[S]he Conquers Who Endures

The point of racing the day before this long run was to get teach yourself to fight fatigue. Well, it did just that! Most the run felt like I had already run 20 miles I guess that fast hill work the day before took a lot out of me. I tried to not put too much pressure on myself especially after running 22 miles at 8:03 pace last week. I focused on good form to prevent injury. Wrapped 17 miles up with a 8:29 min/mi average pace. Felt somewhat strong at the end like I could push a mile or two at sub 8, but at a high risk of injury. Good to know what my options are at the end of the marathon if I'm borderline on BQ-ing! Humbling but a confidence booster at the same time. Glad it's over and I know I can do those back-to-back hard days. 

Just to prove how much I want this BQ time, I actually skipped the routine warm epsom salt bath followed by ice protocol and instead did a 20 min ice water bath soak!!! Holy moley! That sucked at the beginning, but my legs hadn't felt better in a couple weeks than after this bath!! Just have some muscle soreness in my glutes, probably from all those hills. I can't believe I'm really doing this. Supercompensating from this week after last week is going to really set me up for some good performances if I just stay injury-free!!!