OK, I'm back. Just had a sad week, with very little running, due to extremely fatigued legs. Fatigued means HURTING. Muscles just feeling so tired, weak, and hurt, I wasn't sure about anything. And not exercising much makes me feel sad, and desperate. My leg mechanic assured me that I was just tired, not hurt, and could still make my marathon. This session ended with lots of whining on my part, crying while my legs were worked on (it hurt). I left with some tape on the left leg. Took Thursday and Friday completely off, just trying to make it to the 22 mile run today. Hung out in the lake (the water is cool), used a lot of ice, gentle stretching, some strength work, and even about 10 seconds of meditation. Worked a lot on positive mental attitude and mental strength. I really had no idea that marathon training would become so absorbing and emotional. I really should take up a sport that complements me better. This morning my legs felt pretty good, not what I would call fresh by any means, but better. I decided to do the run, and felt positive and strong in my head about it. We were supposed to run the first eight easy, and this felt truly easy and fine (splits are high 8s to mid 9s). I told my partner that I might just run the 12 MP miles easy, but we kicked right into them and the effort felt good! My left leg spent most of the run asleep, but no real twinges of pain. My Garmin crapped out at mile 18, with two MP miles to go. But I know I achieved them. This run required more mental strength than I have ever had to use before, and I was very happy with my effort. Huge deposit in my mental strength bank account today. Splits on the MP miles were in the low 8s to high 8s, with one longer one where we stopped to refill our water. The last two miles we were supposed to slow back to easy, and I tried, but not sure if I did because Garmin was done. So, its over, and I'm pretty pleased with the result, both in MP miles and being strong mentally. Clearly, my legs are still very tired, but I didn't hurt them today. I'll need a plan to get through the next few weeks to let them rest. I know today would have gone even better on fresh legs. Just had an ice bath! Thanks everyone, for your support while I was being a baby. | 