Break on Through

Here starts the training for the Mankato Marathon.
This week was a harder week of running than I have done in some time. This week was also one of the highest mileage weeks this summer. And Boy could I feel it on my long run. My two steady state or marathon pace runs were spot on and really felt that I had the ability to push the pace throughout both runs. This week I ran hills since Track was having its camp. That was more of a struggle than the last time I did hills. The first few did not hit my times. I was able to push threw and finish the workout how I should have.

To me this is very important to be able to do. I was not feeling the workout but still found a way to push myself threw the difficult times and finish strong. Has many of you know that running is not an easy sport your mind can an will try and get you to hit the snooze one more time try and back off because it just does not feel right. If you are able to overcome these obstacles, it makes you a tougher runner.

There was one down side this week and that was I played basketball for the first time in months. Though I normally enjoy play during the year, I had a small feeling that many of my foot problems came from playing basketball. Well the game on Friday confirmed that. After I got home, I felt good so I went for a nice easy run (4.4). When I got back home and took, my shoes off I could barely walk because my foot (heel) hurt so bad. I iced and rubbed it with a golf ball all day and by the end of the night, it was finally feeling better. But that one game set, my foot back a good month. It was finally starting to feel good and now this.

I finished this week with my first 20 miler of the year. I would have liked to run a few of these earlier this year but again I was having foot problems. It did not go as planed. I was feeling good until Blakely and started to fall apart mentally from then on. I was able to push threw and made the miles but my time was pretty slow 2:50, that is about 10min more than I wanted but I should have plenty of opportunities to make that up.