Staying strong

Hello again. Sorry I've been gone for a while, just doing the things you do in the summer. Hanging out at the pool, baseball games, and just general fun with the family. And running.

Boy am I running.  The mileage is ramping up. I did over 25 miles this week.   I reviewed my schedule through to the marathon and can't believe the miles I'm going to be running.  Usually, at the mileage I'm at now, I'm ready to run a half marathon.  So I'm halfway there. And going where I haven't gone before! I can't even begin to imagine how it's going to feel when I've done a 20 miler in preparation for the race.  Plus at least 20 more miles during the week.

To stay strong, I am doing yoga and core fitness workouts.   I do the yoga in the mornings I'm not running. It's Wii Fit yoga, which if you have never done yoga, I would recommend. It's easy to learn and the balance board helps to keep you on track. I can't believe how much more flexible I am.  It feels really good after a few days of running and my legs getting stiff.

The core workouts are basically push ups, situps, planks (the real ones, not that stupid laying down thing on the internets people do to just get attention), arm curls, a little weight training for the quads and calves, and some physical therapy exercises I learned when I got terrible shin splints.  It only takes a half hour and it's pretty simple.  I can either do it at the gym at lunch during the week, or even most of it in my office if I don't have time to go to the gym.  I've been slacking off, though, because it's easy to skip when I am hungry or want to go out for lunch, or if I have a meeting.  But I can tell when I slack off; my running suffers.  Now I've taken to wearing my Road ID (pink, of course!) all the time to remind me to do the workouts, no matter how I feel. I'm usually glad I did them, once I get started.

Mentally, I'm also trying to stay strong. I've getting a lot of support from family and friends, and even from people I don't know at all.  I have met a lot of people through the Marathoners In Training program, and our 12:00 pace group is just terrific.  We really support each other and keep each other going.  We even have a Facebook page.

I'm using social media as much as possible, too.  Dailymile is like a Facebook for runners.  No stupid games, and everyone enjoys everyone else's posts about running. You friend people and track their progress, and they can track yours.  You can also keep track of your training.  The interface is really easy to use and fun. And you can have your posts cross post on Facebook and Twitter.

I even discovered people on Dailymile that were in MIT too. That has been pretty cool.    I get excited to get "likes" or comments on Facebook, Twitter, and Dailymile, and for this blog.  It's really motivational for me. Thank you all for reading this and for supporting me!  

And of course, I can't say enough about my wonderful husband who is putting up with me and supporting me throughout my training.  When I decided to run the marathon I declared I had first dibs on running days, since he's training for the marathon as well. He's done this several times before; this is my first, and with work, I should be able to run in the mornings.  We trade off days and try to get the runs in when we can.  And he's still supportive when I'm tired and cranky (more than usual), which is pretty much how I am all the time now.

Some people are using the marathon to raise money for charity, while also motivating. I may consider that, but for now, I'm just doing this for myself.  It's a challenge, it's great exercise, and it's good for my mental health.

I know how to accessorize

It was 72 degrees when I set out to run this morning. I was planning on a 9 miler. So I made sure I had everything I needed:

• fuel belt with bottles of water and gatorade
• sports jelly beans
• music player
• road id (I never leave home without it when I run)
• phone
• garmin
• compression sleeves
• hat
• sunscreen

I felt like a pack mule.  I noticed that most people didn't have half the stuff I was carting around. But halfway into the run, I was glad I had these things, especially the gatorade. In fact, I was thinking that the other people on the trail had to be jealous.  

I took it nice and slow, and the run was still difficult.  I didn't resort to my running playlist until the last two miles, and I really needed it.  The last hill was a killer.  Most people wouldn't call it a hill, but when you are running, and you are tired, sweaty, and just want to get home, it's a hill, dammit. And it can kick your ass.  I just listened to my tunes, swigged gatorade, and slogged through. I did the whole 9 miles. 

Great tip for running in hot weather:  if you use a fuel belt, put your bottles in the fridge with the liquid of your choice in them overnight.  I had leftover gatorade from yesterday's run, so I had put it in the refrigerator yesterday.  It was a nice cool icepack on my back when I put the bottles in my fuel belt this morning.  

That's it.  Happy 4th everyone!  

So much for training

I was supposed to run 9 miles today with the MIT marathon training group, but the weather did not cooperate. We got in 2.76 in the middle of some threatening storms and called it a day. It was the first day out for my new fuel belt:

Today was a hot day, except for the rain.  I've had this fuel belt for two years and never tried it because I never went very far and I felt silly carrying all that water and Gatorade with me.  It was a gift from my family for the last time I trained for the marathon (and then became sidelined).  Unfortunately I didn't get to really test drive it since our run was cut short. 

It was also the day before our pace coach's birthday and so I picked up some yummy butter cream frosted mini cupcakes from Blue Frost Cupcakes (show them some love sometime when you are in Worthington) to share after our run:

I had to pack a cooler full of ice to keep the butter cream icing from melting.  That too was sort of disappointing since they would have tasted so much sweeter after 9 miles.  Two of the cupcakes had little pieces of bacon on them.  YES BACON!  OMG.  The frosting was a maple flavor and the cupcake had a cinnamony flavor to it.  Awesome.

***WARNING*** 

SUGARY GOODNESS AHEAD

So now I'm feeling really guilty about the short run, especially after eating cupcakes this morning. And after eating one of these yesterday:

And eating this chocolate baklava from the Mad Greek this week:

And a generous slice of this DQ ice cream cake for a colleague's birthday: 

So much for losing weight.  I feel compelled to try and run 9 tomorrow, even after the 2 miles today.  Rain or shine.  Say hi if you see me on the trail.  I'll be the one with the shiny new fuel belt fighting a sugar coma.