straightforward as doctors go and not so much about the beating around the bush and sugarcoating things, which I definitely appreciate. This wasn't too surprising after reading his Yelp reviews, which are mostly quite good with a few abysmal ones here & there. As far as I could tell, people who gave him low ratings seem to want more of an avuncular sycophant who will confirm what they already believe (or want to believe) than a skilled doctor who will be straight with them & get them healthy again.

This was in evidence when he asked me if I had any particular goals for CIM, like qualifying for Boston. I told him about how I thought somewhere in the 3:20 - 3:30 range was probably a reasonable expectation based on my times at other distances, but that since it was my first marathon I was much more concerned with learning the preparation process and having a strong race. He asked me what my 10K time was and I told him around 44 minutes. "Yeah, you've got to be faster than that to run 3:20," he replied frankly. Heh. I'm sure this is completely true and I will be lucky to break 3:30 even if I have a perfect race.

We also talked about my mileage & how I was approaching training. I told him how I had started my marathon training at about 40 miles per week & wanted to peak somewhere between 50 & 55 miles per week. He said he firmly believed that 40 miles a week is about the minimum in terms of getting through a marathon with any modicum of health. (I'm pretty sure he meant people who are running with some sort of time / performance goal in mind, not people whose only goal is to finish.) "But obviously," he added, "the more you can run, the faster you'll be." His opinion seemed to pretty much be that 40 miles / week is a minimum for finishing a marathon safely, healthily, & with a respectable time, and that you really needed to be closer to 80 to really be strong at that distance. He's pretty much the first doctor (or health / fitness professional of any kind) who has actively encouraged me to build mileage as much as possible (without getting injured, obviously) as opposed to constantly warning me to back off, cut back, be conservative, etc.

Finally, we talked briefly about how I am pretty much obsessed with worrying about stress fractures. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "So, if I had a stress fracture, I would know it, right? Right? Because I pretty much worry about this every moment of every day."
Dr. S: "Probably. But not necessarily. They can happen suddenly but it's very rare. You probably should not worry about this every moment of every day."
Me: "Okay, but how would I know?"
Dr. S: "Can you hop on one foot?"
Me: [Hops on one foot]
Dr. S: "And the other?"
Me: [Hops on the other]
Dr. S: "Does it hurt?"
Me: "No..."
Dr. S: "Yeah, it's pretty unlikely that you have a stress fracture."
Me: "Okay, but if I did start to get a stress fracture, how would I know?"
Dr. S: "So if there's a spot in your leg that pretty much hurts the whole time you're running and then you're limping after, then you might have a stress fracture."
Me: "Oh, okay. Because my legs don't usually hurt much when I'm running. It's mostly after."
Dr. S: "Yeah. That's because you don't have a stress fracture."
Me: "Okay."
Dr. S: "Seriously. If you had a stress fracture, you probably would not be able to run at all. So chill."

*dramatization

So, you know. That made me feel better.

So yeah. The orthotics should be ready in about two weeks; at that point I'll go back to have them fitted into my shoes (though Dr. S. said I could still take them out & use them in other shoes, just as with my current ones). In the mean time, I'm doing alright, MTSS-wise. Every now & then I get a little stabbing pain in one of my shins, and the medial areas are still very tender after I run, but for the most part it doesn't interfere too much. (Also, ice helps a lot with the pain. Which, all things considered, really isn't all that severe anyway.)

Tune in two weeks from now when SF Road Warrior finally becomes FULLY BIONIC!!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Why Not Kill Someone With Lemons?

I didn't kill anyone with lemons this weekend but I kind of wanted to.

Last week I blogged about my follow-up visit to the podiatrist, & how he was not pleased with my progress re: the MTSS from hell. The next step was custom orthotics (a preventive, potentially permanent solution) and air casts (a hopefully temporary way to stabilize my lower legs & let the existing damage heal in the immediate future). I was not excited about these options because they seemed rather Bionic Woman-ish. Not to mention pricey as hell.

