The best thing about Friday’s 10 mile run? Snowdrops!! and not the ones that fall from the sky but the kind that poke up out of the ground- I first spied a few at about mile 5 and I tell ya it was what I needed to keep me going to be sure. Spring is in the air- and I found a wee spring in my step!
I have been thinking about how much running long distances is like natural childbirth- it can be mighty painful and tedious while you’re in the middle of it, but (for me anyways) the memory of the pain fades quickly afterwards and there’s such a feeling of accomplishment. I am having foot pain that I will need to have looked at (but I don’t want to deal with it until after the race next week) it doesn’t seem to kick in until mile 6 or so (because I did 5 miles yesterday and it wasn’t too much of an issue)- but it can be fairly intense- I’m not exactly limping but I am “pushing through the pain” which I’m sure is not recommended while training. But after it was all done I had a serious runners high happening for the rest of the day not unlike the total rush of adrenaline and excitement I feel in the hours after giving birth… Is it safe to say I do not have to have any more babies to get buzzed? I can simply just run for hours at a time for the same effect?!
The 10 miles took me 1:53:24- which I am cool with- if I can maintain that slow pace I should be able to finish the 1/2 on Sunday in 2:30 or so- and avoid the embarrassment of not finishing before the course closes at 3 hours.
I have noticed a definite shift in my “feelings” towards the long runs- at the beginning of my training I used to actually feel nervous before them but that has changed to excitement- I am actually looking forward to them- which is not to say I skip merrily along with a huge grin on my face the whole way- there is still the little voice telling me to “forget it- give up already!” but I think the difference is that I know I have it in me to ignore that voice- as well, the distances just seem so much less daunting- when I was out there on Friday getting to 5 miles truly felt like no big deal. And on Sunday, it will be 6.5 that will be the magic number for me.
This week’s schedule is as follows; Today I swam- I met up with a friend who is an experienced swimmer- which was fun because it pushed me to keep going instead of hanging on to the ropes between laps! Tuesday, a 4 mile on the treadmill (longest run of the week) Wednesday, another swim, Thursday,Rest (I’m thinking that’s going to be hard to do as I will be feeling antsy for the race) Friday 2 miles outside. Saturday rest and Sunday Race day!
I will try to find some blogging time before then to discuss race day strategies as I’m looking for ideas!
Dr. Mamalegato 
sorry – I don’t have anything intelligent to say! but…
OMG!!!! like you’re so gonna do it!!!
you rock you rock you really really rock! (as Olivia would say)
xo
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Hey mama! It sounds like everything is falling into place, that’s great! As for race strategy.. do you have one? My only real one so far is to not go out too fast since I am learning how quickly that burns me out. Have you tried gels and stuff? I tried one for the first time on my last run (which was only 8 miles, should have used it on the 11 mile run), anyway, it’s kind of hard to know what causes intestinal issues on any given day, but I took the gel with some water after about the 5-6 mile mark and by the time I was done running (around 20 minutes later?) I did not feel great intestinally. So, not a great result for the gel experiment. I don’t plan to try them again until I’m on a training run. I will probably just drink some of the gatorade at the stations and leave it at that. Then, slow and steady. I also tried walk breaks on my last run. I think they work, in the sense that my overall time was the same as without walk breaks (so, you get to rest, then you run faster in between which means your overall pace is the same but you fell better, or something like that). Problem with the walk breaks for me is that then I wanted to take them all the time!
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