Bring on the taper

Last Thursday I was supposed to run my last long run: 17 miles. I was unable to get that run in due to PTA obligations. I spent Wednesday-Friday at the elementary school. Saturday, we hiked with the Tiger den and it was a blast. I love seeing Civil War ruins and I love the fact that we live in the heart of many ruins. There is such much history here in the ATL. I didn’t grow up with much history other than the Duwamish Tribe in Seattle. I still can’t get over the fact that Georgia was one of the first 13 colonies. Cool!

Sunday was a family day. Hubby FINALLY had a weekend day off and we slept in, hung out in our pajamas and then went to a birthday party. I have massive mommy guilt when it comes to doing a long run when the boys are home, especially if hubby has a much awaited weekend day off. That means today, 1.5 weeks ‘till race day, and I had 17 miles looming over me like a dark thundercloud. I hate missing my long runs, and I hate even more having them hang over my head. This morning I started out after my oatmeal breakfast and then a cliff bar. It was 66 degrees with 96% humidity. Why oh why do I always have muggy days on my long runs? Thankfully, there was a cloud cover and the sun never really came out. Phew! My first mile was strong; I then played with my pace. I was originally planning to take walk breaks at each mile marker, but knew I’d run out of steam. Yesterday, I looked at the Galloway Magic Mile page. My race pace should be 10:17-10:30 and my training pace should be 12:08. I am not running that slow on my training runs, but I clock a solid 11 minute mile for my long runs. I also discovered that I should be running four minutes and walking for just 35 seconds. After my first mile, I decided to try the 4/35 ratio. It seemed to work for me. I had very little expectations for this run. I battle ovarian cysts that rupture pretty regularly and one started up on Saturday night. I was in so much pain last night, that I broke down and popped a prescribed narcotic just to sleep. I knew that would mess with today’s run. My goal was to run 13.1 miles and whatever I clocked over that distance was just gravy.

I felt incredibly strong today. I took gels at miles 3, 6, 9 and 12. I have found that every three miles is the key to my success. I had plenty of water and didn’t run out until I hit the 13^th mile. My goal for this race next week is to finish strong and only walk when my timer goes off. I even attempted to skip some walk breaks today and I didn’t tire out as much as I had expected!

As I was approaching 11 miles I noticed that the timer was just about to break two hours. That is when I kicked it into high gear. I am working hard to pick up my pace and beat last years’ time. At 12 miles, my knees started to really hurt. As the garmin chimed at 13.1 miles, I decided to stop and walk home, there is no reason to hurt myself this close to race day. My official time for today’s 13.1 miles is 2:22:08!!! No freaking way! That is a seven-minute PR from two weeks ago and 11 minutes faster than last year’s race! Here’s to hoping I can hit that time or even beat it next week. Bring on the taper!

Happy running y’all!

Try not to suck

The theme of this morning’s run was: try not to suck. Yesterday afternoon, I felt horribly nauseous. I blamed it on the G&T that I had with my lunch at hubby’s restaurant. All afternoon, I sipped water and sprite, trying to feel better. As I was doing the dinner dishes, I realized why I was feeling so crummy. Another cyst was rupturing. Darn! I popped my meds, finished the dishes and crawled into bed with my heating pad. I awoke this morning incredibly groggy and with a sore back to boot! My mantra for today’s run: shut up and run and try not to suck!

Rewind ten years. Hubby is a HUGE baseball fan. He used to live and die by the Seattle M’s. Life has gotten in the way lately and he’s lucky to catch a game online nowadays. When we were dating and first married, we went to a lot of games. During said games, we used to taunt Bret Boone. We nicknamed him crap machine and we used to yell at him, “hey crap machine, try not to suck!” This was after the major league performance-enhancing debacle. So, my goal for today’s run was to be better than the crap machine, trying not to suck!

I did a quick warm up to the stop light and the minute I crossed through the busy intersection I hit lap on my garmin and started to pick up my pace. When I reached what I thought was a mile, I kept going, waiting for my garmin to beep. Running, waiting for that beep. Finally I stopped to look at my watch… I couldn’t take my pace any longer. My watch read 1.2x miles so I figured that it had already beeped and I missed it. A few second later I heard it beep. Doh! I forgot that I had hit my lap button so it wouldn’t be beeping ON the mile. Epic fail. My first Magical Mile (MM) on this training plan is 9:15. I know that there is my walking in that time, but I’ll let it stand. 9:15 is still really good considering how crappy I felt this morning. I remember when 9:15 was sprinting for me back when I started running. I can only get faster.

To compensate for my less than stellar attempt this morning, I decided to push on for four miles. By the start of fourth mile, I was starting to get in the groove and I was actually feeling much better. Go figure. Tomorrow I walk, Wednesday I SLOG, Thursday is six miles, Friday I SLOG and hopefully Saturday I can get another four miles in. I was unable to run this last weekend due to hubby’s work schedule and I know that was a player in today’s crappy run.

It’s a great day for running!