Longest Long Run Ever

Yesterday I ran my longest training run ever: 40.25 km (25 miles). I've run longer during races but never as a training run. All things being considered, it went pretty good. I ran it at a fairly reasonable pace in about 4h 05min. I ran it between 10am and 2pm and I had to go somewhere with my daughter afterward so my run food was my lunch. At around 4, I totally lost control and drove to Harvey's where I proceeded to eat an Angus burger WITH cheese, a large Pepsi and I upgraded my fries to a poutine (don't ask). I regret nothing.

As May approaches, my two main worries are: my feet and my nutrition. In prior runs, both of those have caused me grief at around the 30-35 km mark. Let's start with the nutrition. 

Nutrition

Although I didn't bonk when I ran my Boston qualifier, I now switched to drinking water out of a running vest. The reason is that cleaning a running bladder previously filled with Gatorade or Accelerade would be a nightmare and I shudder at the thought of what could grow in there in that nice sweet medium. So water it is, which means I have to eat. I have a solid stomach, but for some reason, gels are not agreeing with it. My current mix is to use a combination of Cliff Bloks and Cliff bars. That's what I did yesterday and I felt pretty good, other than a weak moment at 35 km. I swallowed 2 bloks and drank a lot and I have to say that I felt pretty good after that, all things being equal. I ate a Cliff bar at the 28 km mark and that felt GOOD. I was careful to wash it down with a good drink. According to my readings, you have to keep the carb concentration below 10%, so that means water whenever you eat or else your stomach shuts down. So nutrition is improving. I should try to experiment with salt tablets but it was fairly cold yesterday and quite frankly, I just forgot to put a couple in my pack.

Feet

My feet hurt after 30 km. This reminds me of the joke about the guy who was banging his head on the wall and when asked why he did it he answered: "it feels so good when I stop!".  The fact is, I guess feet do hurt if you run on them for a stupidly long distance, but I would like to minimize the pain as much as I can.

I taped them and that worked well, so I didn't get any blister, but they  were in pain. Some of it is just pounding. Some of it could be prevented with better shoes. I think that my feet swell a bit and then rub in a few spots and that was distracting toward the end. I had taped those exact spot but still, I need better fitting shoes and I'm having a had time finding neutral, responsive, long distance shoes. 

My right Achilles tendon was ok. I iced it after the run and again during the evening. Today, it doesn't feel any worse than before so I'll keep doing what I'm doing. 

Music

During my epic 50k race, something happened to me even though I didn't notice it at the time. I've run out of things to think about while I run. I used to think about all kinds of things but now it's like I'm out. Hopefully, inspiration will come back but for the first time, yesterday I ran with my iPhone and I was grateful for the entertainment. If this is going to be a regular occurrence, I will need better headphones though. I hate fidgeting with the ear buds.

So this is it for now. Training going well. Having some doubts about Boston. Why spend so much money on what will basically be a training run? The hotel is EXPENSIVE. Should I re-qualify this Fall and actually race it next year instead? But now the whole family wants to come, not to see me run of course, but to visit Boston and they would be mad at me. Oh well, there's still time to think about it.