Quick recap

Last Friday morning I completed the scheduled 14 mile run, and it went remarkably well. I was very tired and pretty sore when it was all over, but oddly enough, less sore than the 12 miler the week before. I know I'm still a pretty slow runner, but I was pretty proud of myself because I did the 14 miles in 15 minutes less than what I'd planned.
And yes, I caved and took an ice bath. After being in so much pain a couple weeks ago, I did a little research and got some advice from runner's I know...they all said take an ice bath. It has a similar affect to applying ice to a wound: reduces inflammation and speeds up muscle recovery time...only for the entire leg, not just once specific area; which is really almost required for this amount of trauma. Overall it really wasn't as bad as I imagined, but definitely not on my list of favorite things to do. And unfortunately, it worked. My legs felt better immediately after getting out of the tub, so now I fear this has to become a regular part of my training program. Darn it.
I began week 9 this morning with a quick 4 miler, but since I had two rest days in between runs instead of the usual one day, I was bit stiff. (I also think that sleeping on the ground for those two nights didn't help much...we were camping. Without sleeping pads. Oops.) The first couple of miles were awfully slow and I wasn't really enjoying it, but it did get better.
I've discovered that I actually enjoy the longer runs a little bit more than the shorter runs. It takes me just about 3 miles to get warmed up and feeling the rhythm, and until then I don't really enjoy it very much. It's a lot of work, my body feels like it's jerking around and pounding the ground really hard. So the runs that are only 4 miles long, don't really get comfortable until mile 3...so the majority of it isn't very fun. Now I'm not saying I LOVE 14 miles, but anything over 5 I find to be much more enjoyable.
I'm getting a little bit nervous for what's coming up: the next 4 weeks or so are going to be a LOT of miles. I jump up to 16 for this week's long run. It's weird to think back to when 5 and 6 miles were the long runs...ha. I'm praying for cooler weather next week because I jump up to 5:8:5:18. Yikes.