Running In The Rain

This morning I woke up to rain pounding the windows. With 14 miles to run I put on a jacket, visor and gloves and headed outside prepared to get wet. Luckily the temperatures were not bad and the wind was at my back most of the way.

Since my marathon will be a point to point race, I am planning to make several of my longer runs point to point as well. Typically my training runs are either loops or out and back routes. Last year at the Dam to Dam, I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of being mentally prepared for the route in the same way that I am physically prepared to run the miles.

With that in mind, the plan for today was to start out from home and have Erin and the girls pick me up when I finished. I wasn't exactly sure where I would end up, but I headed South out of Grimes, passed through Urbandale and Clive and ended up finishing with a loop around the pond at the West Des Moines library. By that time it was pouring down rain and I was completely soaked. I was able to wait in the library entrance for the girls to pick me up. This is officially the farthest distance I have ever run as my previous long was a half marathon (13.1 miles). I made sure to run at a very easy pace and was very happy that my legs still fairly fresh at the end.

Overall it was a very solid week of training. I logged the most distance that I have ever run in a week with a little over 32.5 miles.  I did have a scare at the pool on Wednesday as my foot twisted a little weird while pushing off the wall and hurt to walk on for the rest of the day. Luckily, when I ran that evening everything felt fine and it hasn't bothered me much since. Friday ended up being a complete rest day for me. I rolled into the pool just after 5:30 am, but when I got inside everyone was standing around and the sign in desk was not opened up yet. A few minutes later the lifeguard on duty came out of the pool area to tell us that after running 4 tests, the chlorine levels were too high for them to let us swim. I thought about returning at lunch time but decided that my body could probably use a day of rest. 

April 3rd will mark the start of my in-season triathlon training program. For me, planning out my training is part of the fun, so I enjoyed spending the week working on a new training schedule. So far, I have my schedule planned out through the marathon, which is the 2nd weekend of June. It is going to be a grueling couple of months, but once the marathon is over and I am able to back off on the number of miles I am running, things should smooth out.