If the title didn't give it away, the highlight of these past two weeks of training was my 20 miler from Saturday. 

I was so nervous Friday night as I got ready for this run. After a disastrous attempt at 18 miles two weeks prior, I didn't have a lot of confidence about running 20. 

But I followed my regular prepping routine, lots of hydration the day before (added some Gatorade to the mix this time too), plus a yummy spaghetti dinner, plus a decent night of sleep. 

When I woke up Saturday morning and checked the weather on my phone, I saw humidity was at 96 percent. I wanted to cry. It was bad humidity that had messed up my 18 miler. I told myself I was going to go back to sleep and maybe try doing the run on Sunday instead. 

But I spent the next 30 minutes tossing and turning and not able to fall back to sleep, so I put on some clothes and went downstairs to see what it actually felt like outside. It was a little bit cool, and the humidity didn't feel so bad because there was some very light rain. 

I decided to at least attempt the run, figuring if it sucked too bad, I could always stop and try again later. 

I turned on my audio book and braced myself for a slow and steady run.

Long runs during covid times are strange. No water fountains are on so I have a really hard time planning routes. What I decided to do for this 20-miler was two different 10 mile runs that were out and backs from my house. Not the most exciting plan ever, but it would at least ensure I could refill my water bottle half way through.

The first five miles of the first out and back were a net downhill. I had planned this intentionally, figuring it would help me ease into the run and leave me feeling decently strong. Of course that meant the second five miles were a bit of a slow and steady climb back home, but by that point I was warmed up, and while, I certainly slowed down a bit, I felt really good when I got back home. 

The second 10 miles were rolling hills. Certainly not my favorite option, but I wanted to stay around my neighborhood in case anything went wrong and I needed to hobble my way back home. 

Mentally I felt things getting tough around mile 12 or 13. I was following my run 1 mile, walk 1 minute system, and I was really focused on counting down to my walk break. I was also counting down the miles until I reached mile 15, which was my turn around point to head back home. 

The last five miles were definitely a lot of mental motivation and talking to myself counting down miles and minutes as they ticked by. Miles 19 and 20 were tough. I definitely increased my amount of walking, especially on the hills, but I finished. 

As soon as I got back home, I immediately sat down. It felt so good to be off my feet.

I have no clue how I will run an additional 6.2 miles when it comes time to do the virtual race though, especially without crowd energy to feed off of. But that's a problem for future Jess to tackle. For now, I'm just crazy proud of myself for knocking out this 20 miler. 

Week 11 

Sunday - 8 miles. Normally I don't start a training week on a Sunday, but I was at the beach and after that failed 18 miler, I wanted to take advantage of the nice flat ground to hopefully boost my running confidence. 

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - 8 miles. Back in DC and it was the first taste of fall! Was so excited that I average 9:30 pace on this run!

Wednesday - Strength training. 

Thursday - 2 miles. I think this was supposed to be a four miler but I failed so hard that I turned around and walked home. I didn't even make a note about it in Strava so clearly I wasn't happy about it. 

Friday - Rest

Saturday - 10 miles. It was another day of perfect weather, and I ran down to the Supreme Court to pay my respects to RBG.

Sunday - Rest

Total: 28 miles

Week 12

Monday - 6 miles. Mixed it up and ran a slightly different route, which was a nice mental break.

Tuesday - Rest.

Wednesday - 4 miles and upper body strength training. Four miles was the shortest distance I've run in ages it seemed like, so that was also a really great mental break.

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Rest

Saturday - 20 miles!

Total: 30 miles

I'm officially in taper now, and I'm really excited about that. I'm so looking forward to some shorter runs and a bit more rest of make sure I'm ready for this virtual race. 

Well the highlight (or I guess I should say low light) of my training in weeks 9 and 10 was my complete failure on my 18 mile long run this past weekend. 

I always get a little nervous before the really, really long runs in a marathon training plan -- usually the 18 and 20 miler, though sometimes the 16 miler too. 

I prepped for the 18 miler like I do for any of my long runs. I tried to hydrate well the day before, made myself a nice bowl of pasta for dinner, and then ate my typical PB and toast breakfast before hitting the road. 

As soon as I opened the door and felt the wave of humidity that hit me in the face, I knew it was going to be a tough run. But I told myself that was OK and I'd just take it as slow as I needed to. 

Miles 1-3 were fairly unremarkable. By mile 5 things started to get unpleasant and I was already worried about my water supply. I had planned to do about 14 miles before stopping back at home to refill my water bottle, but started doing some route calculations in my head and figured I could make a few adjustments and get back there sooner. 

I hit the turn around point at mile 7, and I was really struggling. I was walking up every hill and eating all my mid-run fuel, and I still felt dead on my feet. I tried to do a mental reset during mile 9, but everything just fell apart in mile 10. 

I walked the last two miles home and ended up with a nasty pain under the ball of my left pinky toe. Those were 12 of the most miserable miles I've ever covered.

I was pretty crushed when I got home. I'd been banking on this 18 miler to boost my confidence about this whole virtual marathon thing, but the opposite happened. 

I know the weather played a part. I know the fact that I had to juggle some runs to work with my schedule probably played a part. And I know sometimes bad runs just happen. But none of that is very comforting right now when I'm about six weeks out from this virtual race and I've got a 20 miler on the calendar in a couple of weeks that I'm now dreading. 

I'm trying to keep it all in perspective, but I really need my 20 miler to go a lot better or I'm not going to be in a good spot mentally about this race. 

Anyway, here's a look at how the rest of weeks 9 and 10 played out:

Week 9

Monday - Rest day since I shifted my 16 miler to Sunday because of the weather.

Tuesday - 5 mile interval workout. One minute on, one minute off. Plus strength training.

