Roll on 18-miler!

That title is adapted from a 1984 song by country super-group Alabama (see above). They got a lot of play on country radio in the 1980's, which means that I spent a decent chunk of my childhood singing that insanely catchy song in my parents' station wagon. I think its been stuck in my head for the past 26 years, but I never had a real use for it... until today!*

This morning, Val and I did our first 18-mile run with the Annapolis Striders. It wasn't easy, but it felt way better than last week's 16-miler. I can think of three major reasons for this improvement: (1) I finally stopped mourning the demise of my beloved Nike Vomero 4+ shoes (which have been discontinued) and went to the running store for new shoes. (2) By running with Katie (my faster roommate) and the boot camp class this week, I actually got in two challenging shorter runs, as opposed to the two half-assed ones I do when I train alone. (3) The weather was beautiful this morning, as opposed to stiflingly hot and humid.

So, what do I mean by "way better" than last week? Basically, that the second half of the run was slightly more bearable. Val and I have reached a point where the first 9-10 miles actually feel pretty easy, which is awesome. Once we get between 12 and 15, though, we both seem to hit the proverbial wall. We run out of gas, everything starts to get stiff and sore, and the final miles are torture. I'm starting to realize that, while I do a great job hydrating, I don't bring enough food one my longer runs. So, I'm going to start adding more and see if that helps. I'm also going to try to get better about pushing myself in the mid-week runs, because it makes a clear difference when I do.

For the next two weeks, we taper down a bit, and then we hit a solid few weeks of 18 and 20-milers before we do our final taper down to marathon day! Exciting and terrifying!

*If you also grew up listening to 80's country radio and now have that song stuck in your own head, all I can say is... you're welcome!