Afterglow

So this past Friday (February 10, 2006), I reached the 20.7 mile mark on my Marathon training for March 19th in LA. I had my usual Oatmeal with nuts and Chia seeds breakfast. Plenty of water for the road (64oz of Gatorade mixed with a little bit of protein). I had Trader Joe’s Power Bar with Almond Butter and few other ingredients plus a large (24 oz) frozen smoothie for a roving lunch.

I tried to complete the mileage using a pace where the every four mile section I would either slow down and speed up, recover and speed up. I figured this would get me through the entire length of the course without burning out. So I went kind of easy on the first four miles, I pushed for the next four (I was also going uphill by then so it was particularly brutal). I rested by slowing down for the next four, picked up the pace again for the next four. Now I’m at 16miles I figure I got it made…..

What is this pain I feel on my right foot? All of a sudden my right shoe seems to tight and my foot starts hurting, throbbing, arhggg! Ok, so I stop, loosen the shoe, keep going for another tow miles and …there it is again. Most annoying! Everything has come to a crawl, I can’t go any faster because the pain reminds me to slow down, I’m running out of water,… two miles to go and…now I’m out of water and there is absolutely no way I can loosen my right shoe any more. Unless I take it completely off. In addition my right leg, inner thigh starts to cramp up. Oh just great!

I finally made it home, took long shower and had some food to replenish my spent energy. My average miles were 3+ miles per hour and I hit a maximum of 11+ mph at some point; probably when I was coming down hill for a few seconds.

Next, one more long walk in a couple of weeks and then I’ll be tapering down; ready for the big day.