lost post. Long run. Chicago.

Wrote for a good 30 minutes solid on my run today and lost it.
(recovered it, here it is:

Last weekend I ran for 3 hrs and 15 minutes on trails. A 30K race the weekend before that that was on the comfortable side. 17.7 the weekend before that. This would be my fourth week in a row at more than 30 miles (assuming I ran 16+ miles today) - my 4 week highest total Ever. I was thinking this 15-16 miler would be relatively easy, I could even get a little bit of a workout by adding some hills into it. With the Chicago Marathon going on today - had a little motivation going as well. Was I overconfident?? You bet!

With the Charlotte Marathon being a somewhat hilly course, I added my hill loop into the first 5 laps and decided that was enough of hills for a while. My pace was fine, but little nagging things made me worry a little bit - and that wasn't enjoyable. My left heel had been bothering me at times the last few days. The 30 minutes on the stationary bike Friday made my knee a little sore in one spot that afternoon. 8 or 9 miles in or so - my left quad has some soreness...that went away mostly. I decided ahead of time that the planned 15 miler wasn't enough, because I missed that one cool down mile earlier this week and I wanted to hit 30, so I was going to add in another mile today. Not knowing exactly how much I was adding (distance wise) for the hill loop, I ended up adding it in one more time on my last lap - my fastest of the day. My pacing was good for the whole run, but it just wasn't that good of a run, you know? Ended up doing 16.8 (May not be exactly right - my mileage for that hill loop may still be off), but I did hit over 30 for the week!

Came home and watched the online coverage of the Chicago Marathon. No World Record as thought possible for the males, but a 10 yr. Event record was broken by 3 seconds! Very exciting. Was glued at the computer for ~2 hours (watched the females finish too - Deena didn't quite stick around, but it was a tight race until the last mile).

Not repeating it right now.
The gist of it: Ran 17+ miles each of the last 3 weekends expecting this 15-16 to be easy. Was never fun, maybe due to adding hills into the first 5 laps. One thing or another nagged on and off - my pace was fine but just not a good, satisfying run.
Still hit over 30 miles for the week - that's 4 in a row. I've Never done that before and my most mileage ever in a 4 week span.
Also - Watched the Chicago Marathon online coverage today - exciting to see the course record set by 3 seconds! Too bad Deena faded the last half - I've always liked her. Maybe I'll be up there next year.