But the more I continued to run & put up with the pain and worry about stress fractures & get all anxious about my CIM fee going to waste, the more I started to feel like I didn't really have a choice. If I were running 30 casual miles a week, that would be one thing. Building mileage I haven't even been close to for nearly a year for a marathon is something else. Finally I decided it was stupid to risk it & pulled the trigger.

I'll be fitted this Thursday for the orthotics. The air casts arrived last Friday; I had a HMP run scheduled for Saturday at the track so I decided to take them for a spin.







Dead seckseh, no? Try not to be too jealous.

I should've seen the shittiness coming when I arrived at the track and found it closed due to what looked like an elementary school field day of some sort. (Truly, I don't begrudge kids opportunities to be active. At all. But I have never once seen the track closed for an even that actually made use of the track. That's actually what makes me bitter.) So, with a sigh of resignation, me & my bitter bionic shins schlepped up to the concrete track at the top of the bleachers & started our bitter three-mile warm-up jog.

Which didn't last very long. It turns out that running in air casts is excruciatingly painful. The best way I can describe the sensation is like running with the back part of each foot in a vice grip. (On top of this, the rigidity of the casts also makes it almost impossible to plantarflex your foot, which almost forces you to land flat-footed. I could hear myself going smack-smack-smack all the way around the concrete track. Definitely not cute.)

I made it about a mile before I stopped to see if I could adjust them in some way, but nothing worked. On top of this, I was having a really, really hard time effort-wise; running a nine-minute mile was taking way too much out of me and I couldn't for the life of me imagine how I was going to bust out a bunch of 7:37's once my warm up was done. (Sound familiar much?)

Basically, I think the upper concrete track is cursed. That's really the most obvious explanation by far.

At about 1.5 miles I stopped again, seething. I ripped the casts off and threw them into my bag, pissed as hell at elementary school kids, soccer players, the city's complete inability to post any kind of consistent schedule for the track, the clearly incompetent designers of air casts, the stupid backstretch headwind, and my stupid legs for their inability to just work.

At that point, I was ready to pack it in. (Just for clarity, this was the lemony part where I wanted to kill people, and if I had maybe had a bucket of lemons and a better arm it might have gone very badly for those little kids on the infield.)

(I am joking so please don't send me hate mail about menacing small children.)

In the end, though, no one was harmed. I sat in the bleachers for a bit, massaging my feet (it really took several minutes for them to feel normal again) & trying to decide what to do next. The weather was getting nasty and I had a finite amount of time. It would've been pretty darn easy to toss my bag in the trunk and just drive back home at that point, but instead I found myself ruminating on the words of Newark Mayor Cory Booker:

"You cannot let your inability to do everything undermine your determination to do something."

These are awesome words purely because of how widely applicable they can be. I can't remember when or where I first heard them, but I've come back to them over and over again in running, in my professional life, in my personal life, you name it. When things suck and you realize you just aren't going to be able to do what you planned or what you want to do or wish you could, it's easy let your emotions run away with you and throw your hands up. Why bother.

It's important to remember, though, that great things are often just a series of small things brought together. Don't fool yourself into imagining that the small things are irrelevant, just because they're small.

Okay, I sighed to myself, I'm not going to wear the air casts and I'm not going to try to do a HMP run today. What can I do, then?

I had an easy ten miler scheduled for the next day. I decided I could do that. I'd already run 1.5 miles, so I made a deal with myself that if I could just get myself mentally through 8.5 more easy miles, that would be good enough.

So I did. Well; sort of. The rebellious part of me did kind of go, "Eff target paces. You're lucky my ass isn't in the car on the way back home right now. I'm running at whatever the hell pace I feel like. Deal with it."

So I did. Suddenly, a few miles in, I looked down at my Garmin and realized I was running faster than marathon pace, and that it felt pretty easy. It seemed to be working for me, so I kept doing it. When I hit a few uphill stretches, I was careful not to run too hard; even if I couldn't really call this pace "easy," I still wanted to finish my ten miles strong and without breathing hard. In the end, that's what I did. My average pace ended up being about ten seconds slower than marathon pace, but it felt MUCH more than ten seconds per mile easier. Bizarre, considering how those Thursday MP runs have been the bane of my existence lately.

