Nerv-cited

I run a marathon in 1 week and 6 days.  That’s kind of soon!

I’m getting a little nerv-cited to do so, but it’s framed in a different way than normal.

• I’m excited for our day-before movie tradition (Mockingjay Pt 2).
• I’m excited for Publix sandwiches.
• I’m excited to drink Corona Lights at the beach bar.
• I’m excited because we’re meeting Zliten’s friend from college for dinner.
• I’m excited to see the astronaut museum.
• I’m looking forward to relaxing on the beach.
• Also, I’m excited to toe the line of my longest run since Feb 28th and see where I’m at.

Usually this trip is 2 days of nerves and then finally Sunday around noon I get a chance to enjoy myself.  This year, the pressure is off.  I’m just going out for a long run with 1000’s of my friends and people are nice enough to support me with water and gatorade and cheering.

This long run’s plan is not just an easy jog, though.

I plan to run the first… 16-ish? 20-ish? easy pace.  Generally this is around 11:20-30s.  Then, somewhere in the last 6-10 miles, I’d like to do the thing that I’ve practiced in all my long runs and descend the end.   If that means descending from 11:25 to 11:24 averages, so be it.  If I have ONE goal, it’s locking in whatever average pace I am at mile 16, and not letting myself get SLOWER.

Things that have tripped me up in the past:

• Hills 8-10, 14-16 – they’re not enough to really notice like “oh, I’m going up a hill”, but it’s enough to make running feel a little harder and make my brain go “it’s so early, why is this hard?” and flip out.  I just have to know that these miles are going to feel a little worse and not freak out.
• The half walkers right at 13 (people who are ~3 hour half people start to cross my path on the out and back right around my halfway point).  Watching people walk sometime makes me want to walk too.  At this point, if it bugs me, I’ll do the visor trick (push my visor down and only look at the feet in front of me).
• Losing a specific pacer or spending too much effort trying to keep up with a pacer.  My own pace is my own.  I may need to drop behind at first to get warmed up.  I need to cruise a little faster when I feel like I need to go.  At the end, I may need a little motivation to keep my pace up and a pacer may save my life, but I’m not sticking with one at all costs.
• Don’t fuck with the nutrition program unless my stomach is legit rebelling.  Not feeling like taking my gel doesn’t mean I get to not take my gel.  Once an hour MINIMUM.  Don’t be afraid of caffeine – it will be out of my system WELL before I actually need to be asleep (I seem to retain it for about 12 hours).
• I took my Garmin off autopause during runs after the race last year.  I want to know how much time I’m taking fucking around with my socks/stretching/water stations/whatever so I don’t end up thinking I crushed my goal but actually was 58 seconds short.

As for gear, I’m going to stick with what I run my normal long runs in – north face capris and a tank, no compression socks.  I love them, but they’re too hot – if I do end up with a huge weather break, I may do compression SLEEVES – I’ll probably never race with compression socks again after what happened last year though.  I’ll bring my handheld with sports drink that can be pitched if I’m over it.

However, I have two things I’m pondering.

Number 1: My shoes.  They are at approximately 250 miles and will be about at 300 at the end of the race if I continue with normal wear.  They’re definitely not completely toast, but I can feel the wear a little bit by the end of long runs.  I figured I would just get a new pair and break them in to run the race in.

Well… none exist anymore in the world in my size.  I have to move to the next version (Clifton 2s).  And they’ve made some changes.  I suppose my only option is to get them, run in them, and decide whether I want to go for it.  I figure in about 20-30 miles I’ll be pretty informed if they work or not.

Number 2: Running with my big heavy phone for 5 hours sounds like a huge drag.  I keep saying I’m going to get a small mp3 player for when I need music (usually seems to be around the 3 hour mark) and I haven’t yet.  I need to get on that.

As for actual training, I missed a few easy miles last week, but hit all the major workouts.

Fast run: mile repeats

I was having a huge case of didn’t wannas, but got out to the track anyway and kind of crushed these.  The workout was – half mile warmup and cooldown (ish – whatever it took to jog to the track).  1 mile ~5k-10k pace (faster than I normally run)x3 with half mile jog recovery.

