18.5 miles

I spent my morning running 18.5 miles.

It hurts. There's no other way to put it. It freakin' hurts. I'm not making any sudden movements because it feels like if I did, who the hell knows what might happen. Random muscles might cramp up. Random muscles *did* cramp up! I was taking off my socks, and the bottom of my right foot had this weird little reaction that was like a muscle cramp. But I quickly countered it by massaging it. So all is well. My toes will live.

I took 800mg of ibuprofen. I took a cold shower -- not long enough, because I'm a wimp. I'm icing my back. My lower back started feeling this sharp pain at about mile 18. Every step, it felt like the disks were compressing. I kept going for a while while keeping the pressure off of my lumbar. But then I decided it's better to stop. I'd already gone over my goal of 18 miles anyway. So I stretched it a lot afterwards. Though now overstretching is painful, too. So I'm just icing. I hope it's nothing too serious. (Mom, if you're reading this, don't worry about it, everything's peachy.)

Taking it slow really helped. We still managed to average 5.9mi/hour (that's 10.1km/hour for my European fans). And still then, at mile 17, we passed a couple who were jogging (probably on their mile 2). Now that felt good.

I'm glad I did this before going to Barcelona. I'm glad I did this the day *before* my 20-hour flight! At least now, I get a chance to stretch out a bit before cramming myself into an airplane seat! I should ge arrange for a massage...

I have to say, 18 miles was a huge mental block for me. I'd done a half marathon. So the 15 mile run wasn't such a big deal mentally. It felt like something I could do. But 18 just seemed like a *huge* number. I'm glad I did it. Just one more long run left before the taper. I'm ready.