Week 21 and my last 20 miler done!

I was nervous about this week after not doing the second 20 mile run and still being injured.  My plan was to do the best that I could and not overdo it if my body wasn't feeling good.  One thing in my favor for this week was weather in the 60s and maybe in the 50s on Friday night!

I think I can see Lincoln's face to the right
of the road rash.

My friend Splash suggested I rub dirt into my road rash and also use sage for my broken wrist.  I wasn't quite sure if I was supposed to rub the sage on my wrist or eat it so I have just been doing both.  I was a little skeptical of taking advice from a skydiver with the nickname Splash, but it seems to be working.

I woke up Tuesday not feeling as sore as I have other mornings since the crash, but I was still doubting my ability to get through the 10 miles without a lot of suffering and misery.  I eventually convinced myself to get out of bed and give it a try.  Endo and I headed out the door and in the first few miles I was actually feeling great.  On my runs since the accident my body was ready to stop around mile 5, but not today.  I almost was feeling like my pre-accident self.  I finished up 8 miles with Endo and got Charlie for the last 2.  After the run I didn't feel worn down and sore so I started thinking I would be able to do 20 miles on Saturday.  The rest of the day was great because I only had to work a few hours.  President Obama was visiting work and it was going to be a traffic nightmare to leave work if we weren't gone by 1 pm at the latest.

I used the afternoon to address the thank you notes for donors that Mary Moerlins made for me  I just received them yesterday and they are amazing.  Mary does great work!  I can't wait to send them out after the race!  And to make things even better I watched The Fault in Our Stars which just came out that day for rental.  I really loved the book and worried they were going to ruin it but the movie was great!

Endo and a movie

On Wednesday I did a bit of cross-training on the bike.  It tends to get a bit uncomfortable since I can only sit up straight because of the wrist, but oh well.  It can also get boring riding a bike in the garage looking at the wall so I brought my laptop down and watched a movie while riding which made the time go much faster.

Thursday was my last tempo run (60 minutes) which involves slowing increasing pace, running 5 minutes in the middle of the run at 10k race pace, and then decreasing pace again.  I generally aim for somewhere in the 9 minutes/mile area but I haven't gone this fast since the accident.  I ended up doing 9ish minutes/mile for 6 1/2 minutes and my average pace was faster than it was for my 55 minute tempo run four weeks ago.  Not too bad!

Saturday morning wasn't the 59 degrees that was projected earlier in the week, but it was still in the high 60s, breezy, and overcast.  I was well prepared with my Camelbak, pepper spray, and headlamp, but was still nervous about getting chased by animals or humans.  I also get nervous about running on sidewalks where there are trees on both sides because there are these huge spiders that build their webs across the sidewalk and then hang out in the middle.  If I ran into one of them I don't think I would ever recover.  I followed a plan similar to my last 20 miler with 13, 4, and 3 miles.  I was really tired by the end, but I did the run and the only wildlife I saw was a little opossum and I think I could have taken him if he went after me.   So it is all down hill from here on out.  I just need to focus on not falling down the stairs or breaking a toe.

The dogs and I after 20 miles

For all of you out there that were waiting to see if I could actually do the training before you donated...I did (even with a broken wrist)!  Now is your chance to donate to Team Paws  by October 5th on my fundraising page which can be found here and thank you to everyone that has already donated.