The Final 20

Somehow I’m just now realizing that marathon training is essentially over. Yesterday I ran my final 20 miler of this training cycle.

It sounds crazy to say, but I (kind of) wish that I had just one more.

I feel like there are a couple of kinks that I’d still like to iron out with my fuel belt and shoes, but I’ll have to use my last couple of semi-long runs for that purpose and hope for the best.

The run itself went fairly well, especially on the heels of last week’s failed attempt. The hip was never an issue this week thankfully.

The weather was 70 degrees yesterday with 95% humidity, not ideal … but honestly it didn’t bother me much. I run relatively well in warmer and humid conditions, its not my favorite by any means, but it didn’t cause any problems.

I did have to stop at mile 9 to lance a blood blister on my foot and I got some pretty gnarly chafing just below my belly button from my fuel belt. I can never decide whether to carry my own water with me during a marathon or not. Both times I have ended up carrying my Nathan water bottle, but its so annoying. Now I have the fuel belt and its so nice to have my hands free, but that thing is heavy! Decisions, decisions.

Looking at the calendar is kind of scary/exciting! Next weekend Tim and I are headed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to run the Louisiana Half Marathon. The following week we are running a half marathon to support our local High School’s Softball team and then it will be my final taper week before Mississippi River Marathon. The week immediately following the marathon I’ll be running the Mercedes Half Marathon in Birmingham for the 4th year in a row!

That’s 3 half marathons and 1 full marathon in 4 weeks! Scary/Exciting!

Fun Facts about my Mississippi River Marathon training:
I have run 20 miles four times this training cycle. I didn’t run 20 miles four times combined for my previous two marathons.

I have run a total of 446.41 miles so far in training.

I have spent 65 hours, 53 minutes and 27 seconds on my feet.

A Long Run & Whole30 Day 5

I haven’t written as much about running lately, but I swear I’m still out there. Most runs are fairly mundane and not blogworthy. Of course I’ve been spending a lot of time talking about my love affair with CrossFit and Paleo eating, but I’m still married to running. No worries!

Today’s run was a big question mark. The last run I did was on Wednesday and it was pretty disastrous with my hip pain and an Upper Respiratory Infection. Yuck! I rested my leg and my body for 2 full days, and then did a short CrossFit workout yesterday before trying to run again today.

My hip has continued to be mildly annoying the last few days, so I wasn’t feeling super confident about completing my 20-miler today. I went out there with the intention of running as far as I possibly could without causing any further damage, even if that meant I had to quit after 2 miles.

At about mile 6 I started being aware of my hip, although I wouldn’t say it hurt. I stopped at mile 7 and did some Downward Facing Dog and Pigeon Pose in the median of the road to loosen my hamstrings and hip. It helped a lot! So when someone in the group had to take a potty break at mile 9 I used that as another opportunity for some stretching.

“Stacked Firewood” is another good hip stretcher.

The hilly terrain between miles 11 and 13.5 really got the hip angry. I decided at that point to cap the run at 16 miles. I stretched it out one more good time at 13.5 and finished up. I actually felt much better once I got off the hills, but decided to play it conservatively.

I thought about my New Year’s Resolution and focused on “accepting myself unconditionally right now”. Right then, that was the right choice. I didn’t take the “unfinished” last 4 miles home with me, so to speak. Something that would have driven me crazy and put me in a bad mood in the past. I felt accomplished and happy with my best today! 🙂

I finished 16.13 miles in 2 hours and 25 minutes.

I iced, foam rolled and stretched my hip like it was my J-O-B once I got home. And then I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon playing “Ninjas” with my son.

My food today was pretty special, especially lunch and dinner.

Pre-run: Cashew Cookie Larabar
Mid-run: A handful of dates
Post-run: 2 hardboiled eggs (brought these in a cooler bag in my car so I could have the protein immediately after my run).

Lunch:

Sweet Potato Pancakes, Sausage and Grilled Brussel Sprouts.

I’m telling you, these pancakes are something special.

