Two big milestones and a busy day..

Man, what a day yesterday was! First up was my first 20 mile run. It was yet another treadmill run, I'm really hoping the good weather we are supposed to get sticks around and I can be done with the mill for the year. That said, I must admit I cheated a little, I listened to my iPod on this run, the first time this year. It started out great, I felt strong confident and everything was going well. Then mile 9 hit and I fell apart. I was completely exhausted the rest of the time. It was a tremendous struggle to get through the last 11 miles. i think a huge part of the problem was my weight training the day before. I knew at the time I should have skipped it, but I did it anyway. My weight training plan called for a lot of squat push presses, alternate leg lunges with squat push presses and alternate leg step ups with weights. That's too much leg work the day before my first 20 miler, so lesson learned. I ended up having to walk several time in the last half, but I did make it all the way through the run, 20 miles 3:45:11. I'm planning on lightening up on my non-running workouts until the marathon in three weeks.

The next big note is that this run officially moves me past 1,000 miles all-time!! This puts me at 1,010.89 miles! I started running in November of '09. so it took me about a year and three months to get there. I'm excited to have these two big milestones behind me, my next 20 miler is next Saturday, and it will take me nowhere near as long to get my next 1,000 miles.

After the run I met up with my wife for lunch. We went to Panara, but it wasn't easy to eat. Honestly, my stomach just wasn't loving food after that run, but once I got lunch down it started feeling a lot better. Then we went to a Karate tournament several people from our Karate group were fighting in. Unfortunately it all went on earlier than expected and we only got to see the last fight which was our instructor, Roy Porter, fighting for overall champion. He did lose that fight, but he had already won 1st in his division. Also, Nate Greenwood and Laura Cobb from our group came in 1st in their respective divisions.

After that we went for a couple drinks with a few of the people from the group. The great thing about a long run is you can have some beers and Old Chicago Pepperoni Rolls without guilt!! Then we went bowling with the Karate group. It was one of my more interesting bowling attempts. I was good as a kid, but hardly ever bowl anymore. Well, my legs were so sore and I was so tired that I was literally getting out of breath every time I rolled. We played two games, I scored a 126 and a 155. Neither is great, but being so sore and tired I was excited about it, besides, I beat everyone in both games!!

I finally got home and got to lay down at 10:30. I was completely exhausted after such a busy day, but I was excited about all that I had accomplished. I look forward to beating many more milestones in the future, but I never dream I was capable of running 20 miles.