Whoops!

I ran a third of a marathon!

Yesterday, I went to Heartbreak Hill and the new REI in Cambridge to see about getting some trail running shoes. I came away with a understanding that A. Solomon shoes are very, very narrow in the toebox, far too narrow for me and B. I might not need any trail running shoes. The New Balance 860s are working fine and have a lot of stability. There's something to be said for waterproofing, and I am interested in going to a shoe with less or even zero drop, but neither of those are concerns that are particular to trail shoes. I'm still looking into them, but I think I'll be getting at least one more pair of 860s, possibly 2, and also looking into a show with a lower drop (or an insert to modify the drop on the 860) so I can start to transition.

Today, I ran a bit over a third of a marathon. Before leaving, I added 200 mL of water and a bit of salt to 100 grams of dried couscous in a glass jar (yes, I know it's heavy) and put the entire thing in my pack. When I arrived at work and took out the jar, I thought at first that the entire thing had turned to mush after an hour and a half of bumping around. But when I opened it, the couscous was a reasonably good texture (a little watery), if a little underseasoned. I'm not sure if it could handle hours and hours of bashing around, but it was surprisingly tasty after having just burned upwards of 1,200 calories.

I decided to spring for some patterns from a MYOG website, mostly for a fastpack-orinted backpack and a wind jacket. The backpack is interesting to me; I'd like to get it sewn and functional before I got on my trail marathon. I want to have it so the straps can hold a water bottle each, as well as having pockets or attachments for gloves, snacks, and possibly navigational aids. Speaking of, I got a great deal on a barely used Spot X satellite communicator. I doubt I'll need it for a while, but I have been looking at them for some time and I ultimately want to run farther and farther out. In the mean time, I plan to carry it just to get familiar with the device.

Tomorrow, I'll go on another longish run (12.2 km). That will round out my distance for the week, and also train me a bit on back-to-back long runs. Given that three out of every 4 weeks include an increase in distance, with the fourth being a "rest week", I'm thinking of doing back-to-back long runs for two of those three weeks and a single, truly long run for the third. Assuming that no run should be more than 30% of a week's total distance, and given a marathon of 42km (yes, I know it's a bit more), that means that 140km in a given week would put a marathon in relatively easy grasp. It would also leave 98km a week of other running to do; I would basically have to find a 10km track to and from work and commute there and back 5 days a week. Hmmmm. I really need to nail down a training plan.

I also need to nail down where I'm going to do my trail marathon. I should decide whether I'm going to limit myself to the range of the T, or the commuter rail. I could find a ride or something to go eve farther out, but I think it's wise not to push things too far for this. Maybe just a whole pile of twisting and turning in the middlesex fells reservation is the right answer. But I do need to sort some sort of path out, so I can make sure to include enough elevation changes in my training.