OK, I did it. I learned a thing or two. First of all, I should always double check my computations! A few miles into the run I realized that the route I decided to run is actually a mile longer! Also, I didn't realize that I could cut a mile easily, but maybe because I was distracted by the fact, that all the landmarks that I wrote to me wristband are wrong. So I ended up running 13.5 miles and then walked home (1/2 mile).

Speaking of wristbands. Mine was on a printed piece of paper. It doesn't matter that I put a Scotch tape to the outside of it, once it got soaked with sweat, the tape came of, like it had no sticky material on it. After about the 6 mile mark, I ran with the dissolving wristband in my left hand (and not on my left wrist).

Otherwise things were OK. It was brutally hot this weekend. I ran from 5 AM to 7 AM, and it was 80 F. That was lowest temperature I could find. I felt fine until mile 12, then the last 1.5 miles was hard, but even that wasn't extremely bad. And my time was fine (1:56:13). The projected half marathon time is 1:52:34.

I still don't know how it is possible to run double of this distance...

I've just arrived from my pre-run bike ride. I rode the long route I plan to ride tomorrow morning. It is going to be 21.1 kilometers, which is exactly half of a marathon distance. This is going to be a big jump for me, as my longest run so far was only 16.5 kilometers, it it should be OK: I haven't run this week that much (sort of like a taper), and I haven't run in the last two days. I will try to run it relatively fast, so that I would do it in 1 hour and 55 minutes. The idea is that this should be the next stepping stone to the 4 hour marathon.

Why the change of plans? I want to race, that's why. So instead of spending two more weeks training for a half marathon time trial (that is, I run as fast as I can, but it is not an official race), I will just run my minimum goal on the half marathon distance tomorrow. I won't try to run faster than that, and after I'll have done it, I will spend three weeks to prepare for a 5K where I will try to break 21 minutes.

My goal for tomorrow is 1:55, but I will tolerate time up to 2 hours. If I can't do the run in two hours, then I'll cancel the 5K plans, and go back to work on my endurance.

BTW, I met a nice guy on the road today. He stopped to check on me when I was collecting tree branches to mark a spot by the road (the spot that is 6.5 miles from my home), asking me if I was OK. Then we rode back to the city together, talking. He is a mechanic and works in one of the bicycle shops in town, which I visited many times. After he told me who he was, I realized that I even talked to him, when I shopped for my bicycle. We stopped by his house in town, and he invited me to taste his home made beer. So talked like a half an hour in his house, sipping his beer. His house was a dump (I almost felt uncomfortable), but his beer was very delicious. He is a very nice guy.

I'll write tomorrow about how my run went. If I won't post, I may have died. :)

My training wasn't exactly going as planned. Hectic schedule made me postpone (alright: skip) some of my runs, so I decided to go slowly and repeat some of my training weeks. Therefore I'm two weeks behind now. I repeated the feast of running 10 miles on Sunday. I was easier than last time, even considering the terrible diarrhea that caught me after 5 miles (lucky that Riverfront Park has nice restrooms). I was somewhat slower than last time, even if I subtract the 4 minutes spent on the toilet, but that's fine. I was still well above the minimum pace.

I'm up to some crazy (to me at least) weekly mileage. Last week I ran 28.2 miles (45.4 km). Considering that I ran 5 times, this means an average of about 9 kilometers per day!

I went to group run last week, and it was a lot of fun! I'll go again today.

Also, I bought a new pair of running shoes on-line, it arrives today. It was very cheap, so they might be crappy, but I decided to risk it.

New distance PR on Sunday: 10 miles. It is not getting any easier. I have had aches in body, especially my left calf, which almost made me stop. It got a little better (paradoxically) by the end of the run.

To top the pleasure, there was a thunderstorm and pouring rain from mile 6 to mile 8, and light rain to mile 9. It didn't matter too much. My only worry was the lightning, because I ran along trees by the river, but the thunderstorm actually wasn't that close, only the rain.

I spent yesterday recovering, and today a 5 miler "easy" run is waiting for me. Some speed training on Wednesday on the high school track, another short maintenance run, and then a replay of this brutal weekend (5 miles fast on Saturday, 10 miles slowly on Sunday).