I wouldn't say that all of the 23 easy miles were easy. The last 2 or 3 certainly hurt, especially because they were on the road after 10 miles of nice snow. I was getting a bit nervous because of an IT band injury that sprung on me from what i blame as treadmill running. My left inner knee would act up and then hours later my IT band would kill me. So I took 3 days off and was a bit frustrated and contemplating how i could keep up training when running simply was no fun during the winter when you had to run in the dark or on a beastly and disgustingly lame human contraption. i realized today that i actually like running when it's outside and on the trails and while listening to a book on tape which right now is dan brown's angels and demons. I have a 40 mile race in a month and i need to continue to get long runs in since i start to struggle as i approach 20. Simply running 70 miles or even 80 miles a week doesn't seem to help run 25 at once if the long runs are only 11 or 12 miles. When i was at my best long distance shape in 2005 i ran 3 times a week 3-5 hours a day. So my knee acted up rather early around mile 6, right when i got into the trails which was annoying but didn't get worse. i noticed the knee hurt much less going uphill. At mile 13.1 2hrs 18 minutes i took a 6 minute break to eat and drink since i had failed to do so earlier. I saw my second coyote ever while running. it looked like a german shepherd in terms of size. Both times they just turn and bolt which gives me a feeling of power :) The knee didn't get worse, at mile 18.5 I had to ascend church hill which is not fun at all. it is a two stage climb of 325 feet total in 0.5 miles. All sorts of twingy pains started occuring after that but i got through the run and realize i'm not in good shape right now for the 40. perhaps if i was eating more frequently, but it appears that the legs and stuff just aren't game yet. i'll keep my fingers crossed that my IT band doesn't act up in a few hours. I preemptively took some advil and will now go apply some ice. total running time 3hrs 59 minutes.
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