• Mile 1: 9:23 (went really conservative because I felt SO not into it, I just wanted to make sure I could finish).
• Mile 2: 9:08 (felt pretty good after this one, like I hit that 5 mile to 10k race pace)
• Mile 3: 8:56 (had one more gear here, but this is probably my 5k pace right now)

Long run: 16 miles, last 6 faster

Started out in the upper 50s and cloudy… some of my favorite running weather for training, I like racing in colder weather but it’s much easier to get out the door when it’s not 30 degrees. Anyway, I wore capris, a tee, and a long sleeve… for about a minute, and then it went around my waist. At 5, I changed into a tank top. It was fun to pretend it was fall I guess.

At 10, stopped back by the house to grab music and a bottle fill, and then took off for the last 6 faster. My average for the first section was ~11:25… then…
Mile 10: 10:58, Mile 11: 10:46, Mile 12: 10:44, Mile 13: 11:02, Mile 14: 11:04, Mile 15: 10:54, Mile 16: 10:36.

Pretty happy with this to close out my longer-than-half-marathon runs for a little bit.

13.5-ish other miles of easy running, a quickie open water swim to test out my new wetsuit (that doesn’t exist… it’s a Christmas present but the window to return it if it didn’t fit was closing), and one dozen set rounds out my week.

Somehow, it ended up being another stepback week in terms of hours (about 7).  It is what it is.  I had a pretty stellar first 20 on like… no training, so hopefully being fresher vs actually being trained will work out well.

Then again, I was so excited to hit a 50 mile week last fall… and then my body revolted and I missed a long run and most of a week of running.  I’ve been consistent this time.  Only runs I’ve missed are a few miles here and there during the easy weekday ones but I’ve been putting in 35+ most weeks (just not a lot more).  Maybe my ennui lately is keeping me from getting injured!

Last week: 35 miles

This week’s plan:

Faster runs:

• 3 mile treadmill run.  Let’s face it.  This is turning into speedwork so I may as well plan for it.  Probably a small amount of quarter mile repeats to keep the legs fresh.
• 3 tempo miles in a 5 mile run.  Goal will be about 9:30s or whatever feels comfortably hard.

Long run:

10 miles race simulation.  Wearing what I plan to wear (as much as possible pending: weather), warm up a little on the treadmill, try to poop BEFORE my run, not take a break at mile 2 to do it so I can get out earlier, eating what I plan to eat and drink in the morning.  First 5 easy, second 5 faster.  Hide a bottle so I don’t have to stop.

Other stuff:

• 2 swims.  This so helps me recover. I wish I could have swam more this cycle.
• 2 dozens.  One down, one to go!
• ~13 other easy miles to round out the total at ~31.
• Hop on the trainers and pedal easy while watching Kona.

Life stuff!

The highlights of the week were…

Got to go see Kinky Boots at the Long Center, thanks to Yelp, who treats us so well with amazing seats!

Fancy dinner at Trulucks just because.  They asked if we were celebrating something.  We said we were celebrating CRAB!  Basically, this is my favorite place in the world and since I’ve been out of town for the last two birthdays and anniversaries (boo, I know my life is sooooooo rough), I haven’t had an excuse to go back.  We made one.  We spent way too much money on dinner and it was fabulous.

All day gaming with our Dungeons and Dragons crew for the DM’s birthday.  It was super fun and nerdy!

The lowlights of the week were…

Work is stressful.  We have a deadline tomorrow.  Last week was a lot of pain fun getting there. Cross your fingers for success and my continued sanity.

Wednesday post-speedwork: Let’s have one glass of wine, shall we? It’s pretty late, so just not getting crazy.  Sounds like fun! *fast forward* Awww, crap, I have to be up for work in 5 hours. *grumble*.  Oops.

Sports bra shopping.  It goes like this when you have teh boobs…

• Stuff stuff stuff poke poke poke… ok, all in!
• Ack, how do I deal with this clasp?
• Ok… can I breathe?  Yeah?  Maybe?
• Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle
• Jumpy jumpy jump jump jump
• Running the tiniest laps in the world around the dressing room.
• Take it off, inspect for potential chafing spots.
• Know that no matter what you do, it’s a 50 dollar crap shoot.

And with that, I’ll leave you to your Monday.