11 Weeks To Marathon

Monday, February 22nd 2010: 3.7 miles @ 11:14 per mile pace. Early morning runs can be hard. It’s a challenge to drag myself out of the warm bed and I felt like I was still half-asleep.

Tuesday, February 23rd 2010: 30 minutes on exercise bike.

Wednesday, February 24th 2010: 3.5 miles @ 10:30 per mile pace. This was the first time in a long time that I’ve run on the treadmill. It actually wasn’t too bad. Afterward I felt guilty for being such a hater with treadmills. Please forgive me.

Thursday, February 25th 2010: Not a thing.

Friday, February 26th 2010: 20 minute walk + 10 minutes exercise bike. The day also included a fat chocolate donut. And a lemon bar. Or two. Woops.

Saturday, February 27th 2010: 11 miles @ 10:53 per mile pace. (The pace isn’t completely accurate because it doesn’t take into account the stops I made to take pictures.)

My friend Tom is an awesome runner and even ran the Boston Marathon. He invited me on a run along the Hurricane Rim Trail and the JEM Trail with him. I had never been on these trails and came to find out that they are amazing. It was cold and windy, but perfect running weather. I didn’t ever feel overheated.

Much of the route was either steep uphill or steep downhill. In fact, the first mile alone climbed 366 feet and my legs were burning. In all, the total ascent was 1394 feet and the descent was 1703 feet. There were some incredible views along the trail.




The only stipulation I had for Tom was that I didn’t want him to wait for me and my gimp knee. He was far enough ahead that he had time to make this cool road map. I arrived at an intersection where I could go left or right. Thankfully I had this direction:


The trail was nine miles and I decided to do two more miles once I got home. I noticed that I must have a lot of salt in my sweat. After long runs, my face looks like I went bobbing for apples in a barrel of powdered sugar.

I had a blast on this run and really love running on anything besides pavement. I think along with my knee issues I developed a slight case of crybaby-itis so I’m going to work on not focusing on my ailments. To take my mind off of knee pain, pass the lemon bars!