Milestones Galore - Marathon Training Week 11 Recap

An Eventful Week

Excellent News!

The week started off with the anticipation-filled annual physical. I was sure I was taking good care of myself, but there's always some dread, at least for me. Maybe some background will help explain why. Last September I had my first physical in a while, and even though I had been exercising regularly for over a year, and tried to eat reasonably "cleanly", my cholesterol was still high. Not off-the-charts, astronomically high, but still north of 200. At my doctor's recommendation, I stuck with a sensible diet where vegetables, fruits, mostly lean meats made up the bulk of my diet. My first half-marathon was coming up, so I was fairly sure I had the exercise portion covered. We scheduled another round of blood work for March. March rolled around, I went for an exam and the results were not very encouraging. The numbers were better, but still above the normal range.
That was one of the last deciding factors in a very big change. My wife and I had been talking about becoming vegetarians, and had started eating the last of our meat stockpile. You could say I am now mostly lacto-ovo-vegetarian - I still eat eggs and dairy, but I'd estimate at least 80% of my energy needs comes from plants  -, although I sometimes eat seafood, maybe every 3-4 weeks. So I guess I'm kind-of-sort-of-mostly-vegetarian?
The end result was a resounding success. The lab results came back with a 34 point drop in total cholesterol, meaning I am now officially in the normal range. Additionally, my LDL is 28 points below the maximum for the normal range. I was overjoyed for not having to take any medicine to control it. That was some of the best news I could hope for.

A Year-To-Date Round Number

Tuesday's run was fairly tough, I felt like hitting the snooze button, and just dragged through most of it, but I completed my 6 miles and the prescribed strides. On the flip side, that put me over 800 miles for the year. If you had told me 3 years ago that I'd have run 800+ miles before the end of September, I would have replied with a question: "Are those lifetime miles?". Others have run more, but I'm happy I have been healthy and able to run. Thank you, feet!

My First Twenty-Miler

And we wrap up the week with my first ever 20-mile run, freshly completed this morning. I won't lie to you: it was at times difficult, and I am very sore and tired. Actually I think I felt every muscle sore at least once at different stages of the run. The route was tough and hilly, with roughly 1800 ft of elevation gain over those 20 miles; I ran the last two miles making deals with myself ("When you get to that traffic sign, you can walk a minute"); and I wondered - hopefully not aloud - whether I had bitten more than I could chew, but I finished it, and now I'm more confident about it.

Afterwards, I did something I had read and wondered about, but had not dared: *clears throat* I took an ICE BATH.

 

After the initial shock, it was actually ... nice? It definitely soothed my aching legs a bit. I can see myself repeating that after a long run or tough speedwork or tempo workout.

 

I did take a nice hot shower later, though. I think I earned it