Wednesday, February 2, 2011

11 miles, sickness and foot happiness

Last weekend was my first 11 mile run and of course it was a milestone not just because of my foot, but I've been fighting a cold for over a week. I'm happy to say, the run was great but I paid a price. The cold that I'd been doing so well to ward off hit me like a ton of bricks on Saturday. I was exhausted all weekend and am still not over it. This week was my recovery week so if I had to pick a time to get sick, this is it.

Here are my stats from Saturday's run:

Total distance 11 miles
Average pace 9:37
Mile 1- 9:57
Mile 2- 9:36
Mile 3- 9:29
Mile 4- 9:19
Mile 5- 9:28
Mile 6- 9:37
Mile 7- 9:30
Mile 8- 9:17
Mile 9- 9:55
Mile 10- 9:45
Mile 11- 9:50

The last three miles were slower. I was running by myself at that point and knew I took mile 8 too fast. There were also a lot of hills during the last 3 miles. My pace was supposed to be 10:22 so I'm not concerned at all.

The best news of all is my plantar fasciitis. I had NO pain during or after my run. None at all. I was actually pain free for a few days. There is mild pain now and my heel is a little sore (I've done two 5 mile runs so far this week), but nothing major. I think if things stay where they are now I'll be fine for the race.

I've got two 4 mile runs left for the week and I'm going to focus on getting more rest. Okay- five hours of sleep last night was not a good idea and did nothing to help me recover. If I'm in bed by 9:30 tonight I should be good to go tomorrow.

Next week is the hardest week of my training. I had to switch things up a little as my hubby will be out of town the following week. I've got a 10 mile speed workout on Wednesday and an 11 mile run on Saturday with two shorter runs thrown in. If I come through those feeling good I know I'm going to rock the Princess. We leave 3 weeks from tomorrow!