22-miler

Yup, I did it :). And my foot was OK :) :) :).

I did the 22 miles (35.4 km) on the mostly flat Jordan River Parkway. The Portland Marathon is pretty flat, and plus I feel well-trained on hills after all the stuff I did for Portland-to-Coast. In addition, my poor foot is much better if I avoid hills, so flat is the thing for now.

I started in the pitch black at 5:30 am so I could be done and home by 10 am. My parents are visiting to do house hunting (side note - they were successful and are submitting an offer today!), so I needed to be back at a reasonable hour. It did get somewhat light by 6:30, so it wasn't too terrible.

My muscles were sore from Friday's weight training and Saturday's 12.75 miles; after doing no weight training or racewalking for 2 weeks, I asked a lot of them. So, I figured I'd be slow today. I was a bit slower than my 20-miler, but not too much. I did the first 10 miles at an average 10:45 pace, and then met Sue for 10 miles with her. We slowed down (because I needed to!) so that by mile 18 my average pace was 10:55/mile.

Of course, I wanted to do the last 4 fast like I've been doing to practice my kick for the marathon. I sped up and finished the last 4 at a 10:16 pace :). The legs were very tired, I was winded (ave HR 160 for that last 4, just below my lactate threshold HR), but I did it.

Total: 22.0 miles, 3:57:56, 10:48/mile, ave HR 148 (77% max). A great workout.

I was considering another 20 next week, because I missed a planned 20-miler last Monday due to my injury. But I'm worried about making it worse, so will probably do just 15 instead, at a faster pace. I have to coach the Top of Utah marathon on Saturday, too, but hoping to only have to do about 15 that day, since Sue is helping me out. So it really makes sense to take it a little easier and start my taper now :).

In other news, I was fitted for custom orthotics today to try and help ease the pressure on the sesamoids in my L foot. They'll have them ready in a week for me :). I'm excited to get them and start the recovery process.