Last 20 Mile Run

I ran my last 20 mile run yesterday out of the 3 scheduled 20 mile runs I had to do during my ultra marathon training for Cowtown.  I have never ran this much before and very happy to say that I'm still injury free.  I worried about gettting an overuse injury running so much, but I made sure to take it easy on a lot of my runs to help prevent injury.  I didn't do any track work this time, so no speed work.  The only speed work I did was during my cycle class when I would teach to do sprint drills.  Cycle class has been good to me.  I'm really lucky this just fell in my lap.  I wasn't looking to be a cycle instructor, someone just referred me to teach it.  Next thing I know, I go and watch the manger teach it and then a week later I go and audition for it and get the job!  I was already taking cycle class as cross training as part of my marathon training, but now I actually get paid for it!  I've been injury free for two years now!

The weather yesterday morning was humid and warmer than I wanted it to be for my 20 miler.  I woke up and realized I didn't have any more gu chomps for fuel and too early to go get some.  I ate a  whole banana and went to get some coconut water for hydration.  That always works for me.  I started running a little after 7:00 a.m. and it was really windy on my way out.  It was 64 degrees when I started.  I decided to go work on some hills at TCU and on my turn around the wind was behind me.  It was a tough run and started getting hot really fast.  There were times while running the hills that I wanted to just stop, but there were signs all over my alma mater motivating to keep on going.  I was able to pick up my pace on my way back, but it took everything I had for I was starting to get hungry.  This training has made me more hungry than usual.  Maybe it's because I'm running a lot more.  I try to eat as close to Paleo as I can, but honesty, sometimes I cheat cause I feel like I'll run it off anyway :)!  Today we had my little boys birthday party and yes, I ate cake and ice cream.  Oh well, I'll be good the next two weeks.  No more goofing around for it's time to get shredded and focus on my goal of finishing non-stop, injury free. 

I registered for the Washington DC Marathon and didn't realized that it's scheduled for two weeks after my ultra marathon!!  So, my goal is to coast Cowtown and really try and PR in Washington DC. Eddie isn't going to that one.  It's a girl's trip for me and another marathon bucket list check off!  For now, it's time to taper down and hope for the best in Cowtown.