marathon monday: 8 things on my mind

Hello hello hello. (Did you read that to yourself in Matthew McConaughey’s voice? Because I definitely typed it that way.)

It’s Monday! It’s the first Monday of April, actually, and Oklahoma is wearing all of her springtime finery. I sure hope you and your people had a lovely Easter weekend. Lots of thoughts and feelings were swimming around inside me but would never quite form into words worth sharing. Still, of course, I hope your holiday was beautiful. Ours was unusual but still beautiful. Simple. Good. And now that Easter has passed I feel like we are all allowed to really dive into the fresh new season!

Additionally, today is the first Marathon Monday of tapering before the April 26th race, and I feel it. In a mostly good way though.

Some random thoughts:

20 Miles at 20 days Out: This past Friday I had my final “long” run. It was a scheduled 20-miler, but I cheated myself a little and barely ran 19.65 miles. I blame the straight-line winds clocking in at upwards of 60 mph. That was brutal, you guys, but I kept up with a pretty average pace so I’ll count it as strength training on top of a long run. : ) Oh, and to illustrate how extreme the winds were that day, allow me to present this photo of a toppled porta potty. Among my worst fears, truth be told, is being inside one of these when this happens.

Appetite One of these days I will compile all my thoughts and some of the great resources I’ve found on running, eating, and weight loss (or lack thereof). For now, let me say how thankful I am to have learned a few things about how my personal appetite works. Key? Running long and hard makes me much hungrier than normal. And when I listen to my body and eat accordingly and not junk, I feel good. Great, even. On rest days I am not that hungry, and as long as I mellow out what I’m putting in my mouth I continue feeling great. Also, pasta trumps rice every time. And veggies trump bread for all of eternity. Amen. But marathon training has not helped me lose more than water weight.

Finally Registered! I only waited until the last few hours of the last day before prices went up. No biggie. Once more, big thanks to the fine folks at the OKC Memorial Marathon for the race discount! All I had to do was participate in a focus group afternoon last summer, which I would happily have done for free.

Water versus Diet Coke: I’m making an effort. That’s all we’re gonna say at this point. The same applies to carb restriction (i.e. fat loss) (translation, wishful thinking) which is really kind of silly to attempt this late in the game. Never mind, ok? Somebody get me a freezing cold Diet Coke.

Need for Speed: I’m so regretting my lack of consistency this spring (crazy to the max, unpredictable life schedules and Oklahoma weather, which together resulted in one week of set backs after another, seriously!) because apparently I care a lot more about speed than I have been admitting. In order to register for the race you have to guess your finishing time, so I used a calculating tool to estimate that and was appalled. It is silly, of course, because what was I expecting? Magic? “Just finishing” was a fine enough goal last year for my first time, but I am bummed out to not have improved very much with regard to speed. I am really happy that endurance comes easily for me, though. This is just proof that reading about how fast other women are can be motivating; but it can also be just as destructive to your spirit as comparing your body to bikini models. Realistic perspective, ma’am, let’s keep a realistic perspective. No comparing ladies! Be happy. xoxo

Shoes I don’t like my new Sauconys anymore. At all. They are pretty to look at (see photo below) but not good for my feet. Stay tuned for a break up letter. Oh, and since it’s taper time I reserve the right to blog about running on more days than just Monday. Hope nobody hates it!

Garmin Handsome surprised me recently with a snazzy Garmin, and despite all my declarations of “not caring about technology and whatnot,” I love it. It allows me to just run and not count laps; it also keeps me from having to remember what time I started, how many breaks I took, etcetera. So no more guessing my pace. Plus: On those rare occasions when I run somewhere other than around the llama field, I have a better chance of looking the part of a real runner, right?

Sluggish: So, heavy legs are normal at this stage? Both Monica and Janae have written recently about heavy-feeling (sluggish) legs being normal if you’ve been properly training for a marathon, so I am trying to feel okay about this. Did I feel this way last year? Cannot remember. But I have been feeling some anxiety about how tired my legs are after any double-digit run, and Monica’s and Janae’s encouragement really calmed my nerves. Maybe I am more ready than it seems. Or maybe I am living in a fantasy world. We shall soon find out.

That’s all the running randomness to which I will subject you tonight! Overall I feel terrific and am excited for the race. Really excited. Local news channels together with the Memorial foundation have already started sharing remembrance of the events from this month twenty years ago, honoring the victims one at a time, and promoting the Oklahoma Standard. It’s a very emotional community experience, and I cherish it all.

How are you doing? Are you participating in any of the running events on April 26th, or maybe volunteering? I know at least one reading friend I’ve made here and her adult daughter who are both running the half marathon. I really hope to finally meet them at the Expo. Hi Marcella!

Run to Remember
XOXOXOXO