18 miles . . . The Last Long Run

Today, I had a fairly successful 18 mile long run. The LAST long run before the marathon. Yep. That's right, after today I begin "the taper," and my longest run until the marathon is 9 miles! It's hard to believe.

This week, I was back on track with my mileage and training. I completed all of the runs, as scheduled, except that I pushed my 3rd run of the week to Saturday which wasn't ideal because it was the day before the long run, but I needed the mental edge of knowing I'd completed all my mileage. My pace definitely took a little bit of a hit due to my disasterous week last week, but I also didn't really push the pace because I've had a sore right hip (I think it's just strained and inflamed), and I didn't want to stress it any more than I had to because the 18 miler HAD to go better this week.

I ate better this week and stretched A LOT. I also just tried to get back on track with positive visualization during and before my runs. It definitely helped. I still feel more unfocused than I would like at this point in my training. I feel undertrained and am having a hard time believing that the 18 mile long runs that I did are actually going to translate into me being able to run 8 miles further on marathon day. Despite the fact that the long run went well today, by mile 16, I was SPENT, and I am questioning whether this training program has really prepared me to run 10 MILES further than that. With how I felt at the end of 18, I have NO idea how I will go 8 more.

I've trusted the training all along, so I guess, at this point, I just have to trust that I've done enough and that the adrenaline will carry me through, but at the moment, and maybe it's just because I'm still so tired from the long run today, I find it hard to believe.

My goals over the next 3 weeks--YES the marathon is 3 weeks from today are to:

• focus on refining my mental focus techniques
• pick up the pace since my mileage is dropping
• stretch LOTS
• eat well
• rediscover my excitement about the marathon

Even today, as I ran 18 miles, I wasn't feeling the excitement that I usually feel when I think about the marathon. What got me through today was knowing that I absolutely had to have a successful long run today otherwise my chances of successfully completing the marathon were very slim. I don't know if it's still burn-out or what. I'm going to try to re-focus.

It feels good to say that I have finished my last long run before the marathon in January. I just wish I could have finished on a high note, not a medium note.

Today, I didn't run with Bella, and it was soooooooo sad and lonely. Bella (she's fine) got bit by a scorpion last night around 11pm. We think it bit her mouth. She seems to have recovered fine, but it was so sad to watch her in pain. Guess we are just lucky that she is 63 pounds of muscle (as opposed to a small dog who would have been more affected by the neurotoxin emitted by the scorpion). STUPID scorpion. They are so evil.