24, 23 dead legs, longggg run

I had full intentions of posting last night, but my spotty internet was gone again!  So annoying.....So, this is a double post!

Yesterday - bad day.  My runs were slooow and sluggish and my legs felt dead.  Starting with an 8 miler in the morning before work.  Then, my work day was terrrrible.  Lots of crap happened that I had to deal with as a teacher, and it basically bummed me out and infuriated me.  I won't bore you with the details, but lets just say sometimes my school drives me nuts.  Plus, on Thursdays I teach 6 periods in a row with no break besides 20 minutes for lunch.  And I don't have a 'classroom' so I'm running around between rooms and the gym (one period for PE)  And a particular teacher thinks it is cool to stick her Lean Cuisine in the teacher's lounge microwave for 10 minutes when I only need it for like 30 seconds.  Yeah, that's not cool.  So I have about .3 seconds to eat.  Buzz kill.

Then, because I had to deal with the crap of my day after work, I got on the road 15 minutes later than usual.  Which meant I SAT in traffic.  My commute took almost 2 hours, which meant I missed running with my running group.  I was so pissed that I just parked my car 6 miles from the store we meet at, and ran there.  Everyone was 'packet stuffing' for a race this weekend, which is something we all volunteer to do every few weeks in exchange for race entries.  So I got to hang out for a couple hours and chat, which was nice.  Then Mike drove me back to my car, which was also nice because my legs were totally wasted and I hit my 14 miles for the day already and it was 9:30pm.

Whew!

So on to today.....

I had intentions all week of doing my long run today ie: my last 20 miler before the marathon because a) I didn't have to work either job and b) I HATE having to drag my tired butt out of bed Sunday morning after working a crazy long/tiring day at the market Saturday.  But honestly, I wasn't sure if I could do it today after this week of training.  My legs felt so terrible yesterday, I wasn't sure if it would be worth it if I was hitting 10 minute miles or something.  I slept in though, and decided to make the decision in the morning.  I was scheduled to have coffee with a friend at 2pm, but when I got up at 8am (yessss, amazing) she had cancelled.  I took it as a sign because this meant I had nothing 'scheduled' until 6:30pm tonite.  Although I'm over my head in grading....but that's besides the point.

So I decided to try.

I knew that my 'other run' ie: what I will do on Sunday had to be 13 miles, and so I gave myself license to stop then if I wanted and do 20 on Sunday.  But honestly, who am I kidding.  There was no way I would stop at 13 miles!

So I set out on a 'new' loop that I only did once last spring as a 15 miler.  Honestly, my legs killed but the run itself went by really fast.  I ran by horse farms, almost got hit by oncoming traffic on a too-narrow county road shoulder, ran through fresh tar leaving footprints, and counted road kill (15 road kills in less than 10 miles including snakes, birds, racoons, and un-identifiable rodents.)  I also ran by this cool farm market that I ended up driving back to this afternoon and scoring some cheap, Michigan-grown produce!  14 miles in, I was back in town and grabbed a drink at a waterfountain in a park.  I hate waterfountains, but I make exceptions when running.  I realized how dead my legs were at this point and almost had a mental breakdown.  But, then I decided that 6 miles was nothing and I turned on my ipod for the first time during the run, which helped.  Having to run from town -----> my apartment pretty much all uphill at the end = not cool.  But I did it.  And honestly, that is what today was about.  When my Garmin hit 20 miles almost exactly outside my apartment, I felt proud.  Was it a fast run?  No.  Did I feel great?  No.  But I did it.  And honestly, you never regret a run.

20 miles @ 8:38 pace.  Today, that was all I had.

I then proceded to eat frozen grapes while soaking my legs in the freezing cold pool at my apartment.  Then, I was freezing so I jumped in the jacuzzi.  Good call. 

My legs?  Basically they are hurting.  I feel like I'm really tapped out right now from a physical and mental sense.  I'm a few days over the 3 week mark and my body feels very much in need of a rest.  I just hope I can hold on for a few more weeks.....

And now I must tackle the mountain of grading.  Market allll day tomorrow, which I get strangely excited about.  Other than the fact that it is an early, physically exhausting day, it is alot of fun.  Or maybe I'm just a dork?  Hmmmm

Happy Weekend! :)