Today was pretty exciting in that I was able to do a 12 mile run only a couple days after doing my 14.5 mile/longest run to date. At the 8-9 mile range, I felt awesome, not tired at all, and was starting to dream of doing up to 15 miles. But, as I did some downhill on Willamette, some toes on my right foot flared up, and I could feel that it must be a couple blisters, as it was tender. I knew I was also maybe a bit tight on water, so I headed back. It was a good call in the end. 6 hours later (as I type this), and I'm fairly worked - just feeling like I need a bit of sugar, and still needing to drink a lot of water, but otherwise good. Two of my toes do indeed have blisters. I'm now debating whether I drain/pop them or what. This is new territory for me (first set of blisters).
Today I ran with the Nathan pack again, thing is great. I also tried orange flavored Hammer gel: excellent! It's super light on flavor, actually bordering on not really even having flavor. But, the real bonus was that it seemed far more liquidy than their other gels, so it was that much easier to consume. This is going to be good stuff. I also had some Sport Beans, and man, with the high salt in those, they just taste great deeper into a run when you've been sweating a lot and it's warm out. Not something I can eat a lot of, but in the right moment, they're great.
Did the run in 1 hour and 59 minutes :) Initially felt a bit of residual heaviness from Wednesday's run and Friday's road bike ride, but by a few miles in all was going well. Did some decent hill work today. Started at Spencer Butte parking, up and over to Fox Hollow, one typical lap there, then did a down and back up on the lower section that goes to Martin Street. This is a solid descent and climb back up. From there, up and over to Willamette, which is all I planned, but again, was feeling good, and even with the toes, wanted to do a bit more. So, I did a brief bit on Blanton, to the little mini hill embedded in there, around that, and then back to Spencer parking. 12 miles probably (12.55 on my watch). Good stuff.
