Wind and Hail!

It's starting to get cold in Rexburg. I tapered down a little last week and only ran my ten mile loop twice and a 22 mile bike ride. But I knew I needed to put in one more long run before the marathon, so I ran another 20 miles on Saturday (3 weeks before the marathon). It was a cool/cold day, but there seemed to be a little break in the weather. The first six miles were cold and windy. My hands were freezing, especially because I was carrying a water bottle in one and a 12 oz. Gatorade in the other. At about mile 7 my wife pulled up in the van to check on me and tell me it was hailing at home. But I was feeling good so I kept going. Within minutes, it started pouring hail. Soon the street was covered with it. I realized that running in hail is better than rain or snow because it didn't soak my clothes, but bounced off. The hail was soft, and it felt cushiony to run on. Also, the wind stopped during the hail. Here I was, 7 miles from home, in the middle of nowhere, no cars, no people, just a lone runner making footprints in the hail along the never-ending farm road. It was surreal to look back and see my tracks stretching far into the distance. Gradually the hail stopped, the sky cleared, and I finished the 20 miles with sunny skies in 2:51. My recovery was quicker than I've normally had after long runs. This run really boosted my confidence for the coming marathon.
Nothing better after a long run than an ice bath with a bowl of mashed potatoes.

Twenty Miles During General Conference

After running 15 miles, I tapered down a little the next week. I ran 10 on Tuesday (1:19), none on Thursday, and 5 on Saturday. Then this last week I picked it up again. I ran 10 on Tuesday, 10 on Thursday (1:18--my fastest time yet), and then 20 today. When I got up to go running this morning it was pouring snow! So I went to the fitness center and ran on the treadmill. LDS General Conference was on the TVs, so I had that to distract me for the last two hours of my three-hour run. I ran the first 14 miles at 7 mph and the last 6 at 6 mph. It felt good to run on the smooth, soft surface of the treadmill, and at about mile 16 Elder Uchtdorf started talking about enduring to the end! Good timing, huh? I'm not gonna lie, though. My legs are ACHING by the end of 20 miles. I walked for a while to cool down, stretched, took an ice bath, a couple ibuprofen, ate, and put my feet up to watch the afternoon session of conference while rotating an ice pack on sore spots. I'm feeling surprisingly good now--much better than I ever have after such a long run.