Longest Ever!

August 16,2009....I have officially run my longest Long run and run the highest number of miles in a week to date! This morning, bright and early at 5:30am, I got up and ran 14 miles. This was the longest run ever for me. The longest run I have run before this was at the Gasperilla Half which was 13.1. Total for the week was 28 miles. Before this biggest total was 26 miles.
The 14 miles didn't go so well though this morning. I hit 5.8 miles and my knee started to hurt. I was upset and bummed out and thought "oh great I have to walk home now and I don't get to finish my run." I stretched my legs, drank some water and then tried to run again. To my amazement my knee felt better and didn't hurt for the next 6 miles. Its not over yet though...mile 11 comes and there goes my knee again. This time it wasn't feeling better, in fact it was worse. I changed my gate a little bit and sunk more into my hips and the pain got better. So for the next 2 miles or so thats what I did. After those 2 miles, I couldn't run anymore without taking breaks. I was so upset, I was yelling at myself and telling myself to push through it, its only pain! Haha... that didn't really work. Run, walk, run, walk the rest of the way. I finished in a whopping 2:50:00...thats not what my goal was. My goal for today was 2:30:00 or less. If my knee had held out I am sure I would have made my goal.
Also on todays run I decided that I would not run the normal route I had been running. I decided to go in a straight line down the road for 7 miles, see where it takes me then turn around and head back. At mile 5 there was a HUGE hill....seeing that I was trying to avoid the big hills today, I turned around and made up the remaining miles going up and down side streets that didn't have any hills. The decision to go this route was for the lack of hills in it. I wanted to see how I felt going the distance and not having to run up these hills. I felt 10 times better than I have been feeling in my runs. My times were right on the 11:30 mark! great!!! Oh well to the times with the knee.
After I finished my run I called Ian and said get a cold bath ready for me. He did , with ICE too! It was cold but felt really good. I have iced my knee twice since then and dosed myself up some Motrin. I am taking it slower the next couple of days and hope that the constant icing will help my knee. If worse comes to worse I will have to stop running for a bit and hit the schedule hard upon my return or just pick up where I should be and hope all goes well!