Monumental run

I had been eating crap the past few days; yesterday morning I woke up at 10:30am, ate a cinnamon roll and had two cups of coffee, went back to sleep...and then at 12:30pm decided I needed to run. Isn't that nasty and lazy?

My goal was to run 22 miles; mainly because that's what my little route from home would equal out to. It was in the 40s, sprinkling, and had winds from 20-25 mph but I was so determined to finish the miles since the most I've been able to run at one time lately was 11.5 miles.

I set out and already at mile two my knees felt tight. I decided I needed to change my stride somehow because obviously the current one wasn't working. I didn't know if I should stretch out the knees and lengthen my stride or shorten it by heightening the knees and almost do butt-kicks. I randomly chose the high-knee stride and I kept it up the entire time.

The stride made me feel like I was running slow, especially against the wind, but I didn't care how long it took me- I was going to make myself finish. For some reason I had the most powerful, detrimental run and I pumped out 22 miles; probably an 8:15-8:30 pace.

It was the best run of my life and I would have shot for a marathon or 50k had I had the time. My knees would tighten everyone once and awhile but I would heighten my knees again and it would go away. I have been so nervous about Gnaw Bone and this run boosted my confidence a ton. If I could just have another 20 miler before the race then I'll be set.

I iced the knees and my quads feel a little sore today, but that's it. I might go run a few more miles this afternoon if I feel up to it.