Week 15 - Day 6: 24 miles and I can barely walk

Ouch. I wish I would've had some pictures of this run. At least that might have made my blog entry a little more exciting than the run actually was. We actually drove to Murfreesboro for this run - for a change of scenery and hopefully a little motivation. The Stones River Greenway is great for about 7 - 10 miles, but anything over that, and it's a little monotonous. It was Gary, Tracy, Michele, and myself. We parked at Stones River, and ran the greenway to Thompson Lane, back to the car, then to Cannonsburg(or Cannondale as Michele referred to it..hehe), the back to Thompson Lane, then almost back to Cannonsburg, then back to the car again. The first 10 miles were okay. The next 10 weren't any fun. And the last 4 were shear torture. I'm not sure why it hurt so bad, but it hurt physically, not cardiovascularly. Like my knees, and the tendons around my knees. And both feet. I didn't drink as much Gatorade this time, but I wouldn't think that was a factor. Who knows? Maybe we're running too far. Most people seem to think so. But 22 felt good to me, so I thought everything was working fine. All I know is that around mile 21 of yesterday's run, I was seriously questioning the sanity of running a 26 miler 3 weeks before the marathon. And I questioned it again this morning when I wanted to call Marcrom's Pharmacy and ask for a wheelchair to be delivered to me so that I could make it from the bed to the shower. I finally took some Aleve (and finally got the spelling right since the bottle is sitting beside my keyboard now) at lunch today, so maybe that will help. I think I am just not used to running that long on Sunday, and then getting up and starting a new week the next morning. That's what I am going to blame it on for now anywas. The good thing is that today is a rest day. I'll pick back up with Week 16 tommorrow, when I run the 4 miles scheduled for Tuesday.

My friend, Leslie Trussler, was in the North Georgia Adventure Race this weekend. I haven't found any pictures online of her yet, but hope to get a report from her soon. Leslie has done several marathons, she is the defending Female Champ of the Mach Tenn Triathlon, and she also did IronMan Florida in 2004. That's just a small sample of all the things she competes in. She also does a lot of off road triathlons - like those XTERRA races. And she always does very well in all of them. She is the one that got me into doing triathlons!