Saying Goodbye to Sticky Shirts

In my last post, I talked about my running and eating goals.  But I have other goals as well, like having my husband earn enough money so I can just run and exercise and sleep all day; buy all the puppies, and finally getting around to finishing that Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time game I started in 2002.  While all of those goals are heavily idealistic, there is one running-related goal I would like to accomplish before I ruin my knees like everyone says I will with all this running I do: run a race in just a sports bra and shorts.

And socks and shoes too...duh.

Why the serious look in that pic above?  Because I am dead serious about accomplishing this goal, even though I have a waist that was built for Mom jeans rather than for sexy low-rise ones.  This is something I have this strange compunction to do to make myself feel more comfortable in my own skin--getting more comfortable in my skin by showing more skin, with a huge emphasis on the comfortable.  I wish I could say this goal of mine was part of a greater plan to inspire other women to take back all of the shame we're made to feel about our bodies if they're a different shape and/or size from what's considered beautiful....but really this is just about my comfort during a run.  Really.  I'm just really really tired of having sweaty shirts stick to me and outline the contours of my belly fat rolls.  I mean, c'mon--I'd rather just people see those rolls in all their super not-tan-ultra-white-blinding glory than have a shirt stick to me for the 20 out of the 26.2 miles of a marathon.

I know you're jealous of my arm tan gradient.

But if this does inspire you to throw off the shackles of sticky running clothing and society's obsession with unrealistic body images for women, then I'm totally down with that.  I know I was inspired to do this by other runners who aren't afraid to be seen in their own skin...and I decided it was more than time for me to ditch this body image hang-up.  (And not have shirts stick to me...buh)

Anyway, when will this sports bra-and-shorts-only race take place?  Well, I have a tune-up half marathon scheduled in the middle of July in a nearby town...and since it will be, you know, July in Illinois, it's going to be hot.  So I thought that might be a good goal race to bare my belly to the world in all its sweaty glory.  Will I be glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone and got this goal accomplished? Of course.  Will I be free of sticky running shirts?  Yep.  Will I be afraid to look at my race pics afterwards?  You betcha.  But I'll probably be too busy worrying about my race time to even remember I have no shirt on.

But remember the learnings?  Here they are:

• I know everyone was probably worried about this, but I will most definitely blog after that tune-up race.
• And yes, I will include race pics.  That actually show me running, and not other people.
• You know what sucks about having a Mom jeans waist?  Any running shorts you have on pulled up to your natural waist makes it look like your shorts are trying to also be a sports bra.
• FYI--just having a Mom jeans waist sucks in general.
• I'm going to apologize right now for the blindingly white belly you're going to see in those race pics so I don't forget to do it later.

Upcoming workouts: Tempo runs and speed at paces way faster than what I think they should be...more on those later.

Well, now what?

I had been trying to beat my marathon PR for 5 years, and I just did that at the end of April.  I'd been wanting to lose those 10+ pounds I keep gaining back, and I managed to lose 14 pounds with the help of Medifast.

So now what?  (Besides frame that finish line photo where I PRd the crap out of that marathon...)

That's the question I've been bouncing around for the last few weeks, with a number of ideas bouncing back in response.  After careful consideration (translation: when I remembered to think about it during a long run or right before I fell asleep at night), I think I've nailed down some brand-spanking new goals to work towards regarding my running and my eating and other areas of my life.  Since I know everyone out there is breathless with anticipation, I'll share those shiny new goals below:

1) Run the 2019 Twin Cities Marathon and snag a PR for the course.  My PR for the Twin Cities course is a 4:17 and some change, so the goal is to beat that.  I would love to set a goal of under 4 based on my 4:04 time from Glass City, but I've run Twin Cities many times, and I know how brutal the hills can be on the back half.  This means I'm not foolish enough to try and go under 4 on a course where the hills make people cry their way towards the finish line, but that would be kind of awesome if it magically happened.  What's more realistic and just as ambitious is for me to snag between a 4:05 and a 4:10 on that course, which is what I'm shooting for.  I'll save that under 4 goal for a flatter, spring marathon.