What was I saying?

Right. Lemons. And Cory Booker. And small things.

Sometimes "perfect" is the enemy of "good" and sometimes "good" is the enemy of "done." Likewise sometimes nice, neat, meticulously-planned training plans can be the enemy of good, solid running. And sometimes good, solid running is the enemy of any running at all.

Cory Booker sez, "Git 'er done, bitch!"

And sometimes doing whatever you can, however you can surprises you with a great run.

Week In Review: Sept 19 - Sept 25

This is my weekly training journal. Including it in the blog gives me a little extra accountability in the mileage department & helps me stick to my schedule. :)

7 Weeks to Clarksburg Half Marathon

10 Weeks to Cal International Marathon

After finishing my long run Sunday feeling pretty trashed & with a painful tendon in my left leg, I decided to take both Monday and Tuesday off. That week was my highest mileage in a very long time with some tough runs, plus this week was already scheduled as a cut-back, so I figured starting the week with two rest days was probably not the worst idea I ever had.

It did end up being more of a cut-back week than I intended; I meant to get another 8 miles in on Sunday, but it didn't happen. Such is life. All I can do is plan better next time.

Wednesday: 6 miles easy. It was HOT today, and although the tweaky tendon felt a little bit better for the rest, my tibias / shins were NOT happy with me. I am a little bit neurotic about stress fractures, and although I've been really careful about increasing mileage, pronation-induced shin splints does put me at a certain amount of risk. Although the pain gets pretty bad at times, I'm still passing the vast majority of the stress fracture tests (pain comes and goes with running instead of just getting worse; hopping on one leg is fine; there are localized spots on my shins that hurt when I press, but it's not excruciating pain, etc.), so I'm trying not to obsess too much.

Thursday: 9 miles (2 wu + 7 @ MP) 7:58 / mile & 175 bpm. These marathon pace runs are becoming BY FAR my toughest runs of the week -- absolutely harder than my half marathon pace runs, even though they're 20-30 seconds slower per mile and only a mile or two longer. On one hand, marathon pace should be 80-90% of max heart rate and this pace puts me at about 78%, so it's certainly not as if I'm over-taxing my cardiovascular system. On the other hand, right now I just can't imagine keeping up that pace for 3-4 hours. Could it just be a mental thing in terms of which distances my brain knows and is familiar with? Is it just that my body is tired, so the runs are harder on my musculoskeletal system? Is it that I've been doing my MP runs on the roads (meaning more hills and wind and a harder surface) and my HMP runs on the track (some wind, but only in small spurts)? All I know is, this run was utterly MISERABLE and I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear that last chirp from the Garmin. Ugh.

Saturday: 10 miles (1.5 easy, 8.5 MPish?) I'll post more about this run later. It was supposed to be a 3 mile warm up followed by a 5 mile HMP run, but for various reasons, that didn't happen. Still, it was a good run and I'm glad I got it in.

Sunday: 8 miles (3 wu + 5 HMP) Bemoan poor planning. I was really just a mess Sunday, logistically. I mean to be honest, it was raining when I woke up, and I don't really see how I can be expected to get much of anything done when it's raining. Sigh. Better luck next week, I suppose.

Grand Total: 25 miles

If it hadn't been a cut-back week anyway, I might be kicking myself for this. While not a habit I want to get into, missing one run is not the end of the world. This week, back to our regularly scheduled mileage.

Link: Dreams, Goals, & Expectations

I only recently started occasionally reading Adam Goucher and Tim Catalano's site, Run The Edge. For the most part, they tend to post light-hearted / funny / goofy stuff related to running, so it's pretty amusing to read. Recently, though, Adam posted a more serious piece entitled Adam Goucher: Olympic Dreams. It's a beautiful post that you should definitely read for yourself, but mainly he talks about how the way he thought about running and goal-setting changed for him between high school and his professional career. As a high school kid, he dreamed big, bold, audacious dreams (Olympic medals, world records, etc.) that filled him with joy and delirious excitement about running and training. As his career progressed, though, those euphoric dreams started to feel more and more like expectations, as if they weren't really his own anymore. His racing became less about achieving his dreams and more about meeting the expectations of others.

