Thirty Degrees of Separation

I had a Good/Bad run today.

It was 68 degrees when I finished, or a staggering near-30-degrees-cooler than the run I did last week. I wound up running 16 miles today in less time than it took me to run 15 miles last week. I figure that at this rate, if I can get it down to about 18 degrees in Idaho I should be in great shape. My pace today was quite a bit faster than what I expect to be doing in Coeur d'Alene so I was feeling pretty Good about that.

As for the Bad, OW OW OW! I've had some rough bike rides where my legs were sore, but there just something special about the pain after a really long run. I think the difference is that after a bike ride, you can walk around a bit and you're using different muscles so you're stretching your legs in a different way. After a long run, you walk it out. Which is pretty much more of the same motion that caused the pain in the first place, only slower.

Funny how the brain blocks out the memories of the pain from previous marathon training. But it's coming back to me now. I get a bit of a break next weekend (only 12 miles), but then it's 18 miles (and more pain) the week after that.