2) Add spicy long runs to the training schedule.  I'm still going to use the My Run Plan app for training, but the cramps, leg fatigue, and general craziness I experienced at mile 21 at the Glass City Marathon made me think I need to practice more running at pace on tired legs.  That's why I'm going to spice up my long runs every few weeks or so with some miles at race pace, probably the middle or end miles.  Because why not run faster when you're already running 20 or so miles?  Piece o' cake.

3) Fix that little nutrition issue I experienced during that marathon of mine.  Slamming into the wall at mile 21 wasn't very fun, kids, so I've got to do something about it--especially with my tendency to do that "run too fast" thing all the time during races.  So, I'm going to add in more gels and some of those cool mini-bananas after mile 13 of all of my long runs and see how that goes.  Those mini-bananas, by the way, are cool because they are sufficiently portable in a running shorts pocket--FYI.

4) Lose 7 more pounds.  Like I've said before, it's amazing how fueling your body properly leads to awesome training runs and PRs...and how when you lose weight doing that you get faster not having to lug those extra pounds around.  Seven pounds lighter still puts me well within a normal weight range for my height, and is sure to put me within range of a nice Twin Cities course PR.

5) Stop tripping over large dog when he runs in front of me.  This one might be a bit of a stretch.

6) Add lower-body strength training to my plan.  I did absolutely no lower-body weight training during that last training cycle, and I felt the difference in strength between the front and back of my legs during the race thanks to all the treadmill running I did.  So the plan this time around is on Fridays (a cross-training day) to add in workouts that build leg strength using body weight exercises only...I'm a little cautious about using heavy weights for leg exercises because I fear aggravating my old left butt injury again.  Hopefully this will even out the huge strength imbalance and my legs can feel tired all at once during my next marathon.

You can tell I'm so excited about this goal.

7) For crying out loud already get enough sleep each night.  It's no fun (and very stupid) running 12 miles of speed after waking up exhausted because you spent yet another night staying up too late worrying about work stuff.  So I have decided (very smartly) to get my butt into bed at the same time every night so I can wake up and run way too many miles before work.  I know I've promised this before, but this time I mean it I swears.  Really.  Going to get into bed early and sleep like a spoiled formerly feral kitten I once knew.

So, you know...just a few goals for this next training cycle.  And by "few" I mean "overachieving at everything, even goal setting."  And now I will overachieve at listing ridiculous statements I call "learnings" but are nothing of the sort:

• I did frame that finish line pic, BTW.  In case you were RUNdering (get it? get it? I crack myself up.)
• I'm not lying about those crazy back-half hills on the Twin Cities course.  There's one at mile 21 that caused me to invent swear words one year because none of the existing ones really fit.
• Having my butt get tired before my quads during a race was a weird feeling.  Weird.
• I'm usually more excited about squats than the pic in the post lets on...but not by much.
• If only we all could sleep the sleep of formerly feral kitties who took over my house and my bed.

Upcoming workouts and stuff:  I start some serious speed and tempo workouts next week...I promise I will blog more about this running abuse than I did during the last training cycle.

Glass City Marathon Recap: I didn't come here to quit.

Because my life lately has been nothing but races and travel and work and very little sleep, I have not had time to sit down and blog about every excruciating detail of my goal marathon two weekends ago...until now, that is.

marathons woop woop!

I ran the Glass City Marathon on April 28th as my goal spring marathon. You can read all about my progress to this race in my previous posts, so I'll spare you all of the gruesome and tedious training details here.  But I will say this - I came into this race having a) done every single workout on the training plan the way it was written, b) eaten food with real nutrition in it the whole time, c) lost 14 pounds during training, d) a strange confidence about hitting my goal time (anything under a 4:10, with a 4:05 being a best-case scenario), a confidence which I haven't had in a LONG time, and e) kick-ass dinosaur shorts (see pic above).

