Rollin' THUNDER

9 miles. I tried to do every odd mile at normal easy pace and every even mile at a pace that was harder but that I could hold for a mile.

7:34, 7:02, 7:29, 7:03, 7:43, 6:53, 7:30, 6:54, 7:24

Total 1:05:30, avg pace of 7:17

14 miles. I was a little worried aboutthis run because my left knee has been feeling a little funny since my 16 mile run on Saturday. It was escpecially bothering me on my 9 mile run yesterday. Luckily I didn't have any problems with it today, hopefully it stays that way.

14 miles, total time 1:43:03, avg pace of 7:22

9 sucky miles.

From the very beginning of this run I knew it wasnt going to be good. As I started my little warmup jog both of my shins were screaming in pain. I have had some little pains in my shins for a while now, but nothing I can't get over in a mile or 2. I think I either have shin splints of stress fractures (I think and am hoping its stress fractures). My little warmup jog is up a slight hill and then I either turn and go down a slight hill or keep going straight up the little hill for about a quarter mile. Today I turned to go down, but without even thinking I started walking. I had absolutely no natural drive to run, but for some reason wanted to be done before I even started. I have never accidentally started a run by walking, it was weird.

To make a long story short, my hip was bothering me, and both shins were killing me the entire run. I think I may have pushed myself a little hard yesterday even though it felt natural to go a little faster.

My garmin page is just showing errors, but I think my average pace was about 7:50, with the last 4 or 5 miles more than 8 minutes each. Hopefully I can recover and get back to enjoying running tomorrow.

11 miles.

After yesterdays run I was a little nervous about this run, so I procrastinated a little longer than usual to get out the door. I started my run at about 8:30. I could immediately tell that this was going to be a lot better than yesterday because my shins were sore, but I wasn't about to cry because of the pain (if I were a woman, I would have cried yesterday).

From mile 4.75 to 5.75 I went up a hill that is 218 feet and ends at the parking lot of the Rexburg temple.

11 miles, total time of 1:22:34, avg pave of just a hair over 7:30.

0 miles. knees and ankles are feeling achy, I am going to take the day off and let them recover a little more before my long run tomorrow. Maybe I will go to the gym and ride a bike for a while.

22 miles.

I took yesterday off to give my joints some rest, and I think it was a good idea. My legs felt good for all of this run. At about mile 20.5 I thought I was going to hit a wall and slow down, but I was able to push myself for another 1.5 miles.

It felt good to do this run, this is by far my longest run in a long time and it gave me a lot of confidence for TOU. It wasn't that long ago that I was fully expecting to finish TOU in over 4 hours, but now I have confidence that it won't be my worst marathon ever. My training hasn't been going for too long, and I thought taking a month off was going to hurt me a lot more than it seems to be. When I started back up after the month off, I couldn't even do 4 miles, now less than a month later I felt great doing 22.

Hopefully this "easy" long run will translate to a good race in 3 weeks.

22 miles, total time 2:43:33, avg pace 7:26 (including 3 drink stops of about 15 seconds each). Gu 15 minutes before, then at mile 6, 12, and 18.

These were my mile times.