Where Does It Hurt?

I've been afraid to write this post for about 48 hours now.

We had our first 20 mile run of the season on Sunday.  And I'm not looking at my schedule for San Antonio right now, but I think it might be my one and only 20 mile training run.  I know I have a 22, but this might have been the only 20.  Our running program here groups people by what race they're doing (and by pace) -- there is an early marathon group for people running mid-Sept (the beginning of the marathon season) through early November, and then another group for people running the second week of November through mid-December (probably 90% of whom are training for our local early December marathon).  So I'm on a short schedule, since my race is second week of Nov, but most the people I run with get to train for an extra 4 weeks (so they get at least one more 20 miler). 

I ran and the cooler temps made a huge difference.  I think it was low 60s when we started running.  Afterward, I decided to get a massage, just to be safe.  The chiropractor/sports medicine guy does massages for anyone who needs them after the long runs, and there's usually quite a line.  I signed up and waited.

When it was my turn, he asked -- where does it hurt?  I asked if I could whisper my answer so the nearby runners wouldn't hear me.  We stepped aside and I reluctantly told him...

"Nowhere." 

True enough, after my first 20 miler of the season, I was pain-free.  I couldn't even believe it. 

And more unbelievably perhaps, I ran with my group for the entire time.  I didn't fall behind.  I had to ask a few people up front to reign in the pace a few times, but we all stayed together and everyone in the group had a great run.  That's kind of rare for a 20-miler.  Usually someone doesn't feel well and has to call it quits early on a 20 mile run, but our group this year was solid.

The weather helped a lot I'm sure.  I kept waiting for my calf to hurt, but it just never happened.

As usual, when I have a run at 20 or more miles, after a stretch and a recovery drink, I take an ice bath.  Since it was a bit cooler this morning, I decided I could get away with only buying 20 pounds of ice.  Mistake.  Our water is still so warm here that 20 pounds plus all our freezer ice melted in less than 10 minutes.  I wore a sweatshirt and drank hot espresso and read a book while I sat for 20 minutes and it wasn't too painful. 

Then I went to meet hubby for Mexican food to get my sodium levels back to normal with a large serving of tortilla chips, and spent most of the day relaxing. 

I thought maybe the soreness would set in on Monday at some point, but nothing happened.  I woke up this morning and went for a run and unbelievably, I'm still feeling great.

Now I haven't tried to push the pace at all since a few weeks ago when I tried to run marathon pace and I had pain within a couple minutes, but at least I know I'm solid at my easy pace.

And better yet, if Sunday had been race day, I felt like I could have kept running for another 10k.  No saying if I could have maintained pace, but I felt like I could have.

I think marathon number 14 is going to proceed as planned.  Still not sure I'll be able to PR, but I should at least be able to run it -- good news considering how much pain I had in August in my soleus.

Very happy!