"When I was younger, I placed no limits on my dreams no matter how far fetched or improbable, but now I felt I needed to be realistic. I no longer allowed my imagination to soar and see myself shattering world records. Of course I still dreamt of winning the gold and deep down I would think, maybe just maybe… but I felt I needed to limit my dreams to more attainable goals like maybe a 10 second PR or a hard fought bronze."

Most of us don't face the same kind of pressure in terms of other people's expectations for our performance. Still, sometimes it's easy to put that pressure on ourselves to the point that running becomes less about the excitement of what we could achieve, and more about anxiety over what we feel like we have to achieve. Instead of filling us with excitement and a feeling of accomplishment, suddenly a good race is nothing but a relief. And rather than a learning experience that helps us to reflect and be thoughtful about our running and training, a bad race feels like an utter disaster.

In an effort to recapture that feeling of running for enjoyment and big, hairy, audacious dreams rather than meeting the expectations of others, Adam registered for the Rock N Roll Philly Half last Sunday. If he went under 65 minutes, he'd qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials (which would be his first ever marathon).

Does it sound like a crazy dream to imagine running my first marathon and qualifying for the Olympic games? Maybe. But once again it is my dream. It belongs to me...I know I am a long shot but I am healthy, motivated, and enjoying the chance to take one last shot at a dream. Most importantly, I am running for myself. I am running because I passionately love this sport. I feel connected with other runners again because our dreams are the same. We are all chasing the edges of our potential. I realize that I am no different from the runner who is striving to break 40 minutes in the 10K. We are both dreamers. We are both runners, kindred spirits, brothers and sisters in arms daring to dream big and letting our imaginations run wild.

It turns out he went 1:04:52 -- congrats, Adam! And congrats to everyone out there who raced Sunday, whatever dreams you're chasing.

Marathon Training, Week 3: In Which I Attempt Eating & Drinking On The Run

I'm not in the habit of carrying fluids or energy / nutritional supplements when I run. People often seem surprised by this. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying I don't find it pleasant to be able to quench my thirst during a run. On the other hand, I am a lazy ass muthaf**** and will do pretty much anything to avoid carrying things in my hands while I'm running.

Sometimes it's unavoidable. I used to pin my house keys to my shorts when I ran in the neighborhood. Then one night the safety pin managed to pop open at some indeterminate point during my first couple of miles & the keys went flying into oblivion. Once I realized they were gone, the only thing I could think of to do was run to my boyfriend's house, borrow his roommate's computer to log in to my email and find my roommate's phone number (because seriously, why would I know that??), leave her a message using his phone, wait for her to call back, then run to the bar where she was to borrow her keys so I could get into the house & then make new copies in the morning. Sheesh. To this day, unless I have a zipper pocket, I carry those bitches IN MY HAND. And even then I periodically check that they're still there. At a few smaller races with no sweat check I've also run holding my car fob.

Most of the time, though, I can get away without carrying anything very big. On a reasonably cool day, I can run eight or ten miles without water as long as I down a couple of glasses before I go. I'm not saying I'm not thirsty when I get back, but not that miserable, cotton-mouth-ey, boy-that-stranger's-garden-hose-sure-does-look-tempting kind of thirsty. If I'm on a longer run than that, Golden Gate Park is likely involved in some capacity, and there are enough water fountains there to keep me from reaching the afore-described level of thirst.

The concept of ingesting something non-liquid during a run is a foreign concept to me. On my first-ever half marathon, I carried a package of jelly beans in a little fanny pack (don't judge). For every one I managed to get into my mouth, probably at least three or four ended up on the ground. Plus they made my stomach feel kind of funny. On every half since then I haven't bothered to carry anything & just made sure to eat a solid, carb-ey breakfast & grab some Gatorade (or whatever) at every aid station. That's always worked out pretty well for me.

