Double, Double Digits!

I covered 20 miles yesterday!!!!!!! Time to taper :) I may be the only runner on the planet who is excited to taper. I've read lots where people are all, I hate taper, I feel like I need to run more, I get antsy. Not me, nope, no way. Mandatory mile reduction/rest? Okay with me! 26 days until Cleveland. When I woke up Sunday morning I wasn't very motivated to run. Maybe because it was really cold and there was snow on my car.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't a lot of snow.

Beautiful day for a run!

Why is it snowing so close to the end of April? We chose to do our long run on Sunday because it looked like the better weather day, it was, but it was still cold and not as sunny as first predicted. I got my usual pre-run bagel but couldn't bring myself to force the whole thing down. Last week I remember being really hungry at the end of the run, so I got a blueberry muffin to enjoy afterwards. Molly, Katie and I met at Fleet Feet and used one of the suggested routes they have on their website. The route kind of picked up where we left off on last weeks long run.

Ready to go. 

Starting at Clover we jumped on the canal and this can sometimes be a blessing and a curse. I usually think of the canal as being pretty flat, which is the bonus to having some boring and repetitive scenery.  However, I forgot that the canal west gets kinda bumpy and hilly, this annoyed me. I started to struggle mentally around the park because I wanted to be done with the path and I knew we had a lot of running ahead of us still. This was around mile 7-9. There was a run/walk going on in the park and we were running against the race traffic and my lovely running partners started to pick up their pace. At mile 9, right around the U of R, Katie left us and Molly and I were on our own to try to not kill each other for 11 more miles. I was dreading the last stretch along the river because I have hated this stretch during every race that I have done along the path. Surprisingly it wasn't so bad.

We got to Corn Hill for a pit stop and for me to buy some more Gatorade. I also thought having a few swigs of Mountain Dew sounded really good. I think the caffeine and sugar helped me out because mentally I felt a lot better and I got some more pep in my step. The store clerk asked if I was running ten miles, I said I was about ten miles into a 20 mile run and he asked me why I was doing such a thing, haha. I felt bad ass. The second half felt pretty good, as good as the second half of a twenty miler can feel. We stopped to stretch some more and made some more potty stops. We both made it back in one piece and relaxed in the FF parking lot while I enjoyed my blueberry muffin.

Seeing the sights around Rochester

I took a couple showers and relaxed around the apartment and enjoyed some lo mein. I couldn't believe how good my body was feeling. I wore my calf sleeves during the run and I my calves feel better then they have in more then a month. I also had minimal hip/butt pain. Even when I woke up this morning I felt pretty good.

Doesn't look as good as it tasted. 

Next up is the Flower City Half Marathon this weekend. It is crazy to think that this was the event that I trained my heart out for last year. It will now be my 6th half marathon and three weeks until my first full marathon. WOW!