For my afternoon snack, I attempted to eat sardines:

Dinner was Lemony Lamb Dolmas and Cilantro Cauliflower “Rice” from Practical Paleo. This cauliflower is life changing, and the dolmas were EVEN better.

This was one of those meals where I had to say “day-um” every couple of bites. It was that good.

It turned out to be a really great day!

20 Miles for Day 20

I thought I’d celebrate Day 20 of my Whole30 with a 20 mile run.

Just kidding! That was a total coincidence, pretty fitting though.

My day started at 4:45 am preparing for my first 20 mile run of this marathon training schedule. It’s been a while since I’ve run this distance, and although I didn’t feel as amazingly spectacular as last weekend it was still a really really good run.

Kaitlin, Barbara, Chad, Mike and I started without a specific route in mind and made split decisions as we went along for the first several miles. It was pretty fun for a while and then we finally decided on a route. I feel like we ran around the entire east side of Montgomery!

Before our run I had a Banana Bread Larabar and a Banana … yeah, that was kind of weird. I didn’t plan it that way, it just happened.

Instead of carrying Gu with me during my Whole30 I’ve been carrying an extra Larabar in the pouch of my water bottle. Last week I didn’t end up needing it, but today I was glad to have it. I never bonked energy-wise, but I got HANGRY at about mile 14. I believe that’s the first time I’ve ever actually eaten something while running.

After the run I headed home for a quick breakfast of fruit and scrambled eggs, before heading off to yoga.

My energy has been through the roof today! After four and a half hours of exercise I’d normally spend the rest of the day either on the couch or in the bed. Today I went out to lunch, went shopping, cleaned my entire house including sweeping and mopping and doing laundry and cooked dinner. I like it!

Dinner tonight was a simple one: baked chicken, roasted asparagus and balsamic mushrooms. Nothing fancy.

A couple of my friends have shown interest in doing a Whole30 of their own and have specifically asked about what to buy at the grocery store. Of course everyone’s taste is different but I thought I’d list a quick breakdown of what I’ve been buying and where.

I typically shop at 3 different stores: Costco, Earth Fare and Publix.

At Costco I get: Frozen Wild Alaska Salmon, Frozen Tilapia Filets, Chicken & Apple Sausages, canned wild caught Tuna, avocados, sweet potatoes, onions, eggs, bananas, coconut oil, clementines, organic apples, spinach, bell peppers, pre-cut butternut squash, mushrooms, asparagus and a fruit bowl.

At Earth Fare or HealthWise Foods (local) I get: Organic Grass-Fed ground beef and steaks, organic pork breakfast sausage, bacon, chicken legs, breasts and thighs, Larabars and sunflower butter.

Any other random ingredients or vegetables that I’m not buying organic I get from Publix.

Those have pretty much been my staples for the past 20 days.

Now I think its couch sittin’ time. Have a great night!

Whole30- Day 13 & a Long, Long Run

Today was my first real long, long run for my Mississippi River Marathon training. A long, long run to me is anything over 14 miles. Last weekend I was supposed to run 16, but because I ran a fast 13 at the Chickamauga Half Marathon I decided to scrap the extra 3 miles.

Today’s run was 18 miles. I ended up with 18.56, to be exact.

I felt gooooood! Too good. I’m really starting to think that this Paleo diet has a lot to do with it. It can’t be a complete coincidence that in the last 13 days I’ve run a PR half marathon and an amazing 18+ mile run. No energy gels, nothing.

I returned to find that my car had been tagged by my crazy friend Hilary.

I felt a tiny bit self-conscious taking my son to Toy’s R Us this afternoon with “PAROLED” written on my window. 🙂

After my run and a big breakfast I headed to yoga. I love Saturday morning Hot Yoga after a long run, its really the best way to stretch it all out and keep the soreness away. I never take the time to stretch properly otherwise.

My meals today were:

Snack (before run): Cashew Cookie Larabar

Meal 1 (after run): 3 scrambled eggs, 2 slices of bacon and a small fruit bowl.

Meal 2: Steak Salad at Moe’s with lots of veggies, salsa and guacamole.