The week leading up to race day, I was in this weird anxious/confident/omg am I really going to do this 26 miles is a loooong way mood, which lasted the entire 5-hour drive to Toledo and into the wee hours of the morning before the race.  Thankfully I was staying with awesome friends who put me up over the weekend, and spending time with them the night before helped keep my mind off how anxious-excited I was.

The morning of the race I woke up at 3:30 AM so I could do all the usual pre-race stuff: coffee, breakfast, worry, body-glide most of my body, almost forget my race bib on the way out the door, and hope mother nature would call before I left for the start line.  The last task eluded me, so I got to the race site extra early so I could jog a mile to see what shook out.  The mile jog worked, and after hanging up with mother nature I got to sit around and be nervous for about 30 minutes.

The best anxious-excited-worried-didn't get enough sleep-face EVER

In case you're wondering, I did wear that shirt to remind myself not to let any excuses get in the way of my goal...and because I haven't been able to properly fit into it in a long time, so it was a nice reminder of all the weight-loss work I'd put in over the last few months.  (Plus I didn't want a huge baggy shirt flippity-flapping against me for 4 hours.)

By this time you're probably wondering if I ever actually made it to the start line.  Well, I did, and I was so focused I didn't even snap any start line pics.  Or any pics during the race, for that matter, and when that happens, kids, you KNOW I'm in serious racing mode. Speaking of the racing, let's walk through this race of mine, but let's do it by the miles.

Miles 1-5:

I started the race with the 4:10 pacer (a 9:33 pace), and the original plan was to stick with him until the half and then leave him in the dust and do a 9:20 to the end of the race.  I hung with him until a little after mile 3, where of course mother nature had to call and say "hi" again because I obviously had one too many cups of coffee that morning.  After leaving the port-a-john (and thankfully not having to wait in line forever to use it), I kicked it into high gear to try and catch back up to him.  I told myself not to overdo it, but I ended up running mile 4 in around 8:36 (zoinks!) and mile 5 in around a 9:05.  I wondered briefly if I would regret this later on in the race--and now you'll have to read onwards to see if that was the case, so ha ha fooled you guys into reading more of my brain drool.


Miles 6-9:

This is where pacer guy became super-duper annoying.  Now, I appreciate pacers immensely, don't get me wrong - they helped me run my entire first marathon without walking once.  However, when you're trying to run a steady 9:33 pace and pacer guy keeps randomly speeding up and slowing down several times within a mile, I tend to get a tad irked.  So, to spare my mental state for the race, pacer guy had to be ditched in mile 9.  And by "ditched" I mean "Now I am free to run too fast all by myself wheeeeee"


Miles 10-17:

I was feeling pretty darn awesome during these miles, running between 9:10 and 8:50 pace for all those miles.  I paced another woman from miles 10-14, and at mile 11 I ditched the throw-away long-sleeved shirt I was wearing...not because it was getting to warm for it, but because I knew a race photographer was coming up and I wanted my bib (that was attached to my "Excuses Suck" shirt) visible.  And boy did that race photographer capture my arm raise in all of its weird, race-hugging glory.

But by mile 17 I was noticing something...I was getting tired, which is to be expected.  Part of the reason you do long runs is to help you learn how to run through this kind of tired.  However, I was noticing that my hammies and glutes were feeling pretty fatigued, and I thought it was pretty darn weird for just the backs of my legs to get tired.  This was just a prelude of things to come....


Miles 18-24:

In mile 18 the backs of my legs were more noticeably fatigued, and then in mile 19 I ran up the only major hill in the race.  This hill was more of a struggle than I wanted it to be, but I pressed onwards, trying to think about things that would motivate me to just keep going: thinking about all the training I'd put in, all of the veggies I had grudgingly eaten in the name of performance, and sometimes bribing myself by promising myself new running shoes or a new puppy if I kept running.

