Double Digits

The 9 miles (14.5k) last week felt like more than the 10 miles (16.1k) this week, so I guess that's a sign that Higdon's training schedule is working. Coming up next for week 6 is another tapper week. I'm looking forward to that, not only for the lessening of the physical toll of training, but also because I'm gearing up for finals week and there's a whole hell of a lot of work to get done in a relatively short period of time, hopefully my two main tasks at hand, running & classes, can peacefully coincide for just a little bit longer. 


While 10 miles is the longest run of the training schedule so far, I had done a few 10 milers over the summer, just out of curiosity to see if I was capable. So I'll admit here, as a first time marathoner in training, the 10 mile mark is the farthest I've ever gone. One thing I learned from doing it before, that I wanted to make sure I did this time, was to have a "water station" set up along my run. So I mapped out a 10 mile route that occasionally looped back around to my apartment, where I had a container of water stashed on the front seat of my car. This idea actually worked quite well, but in order to accomplish this, I probably faced more hills than I needed to, but I suppose facing those now will give me some extra speed when the flat-ish city course for Tokyo is at foot. I definitely perked up when I knew the water stop was waiting right around the corner, so I really appreciated this extra incentive along the way. For the 12 mile (19.3k) LSD in 2 weeks, I'm going to try to plan out these water station stops at every 4 miles. 


Now, my knees did OK for this run, and when I was finished I did the normal stretches that I've come to stand by as a solid repertoire for my personal needs, but while I was walking around downtown doing some holiday shopping later in the afternoon, I noticed my right foot, at about the middle outside point, was in pain. Indeed this pain, while less severe, is still present this morning. I didn't get a chance to do the old Hot Tub Time Machine treatment on my bones that I mentioned being a fan of for last week's LSD, so I'm wondering if this was a crucial step to quick recovery that I shouldn't so hastily pass up? On the plus side, I'm nowhere near as sore as I was last week, and the foot issue shouldn't really hinder today's bicycling cross training. Then tomorrow is a rest day...the sweetest way to start any week!