18 miles and a bottle of... water

Oh, what a difference a week makes. Last week I attempted to run 17 miles and it didn't go so well. Today I ran 18 and it went better than expected.

Some of the differences:

• Last week I started too late in the day and got overheated. Today I started at 7 am.
• Last week I didn't drink enough water (even though I thought I did). Today I carried a water bottle and drank about 12 ounces every hour.
• Last week I stayed up to late the night before and didn't eat well. Last night I went to bed around 9 pm, didn't drink any alcohol, and had spaghetti for supper.

So, I ran 18 miles in 2 hrs 56 minutes; averaging 9:47/mile pace. I burned 2020 calories, and my best pace was 8:07/mile. My fastest miles were between 13 and 14, and 16 and 17. 

My route was Lower Huntington to Bluffton Rd, down to Foster Park. I went around it once and over to the water fountain where I refilled my water bottle. I then headed to Rudisill and took that over to Fairfield and headed downtown. Once downtown I kind of just ran around until I was at 12 miles at Skyline Y (where I work). I refilled my water bottle again and headed back toward Foster Park. From there I took the rivergreenway to home. It left me a half mile to walk after the 18.

I actually felt pretty good the entire way. My legs were sore when I got home, but they've been worse. The only real problem is the recurring blister I keep getting between the ball of my right foot and the big toe. It was kind of nasty today. I popped it again and doped it up. I also bought some super glue that I may try next week.

This was my first time using a hand-held water bottle. I got this Ultimate Direction Fastdraw 350 water bottle last week (pictured above). It holds 12 ounces, and I can also put my energy gels in the pouch. It literally took me 5 miles to figure out how to use it without getting a bunch of air, but once I got it down, it worked pretty swell.

I've been using the GU energy gels lately, and I used one today. I also bought some of the newer Huma energy gel plus and used one of those. I suppose the Huma was maybe not quite so gross, but while running it doesn't really matter what kind of gue I put in my mouth.

Anyway, I was very happy with the way things went today. I was soooo bummed out last week. Today's run went better than expected. I decided I wasn't even going to worry about time but just wanted to try to enjoy it. So, of course, I ended up running faster than I thought I would. :)