And then in mile 20 I noticed that the fronts of my legs were now super tired, joining the backs in one big "hey woman what are you DOING up there to us" chorus.

I made it to mile 21, where they were handing out gels.  I grabbed one, shoved it in my pocket, and an overwhelming fatigue crashed over me.

I had hit the wall.  Hard.  I had never really crashed into the wall this hard before, but I'm pretty sure it's because I trained for a 9:20 pace, not a between 9:10 and 8:50 pace.  And even though I had been slamming down a gel every 3 miles, it apparently wasn't enough to keep me from the great big bonk.

I started walking.  I was pissed off.  I was tired.  I was bummed.

And then I thought, "I didn't come here to quit."

That thought made me sit mentally upright. Damn straight I didn't freaking didn't come here to quit.  I couldn't quit.  I worked just too damn hard to get here and I was doing amazing with my pace--so amazing, in fact, that the race app kept whispering seductively yet robotically in my earbuds that I was on track to finish in 4:02.  So I took a little inventory of how I was feeling and decided that there was no way in hell was I going to give up on my goal to finish under 4:10--I was just going to slow WAY down for the next few miles...but I was going to keep on going.

I didn't come here to quit.  Damn freaking straight.

Miles 22-24 were slow.  Like 10:30-ish to 11-ish slow, even though I thought I was running so much faster.  But I kept telling myself I was moving in a forward direction, and that was OK--I wasn't giving up.  Just altering the plan, that's all.  The plan got altered even further when just before mile 23 my left calf began to cramp and seize, and that's when I started 30 second walks until the cramp subsided a bit, and then I would start shuffling along again.  At mile 23 I sucked down a gel, which according to the original plan was a mile early.  But with the calf cramps setting in, I thought it would be a good idea to get some sort of nutrients into me.  At this point a gel couldn't hurt, right?


Miles 25-26.2:

Turns out that nope, that gel definitely couldn't hurt--it allowed me to run miles 25 and 26 at a much faster clip (9:46 and 9:16, to be exact).  My calf was still cramping and I was still talking mini-walk breaks, but I was picking up speed and getting closer and closer to that finish line.  About half a mile before the finish I had a major cramp in my left calf and had to stop and walk for a full minute before it calmed down enough for me to start running again.  But after that I sailed toward the finish line, legs aching but determined to get there, stupid calf cramps and all.

After all, I didn't come here to quit.  I came here to achieve my goal of running under a 4:10, and that's what I did, walking and calf cramping and gritting my teeth to cross the finish line in 4:04:18.

Here's me not quitting.  And finishing.

Remember that I said earlier that a 4:05 would have been a best-case scenario...and here I was with a 4:04 and some change.  I thought I would be more emotional at seeing this shiny new PR after crossing the finish line since I've been trying to PR for 5 years, but my glucose-deprived brain could only think, "Gee, I guess paying $64 bucks for that training plan app was worth it after all."

Yep.  That's my brain for you.  *sigh*

My brain also almost forgot to ring the PR bell on the way to the car, but thankfully it remembered and asked very nice but total strangers to take her picture doing it.

Ring-a-ding-ding time for a PR

My left calf celebrated that PR by cramping so severely after I got in the car that I was pretty much immobilized for a solid 5 minutes with my mouth wide open in a silent scream. Good times.  Why do I do this again? (For the bling.  Duh.)

Anyway, on the way home I started getting a little bummed about the last part of the race with all the walking and the cramping and the slowing down.  But I had to remind myself that I didn't quit, and I got a PR I wouldn't have even thought possible when I started training all the way back in January.  In fact, when comparing my marathon in December (BMW Dallas) and Glass City, the improvement in fitness and performance is pretty damn obvious.

