Yup, after taking a break last week I have bumped up my mileage once again, to 21 miles, or 34km, or most importantly to the point where many runners hit "the wall". I am happy to report that there was no wall. The run was no more difficult than my last few long runs. It was, however, followed by the usual bout of nausea that had me hiding under the sheets for a couple hours. It couldn't have been the heat, not on a cool day like today. Lack of salt? I'll have to eat a bag of potato chips the night before my next long run to see if that helps, or bring along gatorade instead of just water. Or maybe I just have to keep training at this level until my body gets used to it. After all, 34km is the maximum training distance that is recommended for marathon training, so when I can do this run without any problems, I'm good to go.

In any case, the nausea really isn't so bad. After the two hours are up, it's all over and I'm feeling right as rain again. Yeah, it's easy to say "that wasn't so bad" when it's all over, I know, but compared to, say, having the flu for a few days it really is nothing. Also, since my vacation starts next weekend, it will be three weeks before I have to go through it again.

Oh yes, and I finally replaced my old running shoes, but not before putting 1200km on them. Now I'm the proud owner of two new pairs of Asics GT-2140’s, last years model, very comfortable and very inexpensive, and I ignored the salesperson's warning that running shoes have a "shelf life." I'll wear them out long before they start to rot.