It seems fitting that my 50th day of training consisted of my longest, hardest run yet. My coach gave me permission to bump my long run to Monday this week because of the busy-ness of the week + the long weekend. After a morning of lounging about, I headed out. The cottage is exactly 11k from the main street in downtown Minden, so even though I had 20k on my schedule, I thought that I should just run the whole way to town. It was easier than figuring out the 1k mark and it could maybe make up for my week of non-running.

This run was really, really hard. There’s no way around that. The first third was all about adjusting to running again and getting over the stiffness that built up thanks to my hilly 8k the day before. The middle third was fine. I was tired, but it was pretty out and I fell into a groove. Then the final third was pure torture. It was hilly and icy and my legs were too dead to give me confidence that I wouldn’t slip and fall into the lake. But I made it. I’m sure that by the end, I wasn’t running at all. Normal walkers could easily pass me. But I kept moving forward, kept thinking about the hot shower that awaited me, and stumbled back into the cottage 3 hours and 11 minutes later.

I know I need these mentally challenging runs to prep me for the full marathon. Each time I doubt myself or want to quit or feel pain will make me a better runner come May. But I won’t lie: right now, it doesn’t seem worth it.

The run: 22.1k in 3:11:36
The route: