Somedays it just doesn't feel like a good idea

At 5:00 when I arrived home it was still 90 degrees. My head was already spinning from an allergy attack so I bagged my run today.

My lower legs and ankles are swollen today. It's possible I overdid it drinking water today. I tend to drink often and I'm usually ok but come to think of it I finished off two large water bottles today...and I was inside all day.

Today was a gym day. 25 minutes on weight machines; 35 minutes elliptical. Not much to say about it. It is what it is. I completed it though.

Today is a rest day in my schedule. Can't say I'm sorry about that. It was 90+ degrees and now at almost 10:30 it's still in the 70's. Tomorrow it's back to the gym.

I have mapped out my runs to prepare for Goofy on a spreadsheet. I hope it's enough. I'm not in this to make any PR's just to finish. Yet I hope I'm putting in enough mileage to last the weekend when the time comes. My highest combined back to back will be 34 and I will do that twice before the Goofy weekend.

I've never trained for anything like this before. I've tried to read as much as I can about Ultra training even though I won't be doing the distance in one day. I've also read a few blogs from others who have completed Goofy and used my marathon training schedule to help too. So I've put together something that makes sense to me. I guess January will tell if my instincts are right.

18 miles in less than 26 hours

This morning I went to the East-West River Drives loop (aka Martin Luther King BLVD and Kelly Drive). The loop is about 8.5miles so I added half a mile to make it an even 9. Without the fog and cloud cover it was much more difficult than yesterday's 9. However, now that it's over I don't feel any worse than I would normally feel trying to finish 9 miles in those conditions. In other words, the back to back run aspect was manageable. Today anyway.

Other things to note:
- The Saucony's held up great in their first long run. No ankle, knee or related issues. No blisters.
- Strawberry-Banana Gu is a little bit better than Raspberry.
- The last time I covered the distance from the Falls Bridge back down to the Art Museum the temperature was 60 (!!!) degrees cooler.
- I finished before the last dog . There was a fund raising event for dogs (Pink Paws or something like that) going on around the area and as I was stretching after the run and dousing myself in water the last dog and his/her master crossed the finish line. I have no idea when they started.

Coming up this week:
- Off Monday
- A gym workout on Tuesday
- 5 miles in Media on Wednesday
- 5 miles in Media on Friday
- 14 miles with USAFIT Philly on Saturday (not sure where yet)

After that I will be off until at least the following Friday. I'll be on vacation until labor day weekend. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to cover on vacation. I hope to do some but I will not let running control me. :)

9 miles, 100% humidity, 1 lost (and found) teenage

Today we ran for 9 miles at Oaks. 9 miles is just a bit short of the CVS on Rt 29 in Collegeville (?). I was up at 5:30 and on the road at 6:15. We began our run about 7:20 or thereabouts. It so humid that the fog was pretty thick. The fog and cloud cover kept the temperature down which helped tremendously. I was careful to start slow and keep moving and I was happy to finish and finish strong. I was able to pick up the pace considerably in the last half mile.

I think the strong finish was in large part to the gel I took at mile 3. Yes, I took the leap and tried the gel. It was a weird consistency as expected but I was able to swallow it quickly and follow with water. I didn't really like the rasperry flavor though. I went to the running store and purchased a vanilla and a strawberry-banana one to try next.

This was my last long run with my Brooks shoes. Tomorrow I will run with the Saucony's. I will retire the Brooks to 5 miles or less during vacation and replace them completely with another pair of Saucony's after vacation. They have served me well! LOL

We had a bit of drama at the end of our run today. One of our walker's brought her daughter, about 13-14, who somehow was separated from the group and missed the turn off to our meeting place. Brian, our fastest walker, continued on for about a mile to look for her but didn't see her. There are some other turn offs so she could have gone down one of those. Brian and some others went looking for a ranger to help while Helen walked down to the trail again. I went with her. We didn't get far when we saw, Rachel, coming back. She was fine and was excited that she had seen deer tracks, a wild turkey and a hummingbird. No wonder she missed the turn off. Mother and daughter were reunited with a conversation that went something like "Mom, I didn't do it on purpose. You TOLD me not to bring my cellphone!" All's well that ends well, but that was probably an interesting ride home!

Tomorrow I will go for another 9 miler as I continue to do as many back to back weekend runs as I can.