Going from an almost 5:15 to a 4:04 in 5 months needs to be celebrated, not frowned upon just because of a few bad miles at the end of the race.  I think sometimes we runners get so caught up in what went wrong that we forget to celebrate what went exceedingly right.  Or we get busy planning for the next race, already thinking about how we can get an even better time without stopping to think about how crazy good the time is that we just got.  And we don't stop and think about how crazy good it is that we had the strength, discipline, and courage to try and run 26.2 (!!) miles as fast as we could in the first place.

Instead of the usual stupid nonsensical learnings I spew forth at the end of a post, I'm going to leave my real and true learnings from this marathon experience as a reminder to me for future races..and as a list for anyone else who finds anything they could use to help them train for their next race.  Enjoy.

• Run all the runs.  Skipping workouts won't get you to your goal. (Unless you're injured...then skip away until you're healed.)
• Food is fuel. Choose food for the way it will feed your body so that next half marathon you have to run before work will be a breeze instead of something you just "get through."
• The lighter you are, the faster you'll be.  I'm pretty sure losing 14 pounds had a huge part to play in that shiny new PR.
• A "let's see if I can do this" mindset gets you much farther than a "I don't know if I can do this" mindset when it comes to looking at the crazy workouts the training plan cooks up for you.
• Dinosaur shorts.  Get some.
• Consistency--and just keep showing up--is the key to success.
• You don't train for a race just to show up and quit.  Ever.

So what's the next race?  Well, now that I live in the land of hills and coyote packs that collectively howl at 3 AM, it will be to PR at Twin Cities...I'm aiming to take down my course PR of 4:17.  Stay tuned, kids.

I did another half marathon thing today and did not die.

Remember how I said I wasn't going to race so much during this marathon training cycle?  Yeah.  Well.  I did another half marathon thing today.

Wait...are these people running a race?  I will too.

I wasn't going to run this race--The Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon in Springfield, IL--I SWEARS.  I had looked at this race as my tune-up half marathon (having run it before and knew it was a quality event), but it was a little too late in game for it to be used as a tune-up.  And then my friend texted me and basically browbeat me into doing it with this text:

"Are you doing the half in Springfield?  The medal is kind of cool this year."

And of course I took one look at the medal and was all I'M IN WHERE DO I RELINQUISH MY MONEY

And with the pennies in the medal I got $$ back!

But the medal isn't the only cool thing about this race; it starts at the Old State Capitol, takes you past all of the major Lincoln historical sites, past the new State Capitol, and through Oak Ridge Cemetery where he's buried and waiting for us to run by every year I just know it.

Running in a cemetery? Not creepy at all.

Because this race was a last-minute addition to the training plan, it meant that I had to work it into a 20 mile training run on the schedule.  As I learned during my last half-marathon, doing the extra miles I needed to do before the race began was the key to actually getting them done.  So I got my butt up early this morning and headed to the hotel treadmill deep in the bowels of the hotel at 5:30 AM.

Why isn't anyone else running before a race?

A few things about the 6 miles I did there this morning: a) only two of those treadmills actually worked, and b) what respectable hotel locks the bathrooms near the fitness center when it's open 24/7?!?!  Regardless of those two inconveniences, I managed to get 6 miles done before I had head back to the room to use the freaking bathroom and then get ready to go run the half.

The race itself is a pretty hilly one, with none of the hills being very long...but what hills there are can be pretty stinking steep.  Thankfully the hills around my house have brutalized me to such a degree that I am no longer afraid of hills--I just put my head down and get up those suckers.  That's something I realized I was doing in mile 11 of the race, after we went up and down a few rollers on the back side of Oak Ridge Cemetery: it just hit me that I was taking the hills without any pitiful mental whining whatsoever.  Now, since mental whining is my jam, that was a huge revelation regarding how far I'd come in my training progress.  This race made me realize a few other things about how I've improved as well:

• My legs were only a little itty bit tired when I started the half, and it only took about a mile into the race for them to feel normal again. This is kind of crazy to me, seeing as I stopped doing any lower body strength training other than spin biking for this entire training cycle.  Seems like my legs got stronger without strength training.
• My old left butt injury didn't even bother me.  Not once.  It hasn't really reared its ugly head at all during this training cycle...maybe that break from running right before I started did more good than I realized it did.
• I realized my legs felt fine during the last mile of the half, which was really my mile 19 (I ran a mile cool-down after the race to make 20).  I've never felt that amazing in mile 19 of any marathon; in fact, usually I'm having a mental breakdown at that point and debating whether or not I should just sit down in the middle of the course and start sobbing.  I also was busting out an 8:30-ish pace in that last mile, and it felt just fine.

