Did just under 24mi today -- about 9 down at St Mary's City on the woodland trails, then a little under 15 over on Piney Point on the 249 part of the course. Those hills from the VL PO up to rt 5 are going to be the killer part of the course I think. I'm not sure where the turnaround is, but I suspect it is somewhere along the white fence of the farms just below rt 5 -- on the last uphill going up to rt 5. I also tried out some new shoes I bought yesterday -- but only for the first 9mi -- I switched to some regular shoes for the longer part. My feet were happier in the new ones for the earlier part, but it's hard to draw conclusion from that -- it might be just that my feet got sore from all the running instead of having anything to do with the shoes.

Saturday's long run featured one of the worst moments of my life (which kind of suggests I've had a pretty cushy life, I suppose). I set out to run 20-miles on the relatively flat NCR Trail. Being that my marathon goal pace was 9:09, I figured anywhere in the range of 9:30 - 9:50 would be a decent training pace for this run. My actual pace was probably closer to 9:20 for the first five or six miles, because I felt pretty good. I did the first ten miles by running out to the five mile marker and back. This was because I knew the water fountain near the start was working... however, as was the case when DR, Joe, Alden, Val and I all ran a few weeks ago, I was worried that the pipes would be shut-off further up the trail. By the time I got to 10 miles, I was starting to struggle. I felt similar cramps to when I ran 18 miles in the aforementioned run. I set back out, almost trotting for the next two miles. By mile 12, I felt as though I was getting punched in the stomach with every step. I stopped for about five minutes to rest, after which I tried to jog some more. I made it about another tenth of a mile before I had to stop again, almost doubling-over. By this point, the wind chill was dropping toward freezing and it was beginning to rain. I realized that there was no way I could run another eight miles if I couldn't jog for even a quarter-mile. I began my own personal walk of shame: two-plus miles in a cold drizzle. Dozens of people passed me in either direction, most of them runners. I avoided eye-contact at all cost, as it was obvious I just experienced a running-meltdown. Needless to say, I'm scrapping plans to run the marathon in March. I've narrowed down what probably caused Saturday's disaster, but I still don't feel like I've done enough for it. Maybe if I started to collape closer to mile 18 or 19, I'd be considering it. However, I've run 10-12 miles many times and have never experienced anything close to this. I wouldn't be comfortable running a marathon if my longest run in training was 18-miles, about 6-7 weeks prior to the race. I think it was a perfect-storm of errors that caused the major cramps. First, I did not start running until 1pm. All I consumed that morning was a bagel with peanut butter, around 9am. My body is used to consuming lunch around noon, so skipping a meal probably hurt considerably. Second, I had probably close to 65 ounces of fluid (Gatorade/water) that morning. It wasn't very smart, but I wanted to make sure I was hydrated. Instead, I probably managed to over-hydrate myself. Joe and DR would probably agree (based on high school running experience) that I sweat A LOT. That probably means I need to consume more than water on these long runs (anything over ~10 miles), but drinking even cut-Gatorade while running makes me a little sick. I'm considering take a page out of Alden's book and investing in some salt capsules for running. From what I've researched, apparently these can mitigate pains caused by while running.

DR - Are your long runs essentially done until the marathon? I've read that it can take the body a day to recover for every mile raced. Of course, you were going slower than race pace, but I'd imagine it will take a couple of weeks to recover from a 24-mile training run, so your body can achieve maximum benefit. Thanks for understanding. As I told you on Saturday, the next time I train for a marathon, it will hopefully be with Charm City Run's training group. Apparently I can train myself decent for races up to a half marathon, but all of that knowledge is pretty useless when trying to take it up to the next level. I am pretty happy that I did all of those long runs over the summer, and hopefully it will transfer well into the spring racing season. My next race could be a 15K on 3/29. I'm going to try and work tempos and speedwork back into the mix. I'm also planning on a 10K in late May, and the Baltimore 10-mile race on 6/20 would be the season's goal race. However, I do still need an April race. It would be interesting to see if my time improves at all from a mid-April 10K to a late May 10K. I will keep that in mind.

I'm officially in taper mode, so the only "long" runs left to tackle between now and the marathon will be a 10-mile run this weekend (if I can find time) and an eight-mile run the weekend before the race. Following the instruction of my marathon guidebook, these workouts will be run with the first halves at a moderate pace and the second halves at marathon pace. Remember Kaitlin Farrell, our classmate and fellow cross country team member? Well as I gleaned from Facebook, this past weekend she ran the Austin (TX) Marathon in 4:20:19 (9:57/mi). Not bad!

I don't really trust myself to give good tapering advice, because it's something very difficult to do correctly. I would recommend following your pre-determined plan 100% during these last two weeks (if your plan gives you daily workouts).

Hey, you ran two 5ks in one day last weekend, so why not try two marathons in two weeks time!

On Saturday afternoon I returned to the Three Notch Bike Path for my first taper phase long run --- 10 miles at a pace close to intended marathon pace. I did that fairly successfully, running an average pace of 8:16/mi (finishing somewhere around 1:22:40). After running 24 miles the previous Saturday, I thought 10 would be a breeze, yet it was still a tad fatiguing in its own right. And I also did something foolish that temporarily messed up my left knee. You see, a long stretch of the trail is heavily wooded, and at one point there was a thick vine hanging down from a tree, right over the paved path. I passed it without incident twice (my run was 2.5 miles out-and-back twice), but on the third pass I finally gave into the urge. At a run, I leaped up, grabbed the vine, and swung --- very briefly before my weight pulled the woody vine down a couple feet. To avoid crashing into the asphalt, I had to stop the swinging momentum with my left foot, putting great impact on my knee at that jarring angle. My stride was a bit limpy after that. I certainly need to run this afternoon. I just ate three donuts!

I may attempt accessing all that sometime soon ... Yesterday was one of those evenings where it seems like every force imaginable is conspiring to thwart my run. I'll spare the trivial circumstantial details, but suffice it to say that I didn't get to begin the run until 6 p.m.! I'd missed Tuesday and Wednesday and, though I am tapering, I knew that last night was the latest point at which I could safely perform an intense workout before the marathon. So, in the midst of a five-mile run, I ran a three-mile hard tempo (from miles 1.5 to 4.5, and everything before and after was warm up and cool, respectively). Thankfully daylight has made a big comeback, so even though the time was ticking through the six o'clock hour, sufficient illumination endured. That lingering light also allowed, however, for others to remain outside. Near the end of my warm up segment, I was running down a familiar nearby street when, from up on a hill, two middle school boys (or early high school at the oldest) playing basketball began heckling --- shouting, with a decidedly taunting tone, "Hey, kid! Hey you, kid!" Surely they couldn't be addressing me, I thought (I'm probably practically old enough to be their fathers!). Maybe they were just calling a dog whose name happened to be Kid. But then one of them declared, a bit threateningly, "Yeah, you, the one running!" Well, I didn't give them the satisfaction of acknowledgment, and I promptly began the tempo and fled that neighborhood --- though I'll admit I ended up casting a few furtive looks back over my shoulder, especially as dusk deepened into night. Anyways, I completed the three-mile tempo in 20:23 (6:48/mi) and the overall five miles somewhere around 38:40 (overall average pace in the 7:40s). This run made me feel confident that, if I were running a 5k next weekend rather than a marathon, I might have a shot at breaking 20:00. That would be pleasing, since I've done a scarce amount of hard speed training over the past three months.