Pajama Day

No 4mi for me today. Stayed home to recuperate from this nasty cold/headache/sore throat thing I've caught. While I feel much better after a day of catching up on TV, napping, and eating congee, I'm contemplating taking another sick day. I need to be strong and healthy for race day. And as a number of people have said to me today -- better sick now than next week.

Giving thanks

Gobble Gobble! It's Thanksgiving here in Canada, and it coincides with a rest day. Yippee! The last of the 17 guests -- whom we fed a feast of turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed spuds, roasted root vegs, nut loaf, with some other tasty contributions from the other girls in the family -- have just left and finally I can attend to my splitting headache and sore throat! Yes, I'm sick. And I do blame yesterday's cold bath.

But before I change back into my flannel pjs and have a spoonful of Nyquil, this holiday is about giving thanks. So here is a small list, and in no particular order.

I am thankful for:
-- a dishwasher, especially today
-- my friends and family
-- my health plan
-- CMan, of course

And you. The one reading my blog right now. Because for some reason you care how I'm doing on this whole marathon business. Thank you. The goal is within reach.

Now go away cold.

Last double digit training run

The last double-digit long run, 12 miles, is done. The most I'll do in one day is 8mi for the remainder of this training program. I'd like to say today's run was easy, but everything seemed kind of against me doing well today, at first. Even though it was a gorgeous day for running -- 18C, all sun, light breeze -- I had trouble leaving the house. I was kind of tired, despite having slept a good 8 hours. My Garmin wasn't charged up. Neither was my iPod (even though I've been leaving it at home lately, today I really wanted it). Even my shoes didn't feel right. More on this in a minute.
I eventually got my act together and left for a midday run. I picked a route that was long on the the trails, rather than on the city streets. I didn't really start to feel good about the run until I hit the trails, about 2-1/2 miles in ... and that's when my senses took over. The air smelled like autumn. The only sounds I heard were bicycles whizzing past me, or the rustle of leaves. I felt the leaves crunching underfoot. The colors -- reds, oranges, yellows -- were stunning. I wish the camera on my cellphone could do justice to what I saw. Even the chocolate power gel tasted different (ok, maybe that's because it was one of those fancy new ones with the added sodium).

I slipped my headphones off...the SundayMorningTaper mix I made this morning would get its due attention later on when I returned to the neighborhood streets. The natural beauty of this trail didn't make me run any faster. In fact, I think I ran slower to enjoy it more. I returned home in just over 2-1/2 hours.

Partway through the run, I felt a little bit of pain on the sides of my feet, mostly in the two outer toes. I had this problem earlier in the week. It hasn't bothered me too much, but enough to get me to start questioning whether my body will hold up for and during the race. I think it will, I have to believe it will. But it's been suggested that perhaps it's my socks and I should try thinner ones that may make the difference. I don't think it's my shoes, because I've had quite a good time with them for the last month. But then again, I only noticed this slight pain after last week's 20miler. Are the shoes just good enough for 16 miles at a time?

To combat this pain, I made myself sit in cold water for 10minutes. Not quite an ice bath and maybe it won't have quite the same total effect either. So far it doesn't hurt when I walk, though I am moving a bit awkwardly -- but really no different than after any other long run. Maybe it's just my head again. Thirteen days to go.

Pizza Thursday

CMan and I have somehow started having pizza almost every Thursday since we moved. And so as to not break from this newfound tradition, I planned my 8-mile route to end at the pizza shop. I memorized my route and off I went, decked out in my new pink half-zip long sleeve shirt and gloves (it's chilly out there!).

I started off at a very quick clip, finishing the first mile in under 10 minutes. At the end of that mile, my friend Rob, his wife and new baby drove by; we all paused to talk for a minute before cars approached. Turns out Rob and family were driving to one of the nearby trails to run. None of this city route for them ... it's not so safe while running with a baby stroller. I briefly thought about jumping in their car, since trails are much nicer, as is the company -- I dare not go trailrunning by myself once the sun starts rapidly retiring. But then I thought it'd be a real blow to my confidence if I couldn't keep up with both of them while they pushed a stroller. Parted ways.