• I started the race behind the 2:30 pacers but ended up finishing in 2:02:40.  I am only sort of ashamed to admit that this meant as I was waiting for my friend to finish the race I was watching people come down the chute like MUHAHAH I PASSED ALL OF YOU.  Sorry, people I passed; you still did an amazing job finishing 13.1 miles.
• I ran 20 miles today and I wasn't completely destroyed afterwards.  In the past I would have been hobbling around right after the race, but I was walking around with only a minimal amount of shuffling and wincing. Legs are stronger, that's for sure.
• It was super duper nice not to run in winter gear.  It was a beautiful day to run 13.1 miles outside, people, and I'm sure that helped me run strong and fast because I wasn't worrying about losing fingers and toes to the cold.

Because of all of these cool things I noticed, I've got a little more confidence in hitting my marathon goal...inching more and more toward that "I got this" mindset.  It's amazing what not skipping any workouts and eating right will do for you.  You know what else is amazing?  Some end-of-post learnings, that's what:

• Racing protip: Don't fill your handheld water bottle with sparkling water the night before the race, reasoning it will go flat by the morning so it will be just like regular water and you don't have to fill the bottle with hotel tap water.  Just don't.
• When you're about to run up a short but steep hill and a spectator tells you it's just a little hill, you are allowed to glare at them.  Hard.
• Sunshine helps you run faster.  Believe me.
• The best reason to run a race you never planned on running is because it has a kick-ass medal.

Upcoming workouts: Crazy speed and crazy tempo workouts this week.  Mile repeats are good for the soul....maybe.

Counterattack your own brain with these eating mantras.

Weight loss.  Buh.

That "buh" isn't because I'm not losing weight--I'm doing really well, with 8 more pounds to go for me to hit my weight loss goal of 20 total pounds lost.  In fact, I have to remind myself I'm doing REALLY well compared to 15 years ago.

The picture on the left is when I was 29; the right, present (age 44).  Not too bad for an old broad who used to look even older 15 years ago due to an unhealthy lifestyle of copious smoking and eating and running was only something that was done if a child in her science classroom was about to set themselves on fire when bunsen burners were in use.  (And wtf is up with those gross highlights??  Double buh to those hideous things.)

But even though I have to give myself credit where credit is due, I also recognize that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to losing weight, doing stupid things to sabotage my goals.  For some reason when I'm doing really super duper good at losing the pounds my brain starts justifying the resumption of eating crap food.  It uses a variety of tactics against me, but I have developed some nice mental mantras (counterattacks, really) over the years that work...that is, if I remember to use them. 

Mental Mantra #1: Eating <insert name of tasty yet woefully unhealthy snack here> won't get you where you want to be.

Thinking this helps me refocus on my goal and what it really takes to get there.  I not only want to lose weight, but I want to completely rock my marathon too--which means I also have to work in the next mantra.


Mental Mantra #2: Food is fuel. 

Saying this (not out loud...all the time) targets the "what" of what I'm really eating when I want to eat 20 Hershey's miniatures in under 60 seconds flat.  Will what I'm eating contribute to fueling my body so I can smash my next 12 mile workout before work?  If the answer is "no" (and it usually is), then I have an easier time backing away from the delicious calorie-bombs full of nothing but empty calories.  But I may cry just a little while backing away.  Just sayin.


Mental Mantra #3: But you're not even hungry.  Stupid.  Now put it down.

