Longest run ever

Yesterday, I ran farther than I ever have before.

26.8 kilometers total. I carried a smallish pack, with all the things in it that I'm considering essential for long distance runs. Things like my first aid kit, wind shell, snacks, etc. I took both of my flexible 600mL bottles, which turned out to be just about enough water for the run (one of the bottles) and recovery immediately after (the other). I ran a full 6km of the whole with a forefoot strike, and ended up at the Salem commuter rail train station in just enough time to have a snack, drink some water, and put on my wind shell before I got a ride home. I bought some groceries on the way home, filled most of my water containers, and then crashed to eat an entire bag of tortilla chips.

It was marvelous. It was over 40 percent of my distance for the week, due mostly to getting slightly lost once or twice, but I'm not worried; I just came off a rest week, and I didn't have any serious pains yesterday or today.

Anyway, I didn't run at all today. I'll run to and from work for the rest of the week, I think, and that will just about finish my distance for the week.

It's been awhile

Since I last posted. I'm into a rest week now, but it's still quite rewarding. I've been doing forefoot striking for 10% of my runs for some time now, basically making sure to do at least 100 steps of running with my toes striking first for every KM in a given run (not necessarily 100 steps in each actual km, but the number of km in a run, rounded up to the nearest whole number, is the number of 100 step toe first iterations I'd do). At some point, I started doing at least 300 at a time. Today, I did 20% of my run to work with forefoot striking. It's working out well, and I at least partially credit having added toe and arch exercises to my routine.

I received a package from REI today. A pair of 600mL ultraflasks, an emergency bivy, that sort of thing. I'm now well into the territory of having assembled a good trail running kit.

I figured out that my vivoactive 3 just does not have enough battery life to cover a trail marathon in April. Not even close. I'm seriously considering a different watch.

More milestones

On Saturday, I went for a run during a proper blizzard; I ended up taking my jacket off, too. I had icicles built up on my eyebrow and eyelashes by the end. Worth it.

On Monday, I achieved all 100 reps of both situps and squats carrying 10 pounds. I then ran to work with a 7.5kg pack. Between adding my wind pants and jacket to the pack for the run home, it was actually 7.9kg on the run back. Both of those weights included 2 1-liter bottles of water. My right knee bothered me ever so slightly, so today I took public transportation to and from work, and took the opportunity to move a few things both ways. I took a variety of medications to work, where I achieved some success sealing them in plastic straws. I found that I could print a piece of paper with the name, dose, and expiration date of each pill, then heat seal it into a small section of a drinking straw. The font must be simple and the type very small (size 4), but it remains legible through the straw. I also bought some single-use tubes of super glue, butterfly strips, and a spool of half inch waterproof medical tape. All told, I've got just about everything for a good medical kit that should fit into a tin.

I also brought home my new cutting mat, ruler, and the patterns for the backpack I hope to make, along with my new hydroblu water filter. It filters water with much less pressure than I anticipated. There is no appreciable flow of air back through it, so the filter has to be unscrewed to allow the bottle to re-expand before more water can be squeezed through. I wonder about an intermediate attachment with a check valve. I also wonder about the wisdom of using a small piece of tube to bring the water from the outlet to the clean water bottle, to minimize the chance of dirty water leaking out from around the joint and dripping down into the clean bottle.

I've been wearing my low-drop shoes for all casual walking around, exercising my arches and toes, and running at least 100 steps per kilometer with a toe-first strike. Tomorrow, I'll run to work again, with another reasonably heavy pack.