SPRINGWATER SIXTEEN SUCKAGE

Blue was the color of the day. Can you spot me?

The up and down cycle of marathon training continues. After last week's surprisingly good twenty miler, this week's sixteen miler seems like it should have been a walk in the park. That is not the nature of marathon training though and these down weeks are built into the schedule for the very reason that your body gets run down and needs a little break.

Not that sixteen miles is a break. Long story short, I did it, but it sucked. My tempo run on Wednesday might still have been in my legs as they didn't feel nearly as good as last week. On Thursday, the day after the tempo run, I did three miles with Katie B. in Murrayhill that were pretty hilly. It was supposed to be an easy, recovery type jog but it was anything but. That one I can surely blame on my tempo run the day before though.

Anyways, the sixteen mile run was the same old shit. Run from somewhere in downtown-ish Portland, go to the waterfront, then south on the Springwater Corridor until we had to turn around. One fun bit was Libbie was doing one of the aid stations, but other than that it was the same crap. Thankfully a lot of people showed up and I got to chat with my 3:30 group pals. Had a couple fun conversations on the way back that help distract me from the fact my legs were complaining so much.

The worst part about this route, from RoadRunner Sports on 23rd, was the final mile and a half are uphill and fraught with many stoplights. So while your legs are aching and you just want to be done, you have to run uphill and keep having to stop to wait for traffic. Finally got it done though. I'd say my legs were in worse shape than after last week's twenty. However, they did recover pretty fast, and I felt pretty good the rest of the day and not really even sore on Sunday. Marathon training is still on track and I'm feeling fairly motivated at the moment! Onward!