Monday was complete chaos because I was supposed to board my plane at 5:10 am. Mitch woke me up at 4:30! We live about 20 minutes from the airport and I still had to check my bag and get through security. Thank goodness for our little airport because I made it just before they closed the door. Thank goodness for Mitch too because 1. I wouldn't have woken up on time at all and 2. he drove me to the airport so I didn't have to find parking. The rest of my day was dedicated to work and then dinner/drinks with a broker. I didn't run at all.
Tuesday was my best day. We finished visiting potential clients fairly early so I had plenty of daylight to work with. My hotel in Independence, Missouri connected to a 15 mile bike trail. I am leery of running alone in strange cities, but this trail seemed inviting and I didn't want to run the treadmill if I didn't have to.
I got a great ten mile run on this trail. The elevation is less than 1000 feet above sea level (easy breathing) and the trail is relatively flat. It runs along a canal through tree covered sections as well as open glades, under the occasional busy street, over little wooden bridges and by an old railroad trestle. It is such a diverse trail and I loved it. I didn't take enough pictures though.
After too much food and beer on Monday, I opted for big salad for dinner at On the Border. It didn't taste as amazing at is looked, but it was okay. I appreciated the evening to myself so I could run, eat and then work on emails until late into the night.
Wednesday and Thursday were short runs on the treadmill at my hotel in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I didn't have much time so I tried to make the best of it and add some speed play to my quick workouts. I flew home on Thursday and didn't get in until 11pm. I was so tired on Friday that I didn't run.
I came home to a new treadmill which I'm excited to get some miles on when the weather turns cold again and new trail runners that I ordered before I left. I already run in the Altra KingMTs and they have about 500 miles on them. They've been great for some of the worst terrain I've had to run on. Sadly, these will be going back to Altra because they are considerably smaller than the first version. Now that I've seen them I'm not sure I like the updates they made to the tongue either so I might wait until I can find a store that sells them before I get another pair.
This has been my luck lately with shoes. I had the same thing happen with the Topos I bought for road running. They were way too small and I had to send them back and replace them. Now I don't think I can wear them for longer runs at all after my experience this weekend.
Saturday was my final long run before heading in to the taper. If you're not familiar with this lingo, the taper is the last weeks leading up to a race when you cut your miles back and allow your body to recover from the high mileage peak training. I was going to run 18 miles, but it didn't happen.
I did the road from Molt to Phipps Park, which was just over 13 miles and planned to change my shoes and finish on the trails.
This is what running roads in rural South-Central Montana looks like -
It will look much prettier when it turns green. I can't wait! Brown is not my favorite color.
I chose this road as an opportunity to see how my chosen shoes would do on a long downhill. This was a mistake because I've done something to my Achilles. I didn't notice it when I was running, though I could tell at the end that I'd pulled my calf muscle on that leg so I didn't do the trail section of my planned run. I ended with 13.3 miles for the day. By the time I got home I could hardly walk with the fire in my Achilles. I have been icing it, soaked in Epsom salt and rubbed it down with Hammer Balm. When I woke up it felt better but it didn't take long of standing on it before it started to hurt again. I'll be taking today off and see how it feels tomorrow. I didn't want to run the marathon in my Brooks wear-test shoes. I LOVE them, but my toes jam against the front of the shoe on the downhill which is going to be problematic at my marathon. But I would rather lose a toenail than suffer an Achilles injury.
Thankfully it is taper time so I am not worried about going easy for the next 3 weeks. I'll run when I feel I can do so without hurting myself. As far as training, the "hay is in the barn." There isn't much I can do to improve my fitness between now and Revel Mt. Charleston. I've done the training and my results will be based on the last 29 weeks of preparation. It has either been enough for a BQ or it hasn't.
On another note, I've signed up for a small 5K locally. I don't run races here in Billings very often but I couldn't turn this one down.
Next weekend we head out to Lewis and Clark Caverns to run an 8k event. Next week's post will be late since we will be out of town for the whole weekend but hopefully I'll come back with some awesome pictures.
