Fun Run

I didn't post after last week's phenomenal 20 miler.  I felt almost no fatigue the entire run except for about one mile around mile 19.  When I got to the 10 mile turnaround, I could barely tell that I had used any energy at all.  Very cool!

This week I felt a little flat.  That's partly because after that awesome long run, I tried to be Superman in my speed training and I was reminded that I still have far to go.  That's okay - it's a cool journey.

I spent a lot of time and energy on recovery, but my head just wasn't in the game with everything getting very busy at work.  Fortunately, it was a rest week and my overall mileage was a lot lighter.  I only did ten miles today but we averaged about 9:30 minutes per mile which was good.  In the final miles, we even did a few surges up to my Boston qualifying pace (7:15 min/mile) just to see how it would feel.  I can say that it felt good, but I'm not there yet!  On these tough weeks, I come back to the mantra that excellence is not a singular act, but a habit.  Here's to a good week ahead.  Cheers!

Electrolyte and Mineral Replacement Make the Difference!

I met with my sports therapist/coach and also got a sports massage on Tuesday and I mentioned to both of them that I've been hitting the wall hard at 15-16 miles.  We quickly discovered that I had not been replacing electrolytes during my runs.  I have been using Gu gels since I started running and I always assumed they had those mixed in, but I was wrong.  So - I tried out Gu Brew during my long run yesterday and those 16 miles were a piece of cake in spite of a much faster pace!  I can hardly wait for 20 miles next week.  I also started taking mineral supplements (which it turns out are quite inexpensive) as well as really paying attention to my potassium intake which I suspect is very low.  That means lots of bananas and coconut water.  I wasn't a fan of the coconut water at first, but I found one with chocolate that tastes like chocolate milk!

Lastly, I don't usually talk about work on this blog, but something unexpected happened this week and the two worlds collided.  One of our staff who I am responsible for coaching asked that we skip our normal lunches and go running instead.  How cool is that!