Back to the Long Runs.

I have been working back up to longer distance running for the past two weeks.  Slow and steady was my game plan and so far it seems to be working.  Yes, I missed out on logging quite a few of my training miles but since it’s pretty early in training, hopefully it does not negatively impact me come race day.  Not to mention, the only real goal I am going to let myself have for running my first marathon is to FINISH!  Sure, I have “secret” goals in my head that I know I would be capable of in ideal situations but the truth is, I really have no idea how my body will respond to running 26.2 miles at one time… And my longest training run is “only” 20 miles so those last 6.2 on race day could be the hardest 6.2 miles I ever run in my life.  So I need to have NO TIME GOALS!  (going to keep telling myself this for the next 3 months…)  We’ll see how well I really do with this!

So to practice this no time goal mentality, I set out on this morning’s run with no goal pace or finish time.  I just wanted to go out, run 12 miles and finish.  Those were my only requirements.  There was also to be no looking at the garmin except for figuring out when to turn around/how much is left (yeah, nice thought practice makes perfect?)  I did pretty well with the first part of that goal but the whole watch looking thing didn’t really pan out.  It’s just WAY too easy to glance down and see your pace.  Regardless, it didn’t really seem to mess with me and I just took it for what it was and glanced back up.

Before heading out, I sipped some coffee and snacked on a banana, rice cake and peanut butter.  I also drank plenty of water.  My race fuel for the day was one Chocolate Clif Shot and one Mocha Clif Shot (arsenic free!!)

I planned to set out on a 7 mile loop and then a 5 mile loop to give me a chance to stop home if things were not going too well.  I don’t really like doing things like this because it’s mentally challenging but it just seemed like a good initial plan since I have not run double digits in a month or so.  I ended up doing more of an 8 mile loop, with another 2 mile loop here and there so I stuck closer to home at the end but didn’t ever get TOO close!  It ended up working out just fine (minus that I ran past the same creeper cop car about 6 times…)

Overall, I would say this run went really well and was definitely a confidence booster for getting back into training.  I hate to say it because I will probably jinx myself (and Sister will hate me) but this run was not really a struggle at any point.  I hate to type this but yet I know there will be plenty of runs that go horribly and I will need to be able to look back to runs like this that go better than expected to remind myself that no two runs are created equal and just because one goes poorly, does not signify anything about the next.

Weather today was just about perfect February weather as well!  30 degrees and sunshine!!  When does that happen in Wisconsin and in February!  We are being spoiled this winter and I have a bad feeling we are going to pay for it oh about May 20th?  Ha!  I wore running tights, long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, fleece vest and light gloves.  The t-shirt would not have been needed and the gloves were on again, off again…

Splits looked a little something like this:

Finally took the time to figure out screen shot instead of re-typing these all #lazy

I ended up giving myself a goal to finish my last mile under and 9:00 and I made it!  Whoot!

And post run, my breakfast looked a little something like this!!

Oatmeal minus the oats, coconut butter, White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter, apricot jam and a few sprinkles of Love Grown Foods Granola!  (plus maybe a spoonful of cookie dough )  I’ll probably need a snack/lunch in about 20 minutes already because nothing seems to be keeping me full these days… annoying??!?!

Finally, I had a little arch pain in my foot today because I think I pulled a muscle in it the other day when I was getting out of the shower… seriously?!?!  It did not really hurt when I was running as much as it does walking but I am currently icing it and hopefully by Monday’s run it’s gone?!  Also, it never fails to surprise me that my ARMS have the guts to start to feel “tired” when clearly my legs are working a little harder… but not matter what I do, I can’t seem to get my upper body muscle to get as strong as my lower body ones?!?  I’ll have to do some research on this and see what I can find out because I honestly would have been able to make my legs move more this morning but my ARMS couldn’t do it.  What the heck!

Guess 800+ words about one run is probably enough so I’ll stop now – lol!  Happy Saturday, Everyone!

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