Of course, a marathon is a different story so I am going to have to get this drinking / feeding myself while running situation handled sometime in the not-too-dim-and-misty future. Hence a trip to Sports Basement, where a hand-held water bottle and various packages of gelatinous substances were purchased. (Full disclosure -- I didn't actually purchase the Gu Roctane; those, I won in a giveaway from the inestimable Rad Runner, along with some tasty, tasty nuun & a few packs of Gu Chomps. The flavor was peach tea, which sounds weird but was actually quite good!)

I won't embarrass myself by telling you how much time I spent staring blankly at the racks and tubs of water bottles of every conceivable shape, size, and price. Eventually, I'd examined enough of them to figure out what features I wanted (compact, hands-free top/nozzle/sucker/thing, roomy zipper pouch, key ring clip, reasonable price). Unfortunately, it seems as if the hand-strap water bottle industry has yet to create a product that meets my requirements. So I settled for the Camelbak one, which, although it's a little taller and the zipper pouch isn't quite as roomy (maybe two gels' worth at most), does have the hands-free top, the key ring clip, and was only $16.00 (which I still think is a rip-off but what are you going to do).

Friends, I have to say that I just don't know how this hand-held situation is going to work out for me. I've taken the bottle on three runs so far, just to get some practice holding & drinking from it -- an easy run last Monday (6), my MP run last Thursday (2 wu + 7 MP), & my long run Sunday (14). When it's full I feel like I'm trying to run with a dumbbell in one hand. I have to tense some of the muscles in my arm to support its weight, which really throws off my upper body form (I can feel my shoulders twisting back and forth, which is really bad). Also, drinking out of it while I'm moving has been extraordinarily difficult -- I have to slow down considerably to actually get anything out of it. (Then again, this could just be lack of coordination on my part. It wouldn't be the first time...)

I'm also not sure how great it is for me to have unfettered access to fluids at all times. I feel like a lot of the time I'm just drinking out of it because it's there, not because I'm actually thirsty. I feel like this could very quickly lead to a sloshy stomach, emptying the bottle within a few miles, and/or needing a pee break (which I'm hoping to avoid).

I'm not sure if ingesting gels really counts as "eating," but I took two Gu's with me on my Sunday long run as an experiment in logistics & digestion -- one Tri-berry and one Jet Blackberry. I was going 14 miles so I decided for no particular reason to eat one at five miles and one at ten miles. (As I suspected, those two Gu's barely fit into the bottle's zipper pouch, and I still couldn't close it all the way.)

The good news: I did manage to get both packages open & to get just about all of their gelatinous contents into my mouth & down into my stomach without stopping or making a giant mess.

The bad news: I cannot tell you how appalled I was at the texture / flavor of that stuff. Oh my god. WHY DID NONE OF YOU WARN ME??? (Boy that sounds a bit tawdry out of context...)

You know what it tasted like? Faintly berry-flavored chocolate ganache. Now, I've got no beef with chocolate ganache, but it is NOT at the top of the list of things I want to taste while running. EW.

Clearly, there is no God. I just can't believe that a just, benevolent deity could allow such a disgusting substance to exist in the world. (Seriously; I almost choked, stumbled, & spit it out onto the ground. Probably only the knowledge that I paid a freaking buck twenty-five for it kept it in.)

The first one seemed to sit fine in my stomach once I washed the tasted out of my mouth. I managed to choke down the second one at mile 10 for the sake of science, and that also seemed to go fine, so at the very least, I've learned that regular Gu agrees with my digestive system while I'm running well enough. I am hoping that some of the other flavors are less revolting, though.

So there you go. My first foray into on-the-run fueling / drinking. Next week: Will she give the dorky fuel belt a shot? Eh? Eh? (Hint: Only if I can look this awesome. Thanks for the pic, runningskirts.com!)

Runner Boobs

It is a pretty sweet day in the blogosphere when I can read two awesome sports bra posts in the same day. At RunnersRambles, I learned about the Zensah bra, and at XLMIC, I learned (or re-learned, actually) about the Moving Comfort Juno bra. (And also about how the first sports bra was two upside-down jock straps stitched together by a frustrated runner. True story. That's it right there. Aren't you glad you live in this decade?)