Hey, I never said these were kind, fluffy, soft unicorn-filled mantras.  Anyway, this one is usually particularly effective when I remember to think it, because it points out to me that I'm just eating to mindlessly eat...or I'm stress eating and need to find a different way to cope other than stuff my face.


Mental Mantra #4: You have to run a calorie deficit to lose weight.

Thinking this one stops me every single time because it reminds me that the goodies I want to shove down my gullet are "extra" calories not on my diet plan, and therefore will never, EVER help me lose weight no matter how many miles I've run that day.  Speaking of running...


Mental Mantra #5: Running is not an excuse to overeat.

This is one I had to practice getting into the habit of saying, mainly because it is the antithesis of my usual justification to pile on the craptastic goodies.  But now that it's a mental habit, it's been a useful phrase to make my brain say when it wants to use the fact that I ran that morning to eat horrible and horribly tasty things.

Mental Mantra #6: Live every day like this dog's face.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

What can I say, large dog digs the runs--even the easy 7 milers like we did today.  Not an eating mantra, I know, but this is a mantra for LIFE, people. Go ahead and soak that stuff right up.


Like I mentioned before, these mantras have to become mental habits that replace old ones--old ones that have been in charge for far too long and that allowed crappy eating habits to rear their ugly heads.  And speaking of things rearing their ugly heads, here's the end-of-post learnings right now:

• I have the usual regrets about "why didn't I eat healthy when I was younger" don't you worry about that.
• I've been told my self-talk needs to increase in niceness.  But I'm a tough love kind of mental mantra person.
• The hardest thing I've had to re-learn is not to use my running as an excuse to overeat.  That's been a habit 10 years in the making (I've been running for almost 10 years now).
• But we should all go through life like large dog on a run.  #truth

Tomorrow's workout: 9 miles of tempo--FUN.  And by "fun" I mean BUH.

Who knew eating right would improve your running performance? (Everyone)

You know what's crazy? I ran 19 miles yesterday over the serious hills around my house and I woke up today like it wasn't no big thing.

Look look SPRING

For once that smile isn't fake.

Now, don't get me wrong; it was a challenging run.  I was really pushing during that 19th mile, and those hills were not making my life any easier, let me tell you.

It was all downhill from there.  And then uphill.

But for once I wasn't completely destroyed the next day...my legs today felt amazingly...just fine.  In fact, I cleaned the entire house today without my legs feeling like stiff appendages that weren't really mine once.  And after cleaning I did 45 minutes of spin and about 35 minutes of lifting heavy things with my tiny dog as supervisor.

Tiny dog is unimpressed with my workouts.

Look out weights...here I come.

Tiny dog did helpfully clean my weights between each use.  Which is gross, actually, but we pretty much let tiny dog do what she wants because of the sheer magnitude of her tiny and cute.

Tiny dogs licking weights aside, some might attribute my new-found long-run recovery to me consistently running all the runs on my training plan, which I'm pretty sure has helped a ton.  But I actually think a lot of the credit for my new-found long-distance running strength is the whole "not eating crap" thing I've been doing for a few months.  In fact, I have even started meal prepping a bit.

Yummo alert.

So far I've just been doing lunch because that's what I don't have time to make in the morning (I *am* running 10-12 miles before work some days, remember), but it has completely helped with keeping my diet consistent and my portions under control.  And because this former biology teacher knows a few things about science and how cells work and stuff, I'm pretty sure my healthier options are giving my cells what they need to not only perform well but also recover well.  Case in point: my splits from yesterday's run, excluding mile 9 where I stopped at the house to go to the bathroom and forgot my watch wasn't set to auto-pause.

Kids, for me to be running 9:30s at the end of a run like that is amazing. And now I wonder why I didn't do this healthy eating and run all the runs stuff for my previous 33 marathons.  After all, being 12 pounds lighter is also probably doing a lot for my marathon goals as well..and I'm actually beginning to see that the weight is coming off.

