Humbled

Did 20.4 miles today. The last time I did a 20 mile training run was about a month ago and I didn't carboload or water load and was able to do the whole thing at faster than my expected marathon pace for Ottawa. So with that and my relative ease at doing 26.2 miles two weeks ago, I was thinking that todays run would be but a formality and i thought I would try to do the no carboload or water load thing again. Things didn't go quite as planned. I didn't head out until 3:30 or so and it was about 15C. My previous runs had been done in very cool weather and today i ended up working up quite the sweat. First half I did at about 9min/mile pace. During the second half, my left achilles tendon started to get sore and I ended up walking portions. Second half with the walking averaged 10min/mile.

So i'm hoping that todays little set back was not a symptom of a larger problem. I don't think my body has quite adapted to the warmer weather which caused me to be dehydrated which when combined with the not eating or drinking thing led to a crappy run. I also tried to get back to 50 miles this week when I did all of 13 miles the week before. Probably not too smart either. Lastly, i've been negligent in my stretching as of late which means my calves are getting tight which causes a bunch of other things to be thrown out of whack. Easily fixed.

What this does mean is that I won't do the 10k race next weekend. I haven't been doing any track intervals lately and I'm probably ill prepared to crank out 6 miles at a sub LT effort and only risk getting injured, plus i don't think i would be able to PR anyways. I am still looking to sign up for the half to practise the pacing in a crowd. I'm just balking at the $75 price tag right now.