Second mile was also under 10 minutes. I thought I should slow down; this pace wasn't sustainable. Halfway through the run, I decided to change the route and keep it fairly flat. The original route would've taken me downhill towards the water. I picked a pretty noisy route, all main streets and mostly because the light was disappearing quickly. The cars often overpowered my tunes today -- though not that it mattered since the iPod conked out shortly before Mile 5. So I took my mocha gel and trucked on. Pizza signs along the way kept reminding me of the prize at the end of this run. And the pizza dreams turned into the deep dish pie I imagine I'll have shortly after the last step of the marathon.

My improvised 8-miler route worked out to the final step.

One pepperoni, thick crust, please.

Windy City

Forget Chicago. They should rename Toronto the Windy City.

Each direction I ran today, no matter north, south, east or west, seemed to be against the wind. My mood completely matched the sky, all grey. Although I did perk up a little bit at Mile 3 when I could see a touch of blue sky emerging. But the cloud cover quickly came back. And the wind never let up.
It wasn't an easy 4-mile outing... and that was just half of what I was scheduled for. I basically did Thursday's workout today.

I cut the effort short, having decided that before I even laced up, partly because the NHL opened its season tonight -- and so I wanted to be done and riding the couch by the time the puck dropped at 7:30pm.
Oh, I was done alright. I dozed off not long after the first period. Not that the Leafs gave me anything to really stay up for.

I'll make up the miles tomorrow.

((Couch update: CMan had some sort of epiphany. We moved some stuff around, including the TV. I think I might actually be able to live with the new arrangement. Let me marinate on that. No angry calls to the store yet.))

Grouchy about couches

Hal said to do 5 miles today. Oh boy was it ever hard to get out there though. And this is because my new black leather couches for the basement arrived today...designed to make a winter of couch potatoland all the more enjoyable. Except there was one problem.

These don't fit with the room. They don't look right because they're too big -- not overstuffed, just too large for the room of our size. And before you say why didn't you measure, etc etc, I blame the interior designer. Yah, that's right. How could a professional get it so wrong? He came over, measured, went back to the store and played with some computer program. It spit out this black leather couch and companion loveseat. We loved them instantly.

But one of them has to go back. CMan and I tried to position the couches differently than was suggested. Nothing worked. So I'm tasked with phoning the salesman tomorrow and bitch until I get what I want. Which is a full refund and no 30-percent restocking fee.

Well, the moral of this story is that I turned a lot of negative energy into a pretty quick 5-miler. It was dark by the time I'd started, more than an hour since Frankie had phoned to ask if I'd gone and run yet. He too was putting today's run off. But he said "taper doesn't mean don't run".

How true.

The next phase: Taper

The day-after aches and pain report:
* Legs: A little sore. Some trouble climbing stairs.
* Feet: No blisters. Both pinkies feel bruised though.
* Arms and upper torso: Right shoulder feels tight, but it almost always does.

In other words, everything, physically, feels normal after a long run.

And just as important, mentally, I'm still riding high from yesterday's Big 20. Here's hoping that feeling sticks for the next 21 days. I realize I hit the proverbial wall at yesterday's Mile 18, but I have seen it and can now deal with it.

Because in this next cycle of the training plan, there is no more time for reservations, hesitations, questions. I have put faith into a running plan, executed it to the best of my ability for 15 straight weeks now. I have hit some serious lows, to the point where quitting crossed my mind. But for each low, there have been twice as many, if not more, highs. One big reason is the Chicago-bound blogosphere of marathoners. Some of you support me through comments, some of you just read in from time to time, but the effect is all the same. And I think it's more or less the same in reverse -- reading, but not always commenting, about your great achievements and struggles help me understand my own quest. So a hearty thank you, and I know I don't say so enough. (Where are my manners?)

Here's just one more reason to believe:
Week 15 tally: 35.8mi/57.6K (The Big 20 is history)
Training-to-date: 375.33mi/604.04K

I greet this last phase of training with growing excitement for Oct. 22. The taper has begun. We're almost there. It's within reach. Three weeks to go and the finish line is mine. No, ours.