I also see that this post is over, and it's now time for the learnings:

• I am not exaggerating about those hills, people.  They are some serious business.
• I am also not exaggerating about the convenience of meal prep. Those 5 lunches took me less than 20 minutes to make and prep.
• Those 5 lunches are also all the same...because I am the master of eating the same foods over and over again.  What can I say; it's a gift.
• We really do let tiny dog do whatever she wants, except be nasty to the cats or eat non-food things off the floor.
• We also need to stop typing now because large dog is trying to sleep, and he needs his recovery time just as much as I do.

Tomorrow's workout: My usual Monday speed...just some quick 200s though that for some reason will last 9 miles.

Getting to an "I got this" mindset

So here we are, folks: 40-ish days away from my goal marathon.  Or so my little training app says, anyway.

It also says I'm on target with my mileage, which is a first for me during any training plan.  Actually, there's been a lot of firsts and positives for me during this training cycle, and they have really boosted my confidence in terms of reaching my marathon goal (beat a 4:10).  Kids, I think I may actually show up at the start line with a feeling of "I totally got this" rather than "OMG I hope I don't die and maybe just maybe I could hit my goal if I just don't die."  Here's what's helping me get to the "I got this" mindset:

1) I made an commitment early on the RUN ALL THE RUNS.

In the first week of the training plan, I remember looking at a 4 or 5 mile run on the plan and not wanting to do it, wanting to just skip and go back to bed.  I almost did until I caught myself and thought, "I can't start off this training plan this way.  I have to do ALL the runs."  Something clicked in my brain at that point, and from then on I was willingly waking up during AM hours beginning with 3s on a regular basis to get in all those crazy miles (12.5 mile runs before work WTF). And I am proud to say I have done every single damn run--including the cool downs, which I had a bad habit of skipping--on that plan.  Even the runs that scared the crap out of me just looking at them in the app.  Speaking of scared...

2) I'm no longer scared of some of my usual running obstacles. 

That aforementioned 12.5 mile run before work? No longer afraid of that distance (even if it is almost half a marathon...jeepers) when I see a workout.  Hills?  The roads around my house are full of them, and I have run 3 loops of the same crazy hills on many a long run now.  When I saw the hills in my half marathon last weekend, I didn't freak out or think twice--just put my head down and got up those suckers and sailed to a sub-2 half.  Like I said, my mental mindset during this plan is just a quiet "I got this" rather than a freaking out OMG I WILL DIE.

3) I'm feeling stronger than ever.

On Monday, I had a 20 x 400m workout...about 10 miles when everything was run and done.  This morning I had a 9 mile threshold workout (2 x 2 miles).  For both of those workouts I just jumped on the treadmill and attacked the workout like it wasn't no big thing. 

Workouts: Prepare to be attacked.

And I felt strong during both of those workouts, even though the threshold workout was at a faster pace than normal because I was a stupid person who told the app "yes" when it asked me if I wanted to train at the faster pace I ran at my tune-up half-marathon.  That 20th repeat on Monday wasn't completely exhausting and I wasn't hanging on for dear life during the last quarter of the 2nd 2 mile repeat this morning.  It's a nice feeling, feeling like you've actually progressed in your training rather than feeling like you're torturing yourself for nothing every morning.

4) I have tie-dye shoes.

If these don't make you feel all warm and fuzzy and confident inside as a runner, I don't know what will you cold insensitive block of ice you.

You know what else we have? LEARNINGS:

• It's amazing how much better you get at running when you actually run the runs.  All of them.
• It's amazing that I accidentally took a picture of myself this morning and it turned out so well it looked like I was about to pounce on the camera.
• Its amazing that hills ain't no big thing anymore.  Unless it's a big hill, that is.
• It's amazing how magically awesome those tie-dye shoes are.

Tomorrow's workout: Some much needed cross-training, seeing as I have run three days in a row this week.  Then a quick little 19 miler on Saturday on those crazy hills.