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - 5 miles in more terrible humidity.

Friday - 10 mile long run. Was planning to be out of town for Labor Day and wanted to make sure I got my long run in first. In news that surprises no one, it was really humid and this run was not fun. 

Saturday - Rest day

Sunday - Four mile hike. This doesn't count as a run, but there were some pretty steep climbs at one point, and my calves were sore when we got to the summit. 

Total: 20 miles.

Week 10

Monday - Rest day to travel.

Tuesday - Six miles where I was blessed with digestive issues. What a fun run this was! Also strength training.

Wednesday - Four miles. Even though it was humid, it was so nice mentally to have a shorter run on the schedule.

Thursday - Rest day.

Friday - That terrible 18 miler that turned into a 12 miler.

Saturday - Rest.

Total: 22 miles.

I'm hoping with some cooler temperatures rolling into the DC area that the next couple weeks of running will be more tolerable, and by the time this virtual race rolls around in October, we should be firmly in fall, and I hope that means I'll actually be able to do all 26.2 miles. 

August seemed like a really slow month of reading for me, but when I looked back at my Goodreads account, I'd finished the same amount of books as normal. I'm wondering if it was just because some of the plots were heavier and not some of the lighter, quicker reads I typically pick up in the summer. 

I've also been continuing to listen to audio books on my long runs, and I listened to some great ones this month.

Here's what I read and listened to in August.

Five Stars

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh this book was so twisty and good. An excellent suspenseful thriller that kept me company as an audio book on my long runs. Basically everything you assume in the first part of the book turns out to be totally wrong and you get pulled along on one crazy journey. I am loving the books by these two authors. I hope they write more soon!

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was a delightful, fast and fun read. It's about Bea, a plus-sized fashion blogger who gets asked to be the star of The Main Squeeze (this book's version of the Bachelor/Bachelorette). I love those shows, and this book hit all the right points for me. Bea had guys who were villains and completely awful to her. She had suitors that "weren't there for the right reasons." All the while, Bea had to deal with her own insecurities while on national TV, unsure if she even deserved love. This was one of my favorite books of the summer.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! It was beautifully written, and so many times while I was reading, I would stop and go, "No....that did not just happen." The book tells the story of two sisters both light-skinned Black women. One chooses to live life as a Black woman, and the other decides to "pass" as a white woman. This book makes you think quite a bit about why anyone should need to pretend to be white.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to this book on my long runs, and it totally made the miles fly by. This book is a complete fantasy that asks you to believe that children can be "peculiar" or have special abilities -- like brute strength, invisibility and even elements of time travel. But because these children aren't "normal," they are outcasts from society and hunted down by others. I got half way through it one one of my long runs and I couldn't wait for the next run to finish the story.

Four Stars

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book a lot, but didn't love it quite as much as the Night Circus. This book is beautifully written and has so many intricacies, but I struggled to keep some of the storylines straight in my brain over the course of the book.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lisa See's books are just so good, and her newest didn't disappoint. This book is set on the Korean island of Jeju and follows the story of two young girls, who are best friends and members of the all-female diving group in their village. The book follows the girls over decades of their lives -- through War War II and the Korean War, and flashes back and forth between historical bits and present day when you meet the granddaughter of one of the girls. This was a beautifully sweeping epic story, and I was a little sad when it ended.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is funny and also kind of crazy. The main character is a nurse and as such, she knows just how to clean up after her sister continues to murder her boyfriends. Things get a bit more complicated when her sister starts to date the doctor she has always had a crush on.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another great suspense book for a fun escape. A power couple is getting married on a small island off the coast of Ireland. Everything is going according to plan until someone ends up dead. The book is told from the perspective of several different characters, and by the time you find out who dies almost everyone has a motive.

Three Stars

Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

J. Courtney Sullivan explores the nature of a relationship between a young mother and her new baby-sitter. The mother is a new transplant to the suburbs after living in New York for 2o years and working a fast paced job as a reporter at the Times. She's not coping well and missing her friends and though I don't think it's explicitly stated, you get the sense she's got a bit of postpartum depression. She forms a strange friendship with her college-aged babysitter. Parts of this book were so great, but other parts I thought were so strange and a little unbelievable. Also, the main character was super mean to her father-in-law all the time and that made her really unlikable.

They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A snotty prep school, a secret society, a supposedly open and shut murder-- that was anything but. This book had all the elements to suck me in and be a super fast read, but I struggled a bit to get through it. I can't really put my finger on why because I enjoyed it, I just thought it lagged a bit at parts.

Unicorn Princess by Shannon Gilligan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A few weeks ago my friends and I were talking about those Choose Your Own Adventure Books from our childhoods. And then my friend sent me one to read. This one however wasn't one of the old chapter books I remember from childhood. Apparently there are now illustrated Choose Your Own Adventure children's books. The fun part about this being so short is that I was easily able to read all the possible endings -- and of course, the first one I picked was definitely the "you got busted by the camp counselor" story over one. I used to do that in the chapter books all the time too! Anyway this was a really fun blast from the past kind of read, and gave me some good ideas for gifts for the kiddos in my life.

Two Stars

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was intrigued by this book because it was about a book club, obviously. Plot-wise, I thought it started a little bit slow, but then certainly picked up as the book club got into the actual vampire slaying. But here's the part I couldn't take and why I'm only giving this book two stars. I could not stand the way this male author wrote his female characters. There is a LOT of sexism in this book. It was set in the 80s, and it stuck to pretty traditional gender roles of housewives and working male husbands. But it went far beyond that with how little agency any of the women had, and how they crumpled under their husbands' questioning. Those parts of the book (and there were many of them) made me so incredibly mad.

Have you read anything good lately? I'm always up for recommendations.