Week 5 - Results and Week 6 start

9 miles!! Yeah baby - time to complete 2 hours!! :) wooohooooooooooooo.. only four more miles to complete.. four miles and four weeks... wow.. I'm almost there!!

I've officially hit the threshold at which my legs ache after the run and I need to ice them to recover. I iced for the first time ever after the 9 mile run and oh my god! I was supposed to do it for like 7 mins and I think I screamed continously for the first 3 of them. For those of you who know me, you also know how much I hate cold water. Like absolutely detest it. I cannot stress enough how much I dislike it. So more than the pain, more than the exhaustion, more than anything else, sitting in the bathtub with freezing water was the most difficult thing that I had to endure.

But I will say this - icing works miracles. I still hate it. But I love how it makes the pain go away instantly. Recovery is almost immediate. It's only been less than 48 hours since the run and already I'm back in perfect form. I'm looking forward to my 5 mile run tomorrow.

So even though I missed out on one of my runs in the week - I still finished Week 5 with a total mileage of 13.5 miles. The target for week 6 is 20 miles! :) Like I said - we're coming into the home stretch now. Just yesterday I downloaded the half-marathon route and I'm thinking for the three long runs that I have left before the big day, I might just attempt some part of the route. Wow, just three long runs left till the big day!!

I was reading up on Runner's World about Monster Month - the last four weeks before the event. So these weeks are the most crucial leading up to the event and you need to make certain tweaks to your training to ensure that you're at your best on the day of the race. So from now on, I'm going to try to 'lighten' my cross-training - I'll still be running three days a week. But on my cross-training days I'd still do something strenuous like the stairmaster or elliptical - the focus now is do something that does not put undue stress on the knees. Any weight lifting too will have to be with lighter weights and I have to really step up the stretching to prevent injuries.

Lots to do! Stay tuned for more updates!