Good Morning Team:
I'm waking up and fueling up for my run this morning. Nothing too long planned - I thought I'd go 6 miles and see how the legs are feeling. I don't have any races in the near future, but I wanted to keep the habit up. Besides, I really enjoy my Saturday morning long run time to myself. I'm looking forward to following the marathon trials today too.
Martha- Don't psych yourself out too much on breaking distance barriers. You can do it. I agree with your red badge of courage mantra. When I was training for the full last year, every run over 10 miles was the first time I had went that long. I always surprised myself when I was done. I remember last October was the first time I had done a half marathon (at Niagara Falls), and every week seemed like I was breaking new ground. It was exciting, but, yes, I was also nervous too. Even when running the marathon, I had never done anything longer than 20 miles in training. When I crossed the 20 mile point at Disney (and stopped for a port-a-potty), I remember thinking I had never run farther than this before. Enjoy the journey, and just take it one step at a time, one mile at a time. You can do it.
Mike- Good job getting back into the running after the MCM. How are your legs feeling? Mine feel absolutely fine, but I still don't want to push it too much. Is
Kathy running at Disney in January?
Colleen- Good advice, and you stay healthy too. How are your legs these days. Are they making the adjustment to walking OK?
Sara- Did you post how your doctor's appointment went?
Cecilia- I hadn't been posting on the weekly thread since I was busy over at the MCM thread. It's good to see you again. I didn't know you were mentoring a group of 1st time marathoners. That's great! Good for you! I also didn't know you were going Goofy this year too. WTG! You must have signed up for that quickly after the marathon.
Shan- Take the shoes back. Any good running store will let you take your shoes back if they're not working out for you. Don't think twice about it.
Kristin-

Hello over there in Japan. Great job on your 18 miler! Great pace, and congrats on breaking the new distance. What are you training for right now? I'm certainly not a marathon vet (just 2 under my belt now), but that never stopped my from offering advice. I know Jeff Galloway's training plans call for runs longer than 20 miles. He believes that one reason runners hit "the wall" at 20 miles is because they don't go longer than 20 miles in their training. Most other plans stop at 20 miles because they believe that anything longer than 20 miles takes too long to recover from. Runners doing both plans are certainly successful. In both marathons I trained for I planned on doing 1 final run longer than 20 miles. It never happened, althought I did run 20 miles 2x in my training. For my first marathon, my 1st 20 miler was a stonker. I cramped up at mile 15 and ended up walking the last 5 miles. For my 2nd marathon, my first 20 miler was fine. Two weeks later I was planning 23 miles. Life circumstances intervened, I couldn't get out until late, it was brutally hot, I ran out of water, and at 20 miles I ended the run because I didn't want to hurt myself. That being said, ending the run at 20 miles when I was planning 23 made the run seem short, and I couldn't believe my mindset was "OK, I'll JUST run 20 miles today." I think in those cases it was the right call for me. Both my marathons went fine, and I didn't go over 20 miles in training. Hope that wasn't too long-winded.
OK, have great runs out there everyone.