Way too long Run

3/19 run 1hr 55mins on Company Mill & Loblolly @ Umstead in MT101's with left foot taped

HR avg 166 max 178

I made sure to get started extra early today at exactly 11am sharp.... sadly this is early for me, but I did get up at 9am to make this start time.  I was worried about the heat (high of 74), not to mention how clogged the trails can get on a beautiful Saturday.  My goal was to do 100 minutes, which is what I would have liked to have hit for the distance I covered, but the heat and accumulated fatigue of the week got the better of me and my pace slowed to a crawl at the end.  I started with an out and back on Company mill equal to about 35 minutes, hit the water fountain to refill one of my bottles.  Ran across the parking lot and started making my way down Loblolly.  I took a Thermotab around 55 mins in and did about half a gel as well.  This was my first time to ever use a gel.  Thankfully I didn't inhale it.  They are kind of gross, but WOW, I certainly got some life back in my legs.  I did the other half around the 80 min mark on my return trip and took my other Thermotab.  The gel definitely put some spring back in my step.   I guess I really need more calories on these runs.  I think I will start using a gel every 30 minutes if I have to run more than an hour.

This run wasn't as hard as last weekend, in part, because I decided I would focus on my heart rate and not worry so much about my pace.  I didn't want to wreck myself completely for the rest of the weekend.  My feet decided to breakdown on this run, with blisters on the ends of a few toes on both feet and my ongoing monster blister behind the ball of my left foot.  I think this is due to my feet swelling, which allowed my shoes to eat my toes on the downhills.  I could also feel the pain in my knees more than I have in awhile.  I've changed up my SAM-e dosage to 400mg every other day.  I really think my knees would look like grapefruits right now if I wasn't taking the SAM-e.  It's given me a few stomach issues, which I hope to resolve by taking it every other day instead of daily.

Next weekend is the Palmetto State O-run, which is a 4 mile obstacle course, even though I need to get in one more long run before I cutback.  My plan is to move the long run to Tuesday.  I'm not sure how well this will work if we lift on Monday and Tuesday, but I don't have any better ideas yet.  This is all assuming I'm healthy enough to do another long run.  My feet and knees would prefer to start tapering now.