Eleven Miles-Longest Run This Year! Highest Mileage Week Yet!

Woah, I burned at least 1200 calories!!!

ELEVEN MILES!!! (Eleven-point-TWO miles to be exact) Longest training run this year and ever! My first half marathon, my longest training run was 10 miles, and my second half marathon my longest training run was a pitiful 7 miles. This was the longest I have ever run outside of a race environment. I have a very great feeling of accomplishment in that!

I have really begun to like the feeling after a really long run where you are just spent, and you have expended all of your resources. It is cleansing in a way. Not just that, but I ran a total of 24.5 miles this week! It is the highest mileage week yet!

I haven't run this far in my town so I wasn't sure how to build it all up. I used www.mapmyrun.com this morning to get an idea of which streets to turn on, etc. Then I used Nike+GPS for tracking. I also made sure my phone was fully charged, because the app drains the battery.

Let's see...what else? One of the things that annoys me about trying to keep a blog of my running journey is that during my runs I get all of these great ideas, then once I get to the computer, I have forgotten them! It is true though that running boosts creativity.

The weather was pretty good. It was cloudy with patches of sun, then around mile 9 it was just all clouds, some pretty dark. I was kind of afraid of being rained on at the hardest part of my run, but the rain held off thank goodness!  I wore sunblock on my face but not my body. By the time I got home I had a pretty good tanline, which proves that the sun is just as strong behind clouds!

This weekend is Friends and Family weekend at the Nike Outlet here in town so I got to buy a few new items for working out!

I finally bought a running skirt! It's so cute and I only paid $20 :)

I wasn't sure about these because they hit my calf in a weird place but I wore them today and LOVE them!!

Don't you love this shirt? I couldn't pass it up!!

Back to the run...I guess I mentioned the clothing because I wore the pants and was glad that they worked out. No chafing or bunching anywhere :) I will also love wearing it to power yoga. However, my tank was not as great. I usually wear a t-shirt.  My inner arms near the armpit chafed around mile 9 on...not fun! Time to buy some:

Or maybe try these out:

We'll see. But overall the run went great. I love longer runs, they are so relaxed and chill. The last few miles are always a challenge, but I didn't feel The Wall at mile 9 or 10. I just had to make myself keep going. I was kind of aiming to reach higher to 12 miles but I got a sideache and went ahead and stopped at 11.3. I ate these while running:



Note to self...filling my little accessory pants pocket with beans doesn't work very well. As I started to sweat, the sweat whicked away but still got to the beans and they stuck together and to my pants... 

I was really focused on proper hydration. We've been studying the Urinary system lately so I am acutely aware of the importance of water/electrolyte balance. I hydrated the night before, the morning of and I stopped at every water fountain along my route. I ate the beans every few miles too (even with sweat on them). After the run I still felt out of balance. I was slightly nauseous for a few hours post-run and my shower never felt so great!

My body felt so great overall though. I didn't have any problems at all! I'm pretty tired though and resting/recovering. As a post-race celebratory treat, I ordered one of these from Fultano's pizza:

Yummy Chicken Pesto Pizza w/ Sun-dried Tomatoes and Artichokes!

Off to take a nap people...I'm pooped!!