20 Miles on Saturday!

I am now officially in taper! Woohoo! The Saturday long run was more difficult than anticipated. The 18.5-mile run two weeks previous really felt okay, so I guess we went into this one thinking it couldn't be that much more difficult. As with every other part of life, you can just have a not-so-great day now and then, and our 20-mile run seemed to fall on that day. We went out a bit too fast, I am still trying to settle on what will make my stomach happy, and I just plain ran out of gas toward the end. We finished, but it wasn't pretty. Of course in hindsight, I can see all the things that contributed to the difficulty. Needing a couple more hours of sleep, eating a bit more the day before, the sun glaring down at us with no breeze for about 9 miles. Friday was 95 degrees here, and my appetite seems to fade in the heat, so looking back I can see why I didn't have a ton of energy on Saturday.

Oh well. We finished. We ran the whole way outside of water stops. My run today was quite a bit better, so I am feeling confident again. My knees have stopped aching, so it looks like my gym time is paying off. I'd best keep at it though. I want those knees to stay happy, as they need to carry me a long way.