Several women in both comments sections remarked on the dearth of comfortable, functional sports bras for large-breasted women. (In the "Sports Bra History" article at XLMIC, you can read about how, even once the sports bra gained commercial legitimacy, designers poo-pooed the idea of a version for women in the DD range because they just couldn't believe that there could be that many large-breasted women in sports.) In the grand scheme of things, I guess I fall about in the middle -- the cute little yoga bras are not going to cut it, but I haven't had to suffer the same trials and tribulations of truly large-chested athletes.

The "Sports Bra History" article mentioned a company that I have heard good things about but haven't thought about in a while called Enell. Enell was started by the woman who first commercialized the idea of a sports bra for D / DD / etc. women (which I did not know until reading the article). If that's you and you just haven't found the right fit yet, you might also give them a try. :)

Week In Review: Sept 12 - 18

This is my weekly training journal. Including it in the blog gives me a little extra accountability in the mileage department & helps me stick to my schedule. :)

8 Weeks to Clarksburg Half Marathon

11 Weeks to Cal International Marathon

Monday: 6 miles easy. This was a pretty good run except for the uphill sections, which I ran a little too fast. Which is also par for the course. I need to make sure to keep easy days *truly* easy.

Tuesday: 6.5 miles (2 wu + 6 x 800 @ 10K pace w/ 400 recoveries) Even though I had a good speed workout last Tuesday, it was still kind of a psychic relief to have a good 800s workout after the shit-storm two weeks ago. (There was no actual shit involved...I am learning that on running blogs, it is important to specify this whenever there could be a question.) I was working pretty hard by the end but got every single 800 in right at 3:40, which, when you account for the headwind on the backstretch, is about 10K-pace-ish.

(I feel like I type "the headwind on the backstretch" so much that it should get its own name. Maybe I'll start calling it Carl.)

Thursday: 9 miles (2 wu + 7 @ MP) Got it done at a 7:55 pace, but did NOT feel good after. When it comes to strength work, lunges are kind of like my arch nemesis, and Wednesday night, I did lunges for the first time in many, many weeks. Although I didn't do all that many, I clearly I over-did it; my hamstrings and glutes felt like rocks going into the run (and not in a good way), and afterwards they felt like hamburger meat. I see a lot of stretching and foam rolling in my future

Friday: 4 easy REST. There's residual soreness, and then there's the hurtin' sort of pain that makes you walk funny. I have a rule about not attempting to run when I can't even walk normally. (Also, some crazy shin pain today that's making me a bit nervous.)

Saturday: 8 miles (3 wu + 5 HMP) Pretty psyched that I didn't get kicked off the track for a soccer game today. (For the record, I'm not categorically anti-soccer; only when it unexpectedly interferes with my running!) Same average pace (7:37 / mile, with wind) and heart rate (189 bpm) as last Saturday's HMP run, but definitely easier mentally. In fact, it felt positively easy...Then again, I suppose if HMP doesn't feel easy after only five miles, you're in trouble. I haven't run a half in nearly a year, and didn't wear a heart rate monitor in that one, so I have no idea what kind of heart rate I can expect to maintain for 90-100 minutes. I feel like 188 is a pretty good estimate, at least for the first ten miles; I may go with that & then just kill it for the last 5K. My shins were still pretty painful after, but while I was running they felt completely fine, which I guess is at least not a bad sign.

Sunday: 14 miles easy. This is the farthest I've run in nearly a year. Other than a head-on collision with a cyclist (seriously; she actively swerved into me when, as far as I could tell, there was nothing for her to be swerving around; the farther out of her way I tried to get, the farther she served) and an irritated tendon near my left ankle, it went pretty well. I ran most of the miles in the 8:50's and negative split the whole thing; plus, I got my first Gu practice in, which I'll be posting about shortly. :) On the other hand, my body feels pretty trashed as I write this (about an hour post-run), so I'll probably be taking the next two days completely off to make sure everything's kosher. It's a cut-back week anyway so whatevs.

Grand Total: 43.5 miles

Getting there. :)