Milwaukee Lakefront at 6:30 a.m.

This morning was my 20 mile run with the Badgerland Striders. It’s very cold at 6 a.m. and while I’ve cursed the heat at the lakefront for the last two weeks, I was completely out of sorts as I tried to determine what to wear for the first 10 mile loop. I’ve been through this before, it was about seven years ago and I was running the Brown Deer 5K and it was something like 32 degrees out – and sleeting. My husband told me to put my scarf in the car, but I didn’t. About a half mile into the run I was too hot and had to wear my scarf tied around my waist for the remainder.

Today, I did not have a scarf, however I thought the long sleeved fleece would be a good idea — until I got out of Lake Park, onto Lincoln Memorial Drive and into the sun. HOLY HELL I WAS BAKING! So I looped back through the park to my car and ditched the fleece. I then had to walk down those monsterous stairs to the lakefront.

My first 15 miles I had a very good pace going, it was in the last 3.5 that I crashed and burned. My hips kept reminding me that I was 41 years old. The wind was insane at Veterans Park, so I cut that out-and-back short (which is where I lost the 1.5 miles).

The compression socks were  pretty awesome, until somewhere around 17 miles when I thought my calves were going to burst, so I folded them down around my ankles to relieve the pressure. Was it a good move? I don’t know.

My new running shoes were awesome though. I was having problems with my feet aching during my long runs (the outer edges on the sides and bottoms) and it turns out that I needed to get wider shoes. I’m still running in Nike Pegasus, but they are wides and my feet were very happy today.

I came home this afternoon and took a three hour nap with my cats. My legs are not happy with me, especially … well the whole leg is sore from my glutes to my calves. Last week I scheduled an hour massage for after the half-marathon and it really helped with my recovery. She worked on my legs for that entire hour, and wow, it made a big difference. I might have to bite the bullet and get a massage every Saturday afternoon for the next month.

Next week: 22 miles.