There is no substitute for experience

There was a time when I my body used to ache so badly after running a marathon that I could barely get out of my bed. I remember getting everything upstairs I needed for that day so that I wouldn't have to climb up and down the stairs more than once. Every step was like a painful reminder of what I had just done to my body. Then came day two, which was even more painful. I wouldn't be able to run for at least 3 days following a marathon.

Granted, now I'm running more slowly than I would if I was going to be competing in a race, but that also means that I'm spending more time on my feet. The best marathon time I've had so far has been 3 hours and 39 minutes in Jacksonville, Florida. Now I'm routinely running almost 45 minutes slower than that for a training run.

When I got home from my run yesterday, I was sore but energized at the same time. I had a hard time sitting still as I suppose I was still full of adrenaline from the run earlier in the day. I tried to walk as much as possible to keep the lactic acid from building up and this seemed to help a great deal.

This morning I feel great and even did an hour of weight lifting. This has now been my third weight lifting workout in the past 7 days and I'm committed to doing this twice per week until my race in April. Even though I have access to my gym whenever I want, I prefer to workout in my basement. I even flirted with the idea of going for a run later today but will hold off and stick to my training program.

I would like to increase my long run this weekend to 50K's and I'm supposed to be heading to Niagara Falls to run there with a good friend. She also loves to run by herself so this should be an interesting adventure.