I ran 18 miles and still felt good!

No, I'm not training for a marathon.  But I am interested in doing more long(er) runs, because building my endurance helps me get my speed up.  And if my body is ok with long runs, why not take advantage of it??  I've been feeling so good after my 10, 12, 15 mile runs, I decided to try going further.  The loop I ran was such that I could quit closer to 15 or 16 if I wanted to, but I didn't want to.  My legs were starting to complain around 16 miles, but I wasn't desperate to stop.  Usually my stomach starts to feel like it is eating itself somewhere between 1.5 and 2 hours, but even though I ran for almost 2.5 hours, I never felt like I needed fuel or water.  I was impressed.  I never hit a wall.  I never bonked.  I didn't even get around to making my recovery drink until after a shower, and I still felt fine all day.  I've come such a long way since I first started doing runs over 10 miles when I would feel like death for the rest of the day!!

This week : 

M : 4.5 / 6:53 / 302 ft

pub run 3 / 7:39 / 0 ft

T : 6 / 8:14 / 443 ft

W : bike 20.2 / 17.8 mph / 1329 ft

R : 11.2 / 7:44 / 922 ft

Sa : 18.2 / 8:03 / 1099 ft

total miles run : 42.9 

total miles bike : 20.2

I had a board meeting Monday evening, so I knew I wouldn't be able to do much of the pub run.  I got out of work in time to go for a quick run of my own, so I pushed the 4.5 miles as hard as I could.  I then stopped in the pub to leave a message for anyone who might show up to run clockwise around the loop to find me, and I started the loop about 10 minutes early.  I wasn't really expecting anyone to show up, and no one did.  I ran the loop 3 times as a "cool down" from my faster run, and then I headed to my meeting.  

Tuesday I was really tired and didn't really feel like running, but didn't think I should take the day off either, so I did an easy, minimum mileage jog.  

Wednesday it was above 50 degrees out and when I left work I decided it was a good day to get back on the bike.  It was really windy, but I suspected if I didn't get on the bike now, how long would it be before I got another good opportunity? I'm glad I went.  It ended raining a bit during the ride, but I was treated to a gorgeous double rainbow that spanned the road I was riding down.  There was one part of the rainbow that was so bold and dark I could see every color clearly!  It was awesome, and my phone camera doesn't even begin to do it justice, but oh well.  

Thursday I was in a bad mood and needed to run it off, so I did a long run.  I would have liked to go further, but the lace in one of my shoes was being uncooperative and making my foot hurt in a random spot, that no amount of adjustment was fixing.  I hate it when shoes do that.  

Saturday's long run was awesome!  I had a long 15+ mile loop planned out, but I was starting around 6 in the morning and I realized as I was eating breakfast that it would be dark for the beginning of my run and I prefer to stay in town when it is still dark.  I knew that sunrise was just before 7, but I wasn't sure how far before sunrise the sky gets light out, and I didn't want to hit the back roads until I could clearly see where I was going.  So I scrapped the original plan and began looping around neighborhoods.  The sky started getting faintly light in the second mile, so I decided to head out of town.  I ran part of my originally intended route, but took a shortcut back towards town, and then added a second loop elsewhere, which brought me back to town right around 16 miles.  Then I ran the remaining 2.2 through town so that I would be close to home if my body decided to make a sudden decision to be done.   Since I was wearing a warm hat, sweat dripped into my braids and turned to ice, chunks of which went flying towards the ground every now and then.  Interesting. 

Today it is gorgeous out and about 60 degrees!  I was so tempted to bike, but I'm trying to respect my legs' need for a rest day.  And I sprained my ankle hiking yesterday.  It is better today than I was expecting; I can actually walk almost normally now!  But it is swollen and turning colors.  And it is the foot I normally unclip first when biking, and I'm not sure how comfortable it would be to unclip. Don't want to risk not being able to unclip in a timely fashion and crashing...