Winning anyone? Nope, not me.

I am feeling incredible with my training.  Cardio wise and feel like I can run 26 miles today.  I can keep a pace of 8:00 - 8:10 / mile pace and not get tired at all.  I'm feeling great!  Except, my knees. 

On Sunday I went for my usual Sunday long run.  I went and mapped out parts of the actual route the marathon will be and included the dreaded Iroquois Park.  I mapped out 15 miles of the actual route, calculated if I ran an 8:30 pace, I would finish at 2:07:30.  I wasn't trying to set any pace records, I just wanted to make the 15 miles because it's the furthest I have ever gone. 

It wasn't meant to be.

There were just too many things going against me.  The temp outside was about 35 degrees.  Not blistering cold but it wasn't exactly ideal either.  The slight wind didn't help at all.  Strike one!  I was averaging an 8:10 pace for the first 4.26 miles.  I know it was 4.26 miles because that is when I lost the GPS signal on my Iphone.  This happened at Iroquois.  It's weird because I lost the signal almost instantly at the park.  This sucked because I would've liked to know my pace through the dreaded hills of the park.  Strike two!  But I kept going and once I got about 1/2 mile out of the park, I picked up my GPS again.  Oh gee!  Thanks!  By my mental calculations, on around mile 9, I started feeling discomfort in my left knee.  The posterior aspect to be exact.  I didn't think too much at first but it didn't go away.  In fact, it got worse.  After about a mile of this, my right knee started hurting, probably from trying to compensate for the left.  Grrrrrr.  Well the pain did not go away in either knee.  It got so bad I had to modify my route and cut off 3 miles and go straight back to my car.  STRIKE THREE! 

Overall I averaged an 8:12 mile.  Thanks to gmap pedometer I was able to figure this out.  Later in the night I sat in an ice bath.  This felt wonderful.  I cannot begin to tell you how great this makes the legs feel after a long run.  Today I rode the bike a little bit and rolled my legs and calves.  My knee is still sore and I'm going to sit in another ice bath.  Tomorrow is a complete rest day and I'll hit it again on Wednesday with some intervals.  Wish me luck.