Seventeen-mile saturday

This past Saturday was my last long run. 17 miles. At least the last one until I have the ablation procedure this week.

I'd been dreading it, but it was pretty good. Jane did the first 7 miles with me (as part of her half marathon training). I think I did the Lower Huntington to Bluffton Rd to the Foster Park Greenway and back around twice (plus a little finagling here and there for extra miles). I stopped at home after the first lap and refilled my water bottle and took a leak. It took just under 3 hours for a 10:30-ish pace. I went through two 21-ounce jugs of LMNT-spiked water and three GU energy gels. I was happy enough with things, mostly because I didn't have any injuries, blisters, or incidents. Afterward my left achilles was kinda sore, but I don't think it's anything.

I am now starting week 11 of my 18-week marathon training plan... and it's about to go to pot! This is supposed to be my highest mileage week, and I'm only going to get in one run - if I do it today; which is typically a day off. After the ablation I'm supposed to take a week to ten days off, and it remains to be seen how I'll feel after that. So... we'll have to see. There's no way I can make up for missing all these miles. Plus I'm not really looking forward to having someone cut into my groin and stick a bunch of wires and tubes up there all the way to my heart; oh, and then make some burn marks for good measure. ... ... I dunno. I'm a little nervous.

At any rate, I tried to look back through some previous 17-milers and some were not so good and some were okay. I'm at least glad this last one was a good run. I'd have hated for it to be like the year I had to walk at mile 11. 

Today I will maybe do 4 or 5 miles - I haven't really decided yet. It's like a day that doesn't count because I'm not sure how my legs will feel on the other side of all this. I'm probably only doing a run at all to try to keep my mind off things. 

At any rate, don't be surprised if this is the only post all week. On the other hand, there could just as likely be a million more. 

I feel kinda like I'm off to see the Wizard...