100+ miles for April and my 18 miler

This is a first for me...I hit 100 miles in a month. After my run tomorrow...105!

SO excited! I hit 100 miles for the month of April! As you can see...that is an ALL TIME high for me!
So excited!

The 18 miler from yesterday really upped that number. It was a hard run for me. I started at 9AM and it was a beautiful morning...3 miles in, it was HOT HOT HOT! Not the kind of weather I wanted for my 1st 18 miler. I only had my 12 ounce hand held and I was out by mile 8. Luckily there was a gas station at mile 10 to fill up...and it was refreshing cold water...water never tasted so good! I was already pretty tired at this point and it was baking hot. I told myself that starting at mile 12 I would try out the Run/Walk thing. I started out running for 5 minutes and walking for 1 minute...but found myself liking the 4/1 ratio better. It added a little bit of time to my pace, but I think that in the heat if I didn't have those 1 minute walk breaks that I would have felt pretty bad. Here are my splits from the miles where I did the walk/run:

Mile 12: 10:17

Mile 13: 10:36

Mile 14:  11:16 (Big Hill)

Mile 15:  10:43

Mile 16:  10:39

Mile 17:  11:09

Mile 18:  10:44

I am definitely going to try this run/walk on my 20 miler to see if it makes a difference. The overall pace of my 18 miler was 10:27 which was right on what I wanted. But I couldn't imagine doing a whole more 8 miles and keeping that average pace. Guess we will see in a few weeks! Anyone else feel really doubtful that they could complete a marathon at this point in their training...I had serious doubts yesterday!

I'm still here...AND a giveaway!

Yes, I am still here. I can't believe I haven't posted in like 3 weeks! The kids were on spring break for 2 weeks, we were helping family move...so we have been kind of busy around here! ;) Kaitlyn is back in school and I can now get back to my routine! I LOVE routine....I like to have my schedule for the week all planned out, I'm weird like that. Anyways, training has been going good. Since my last post, I went on to conquer a 16 miler (in crazy weather!), ice bath #2, a split up 17 miler, and ice bath #3! The 16 miler involved running in the dark for an hour and a half (with a friend of course!), running in almost hail for 3 miles, and ending soaking wet walking into a 7-11 to buy ice! Jenn & I were laughing that we probably looked like idiot's walking into a 7-11 soaking wet to buy bags of ice! HA! We did it all for the story, right?! I now swear by ice baths! My muscles have yet to be sore after a 15, 16 and 17 miler...and I believe it to be because of the ice baths! I was dreaming of an ice bath during my 16 miler even though I was soaking wet and freezing. I swear...they are the best ever! 

I can't believe that my 1st marathon is 6 weeks away! I only have 2 main long runs left (an 18 miler and a 20 miler) I can't believe it! The only thing that I am sad about is my running partner will not be joining me for this Marathon...so I will be running solo on race day :( BOOO!!!! 

My only concern so far is that I had a scheduled 17 miler on Friday. I didn't have a 3 plus hour window that day, so I had to split up my run through out the day. So I did 3.5 miles on the treadmill @ home...went to get Kaitlyn from school, fed kiddos lunch, did another 5.5 miles on the treadmill at home while Mason napped...and then a few hours later met a friend for the last 8. Is that OK to do? Does it still count and have the benefits of a straight 17 miler? I thought that it felt harder to split it up because my legs have time to get heavy and stiff. Oh well, I thought that it was better to split it up than to miss it completely!

AND

Michelle at Michelle Goes Running is having a giveaway that ends tomorrow! Enter to win a free 8x10 canvas print! This would be a great gift for anyone!