35 Days

In 5 more weekends, I'll be re-attempting 26.2 miles.  I'm either not going to be ready or I'm ready now.  It's one or the other.  I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

I had 20 miles on the agenda yesterday, but only made it through 18 after slipping on a metal plate on the Jefferson overpass at the end of the marathon route.  I didn't fall, but the little dance I did to avoid falling (and stumbling off the pedestrian path and into the path of an oncoming car) did a number on whatever core muscles those are in my groin/pubic area.  I tried to run again and work through it, but just couldn't.  Good thing that came toward the end.  The run was hard enough with my ankle bugging me.

I just don't have a ton of confidence after yesterday.  I stuck pretty closely to a rhythm of 8:30 running with 0:30 walk breaks.  I kept fueled with a constant trickle of Power Bar bites and Gatorade protein drink at 10 and 14 miles.  I might have gotten a little short on water.

Let's see: I drank 10 ozs over the first 4 miles, refilled my bottle at the aid station Marat was manning, drank that 10 ounces over the next 6 miles until reaching the rest rooms at South Ponto, drank 10 oz of the Gatorade protein drink there and refilled, then finished that 10ozs off over the next 4 until reaching Marat again.  14 miles and about 120-130 minutes.  40 ozs of fluids or 10 oz every 30 minutes.  Even though it was chilly and rainy, that's still well short of 10 ozs every 10-15 minutes which is my usual water schedule.  And then at that last pass of the aid table, I drank the last of my protein drink but forgot to fill up my water bottle.  I wound up having to grab some out of a shower spigot on Tamarack around 15 miles.  I think I count up no more than 60 ozs over the full 2 hrs 40 min run.  10 oz/26 mins is not enough.

The pace wasn't bad though.  The walk/run pattern resulted in an 8:30 to 8:45 pace, which would be fine by me if I can do that on race day.  I experienced the same decay as always: felt great through 6-7 miles.  Had to work but still was good from 7-14.  Felt a rapid decrease in performance from 14-16, and each mile after 16 becomes a struggle.

It doesn't help that my ankle just won't get better.  I've run on reduced mileage for three weeks now, and that left ankle is chronic.  I'm wearing the GelThotics all the time now, but I don't know if they're really helping.  Yesterdays wet weather makes them loose their tackiness and they start to slide out from under the sole liner.  I'm resigned to just having to deal with it on race day and maybe reevaluate whether or not marathons are for me. I might just be a half marathoner at best.

Fun to run with the SDRG.  It's nice to have support along the way.  Tons of runners along the PCH, despite the rain.  I sensed that most were also putting in their weekend prep for the upcoming Carlsbad run, with most training for the half marathon.  The SDRG did the Palomar Airport Rd section of the course, but I skipped it since I've done it a few times.  I wanted to avoid the gauntlet of traffic lights between Avenida Encina and Costco, plus I wanted to run the rest of the route southbound on Carlsbad Blvd, beyond the half marathon turnaround point.  I think it's a good, psychologically manageable route.  There's not "wasteland" like the RnR's Fiesta Island.

I need to get back in the habit of blogging.  I probably won't try to go back and fill in the gaps.  I'm probably never going to go back and read these entries, and I'm pretty sure no one else is reading.

Yesterday's route: