overtaking haynes

It was a warm 20F at the start of the run today with no wind. I waited for it to stop snowing. At first i thought wearing a three layers was a mistake but i didn't end up overheating. I ran 4.6 miles to Huntington park and then ran the ~9 miles through the park including the 6 mile out and back section which is my favorite. I stopped at 10.6 miles for 5 minutes-it took me that long to eat the hardened cliff bar which was just gross. I also hadn't drank anything yet and i drank almost 1 of the two water bottles i had brought with me. The snow was pretty crunchy with a hard annoying layer underneath the new inch or so of snow we got overnight. At 13.5 miles i came to the end of the trail and decided to retrace my path for 1.5 miles to take a more scenic road back. I saw a woman raking the snow off of a pond who i see almost every other time on the trail walking or skiing. I was always curious where she was coming from. 

I knew at mile 12 that i was going to be in a little bit of chaffing pain from the sub par lube i was using now that my body glide has been used up. this other stuff is deceptively good but completely wears out after 1.5-2hrs so you think it is fine until a long run. my left groin got a little tight at the end of the run but overall i was in fairly good shape after 3hrs and 46 minutes.
 

the goal was to get in 7.9 so i only have to avg 10 per day to reach 80mpw. my left knee didn't bother me at all outside yesterday but for some reason the treadmill aggravates it a bit. left quad was a little sore to start and running 8:57 on the treadmill felt bad. b/c my mom decided to start exercising at 5:15 when i got home i snacked on carrots and humus which is still making me sick to my stomach 2hrs later.

the chaffing from yesterday was quite horrible today. I had to stop 3 times to apply more of the crappy stuff that doesn't work well. Luckily i had good tv to watch. i saw roger federer win at the australian open and then #1 uconn playing #2 unc in women's basketball. It's annoying how some channels on the tv aren't as loud as others and i can't hear them at maximum volume over the treadmill. 

 night classes start tomorrow night. hopefully they won't make running on a treadmill even more unbearable!

69 minutes and 1000 calories exactly according to the treadmill.
 

5 before work on treadmill. right knee was really acting up to the point where it made me not want to run very fast. Took advil after and felt fine walking around until right after lunch when what i thought was my hip but most likely my left IT band made me start limping around. The treadmill is officially my enemy. Perhaps i have hit my limit and can't handle more than 75 miles per week. i did 79 in the last 7 days before today and apparently i can't handle it. The leg feels a bit better now after a 30 min ice. will definitely take at least 2 days off and use the time to STRETCH because the tightness was ridiculous. i've never felt anything like this and it was weird how it just crept up on me without warning. i guess i know what was causing the inner knee discomfort now. It's so annoying how just as i felt like my legs were handling the increased volume that something else has to go. i'm still hopeful i'll be ok in a few days. i'm kind of looking forward to the excuse to not run on the treadmill. 

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.