marathon training (week fourteen)

it was a decent week this week. i put a lot of pressure on myself to get all of my runs in and i'm happy with the way this week turned out. obviously, i didn't get the long run in that i wanted to (fourteen miler) but the ~seven i did this morning was phenomenal!

first off...the wind today is brutal! thirty mph winds with over forty mph gusts from the SSE is not a good wind to have when you do most of your running in the open/flat/boring country of illinois. the beginning of my route was great since i was running north. i sorta felt like i was running on the moon. the wind was actually pushing me, so it felt like i was barely doing anything. then i turned and headed east...bad. then i turned and headed south...impossible to breath! i realized i wasn't going to pull off fourteen without feeling miserable, so i broke off from my route and turned in toward town. i came up on a new golf course and all of a sudden i was off-roading it and heading toward the cart paths. it was a great feeling to not worry about my training, or that i wasn't going to be getting fourteen in this morning. i felt free. i felt happy. i felt like i was running just because i loved it. what made it even more awesome was what happened next. (and i'm not going to tell you...just kidding read on to the next paragraph!)

i got up toward the clubhouse and the next thing i knew i was kicking off my shoes and socks. at this point i had only ran about four miles, but once i was barefoot and started running on the course i felt like i had never run before. it felt so awesome and free and every other cliche word i can think of to say that running is some awesome natural relationship between the runner and the earth.

bottom line: i'm hooked. i know i probably went a little too far barefoot, but come on...when you're feeling it you're feeling it. once the marathon is done and out of the way (26 days 21 hours 37 minutes 30 seconds) i'm definitely doing more barefoot running!

one thing i learned/re-learned this week in regards to running: barefoot running is awesome!

week fourteen numbers:

starting weight: 188


monday - rest
tuesday - 5 miles / 42:21 (8:29)
wednesday - 4 miles / 34:07 (8:32)
thursday - rest
friday - 9 miles / 01:20:42 (8:58)
saturday - rest
sunday - 7 miles / 01:00:47 (8:41)

total mileage for the week: 25  miles

ending weight: 184

total weight loss/gain: -4