Closer to 26.2

I hit a milestone today, running my longest distance ever: EIGHTEEN MILES!  And as I type, Joe is out doing 8 miles, which is going to get him to a milestone as well--his first 30+ mile week!  Pretty awesome for someone who works easily 50-60 hours per week, has MBA classes until 9:00PM on Mondays and Wednesdays, AND wakes up at 5:00AM every day to get in an intense 1-hour P90X workout.  The half marathon is going to be a piece of cake for him.

Here's the week in training:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 7.54 miles @ 8:42 minutes/mile
Wednesday: 2.89 @ 7:26
Thursday: 5.13* @ 7:58
Friday: 4.83 @ 8:50
Saturday: 7.95 @ 8:59
Sunday: 18.07 @ 9:03
Total: 46.41 miles

It was a wild weather week.  Wednesday was almost 60 degrees and sunny.  I had planned on doing 5-6 miles after school, but changed my mind to run a 2.9-mile, 6:29PM Leap Day race at Levis.  There was a good turnout, I bet largely due to the weather.  I wore shorts and a t-shirt.  I REALLY LIKE winter, but it was pretty sweet for it to feel like a late April day on the last day of February.  Results still aren't online (BOO, TOLEDO ROADRUNNERS!  BOO!), but my Garmin said I finished in 21:30.  Not my fastest three miler, but I was happy with it.

Thursday's run at Levis was actually 5.5, according to Rob, but I didn't get outside and give my Garmin enough time to find satellites, so for nearly a half-mile of running I was waiting on that.  Pace wasn't too bad, but I regret not sticking it out for 6 miles.

And today?  Today I ran 18 miles.  I know, I know, it's not a huge deal...to you.  But I feel AWESOME about it.  This is huge for me.  Last week, I was supposed to do 17 miles and only did 15.22 due to poor (no) route planning.  Yesterday I mapped out an 18+ mile run, but changed up things this morning and still managed to do just over 18.  I think it's because I didn't do it last week, part of me thought, "Krista, you're going to come short of 18."  But that didn't happen.  I did run 18 miles this morning.  I definitely didn't kill it on pace, but my splits were all pretty close to even.

I need to think more about fueling.  I only bought one gel to try, totally not thinking about the fact that I'd need to fuel more than once during such a long run.  I had a chocolate chip cookie and a small glass of water just before heading out the door.  I got to Tammy's at about 2.5 miles and had another small glass of water.  At about 6.5 miles, I had a Power Bar Kona Punch gel and some water.  At 11.5, I had another small glass of water and then nothing more until the end of the run.  For my next long run, my plan is a Power Bar gel every five miles.  I'm going to stick with Power Bar because it's really thin, unlike Gu.  Any flavor suggestions or warnings?  How often do you fuel on a long run?