Snack: Mixed nuts from the Earth Fare bulk bin.

Meal 3: Stuffed Bell Pepper, Collard & Cabbage Slaw and Roasted Veggies.

The best thing about long, long run days is getting to eat all the things. Guilt free!

Half-Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

I started my Christmas Eve with a Half-Marathon distance run.

I met up with a few of my friends early this morning for a celebratory group run around Downtown Montgomery.

I think I finally feel like myself (almost) completely since the marathon two weeks ago today! The best part of this run was no pain!

Post-run breakfast was a Veggie Benedict at The Egg & I.

O.M.G worthy.

Merry Christmas and Namaste!

2 Weeks Til the Race

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Mine was spent with good friends and way too much food.

I did stay on track with my running through the holiday week though and even ran a fast (8:04 pace) 5 miles on Thanksgiving Day!

Today is the 2 week mark before the race! Its coming so fast!

Taper time is in full effect now. Today’s run was significantly shorter than last week’s run, only 12 miles. Twelve miles is nothing to sneeze at though!

Today I was thankful for only twelve. After a week of less than ideal eating I felt heavy and sluggish from the start, or maybe it is the fact that the entire first mile is uphill. Who knows?

Started getting more comfortable around the 3 mile mark, but the heavy gusts of head wind fought back at me. Luckily I had my best running buddies with me, so the conversation helped keep my mind of the actual running.

Before I knew it, it was done … and I was relaxing at breakfast drinking a customary post-run beer.

With all the usual suspects.

Headed from breakfast straight to Hot Yoga for some streeeeeeetch.

Unfortunately Hot Yoga wasn’t as amazing today for me as it usually is. I was weak and tired and wanted it to be over almost as soon as it started. I toughed my way through it the best I could and hope that atleast my legs got some benefit.

3 Weeks Until the Race

This weekend marks the final countdown until my first marathon on December 10th. I say final countdown because after today its the start of taper time!

Its been a busy, crazy, fun weekend!

Started off Saturday morning by deciding to support a friend at the Turkey Burner 5K instead of running my scheduled 20-miler.

She killed it! And placed 1st in her age group.

I felt like I needed an extra rest day before my long run anyway. I’ve been feeling some aches this week that I needed to rest away. To add insult to injury I also fell a couple of nights ago and hit my knee that has been aching already. I’ve got a big black bruise, but it seems to otherwise be ok.

Saturday afternoon I did some hot yoga to stretch everything out.

I realized at some point yesterday that my long run would be 20 miles on November 20th on the last day of my 20’s! Perfect!

The alarm went off bright and early this morning at 4:45. I thought it was a cruel joke at first. But it was reality.

I’m proud to say that I busted out 21.15 miles this morning in 3 hours and 12 minutes!

It makes it so much easier to do these long runs with buddies. Six of us started out together this morning and ran various distances. I was never alone the whole time!

There was no time to rest after the run though. Today was our Thanksgiving Dry Run to test out some recipes for Thursday. I spent the day cooking, cooking, cooking and ended up with this …

I know its all kind of the same color, but it was delish! That’s how you do a vegetarian Thanksgiving. Sweet potato gratin, sweet pea and onion casserole, cabbage, potato salad, dressing with cranberry sauce and pearl onion gratin. There was also some unpictured Pumpkin Spice Cake involved and Tim’s absolute favorite of the day …

Taffy apple salad.

Took a 3 mile walk after lunch to keep the soreness away and settle the full tummy.

So happy, tired and thankful.

This Week in Marathon Training

Eeek! Only 4 weeks left til the race. I’m not thinking about that though, I get too freaked out when I acknowledge that the day is going to eventually be here. I’m just going to continue to pretend its not happening.

My week has looked like so far …

Of course there is still tomorrow left, which is a scheduled crosstraining day.

Monday – Yoga DVD

Tuesday – 5 Mile run

Wednesday – 8 mile run and 1 hour of Hot Yoga

Thursday – 5 Mile Treadmill run

Friday – REST!

Saturday – 13 Mile run

I was really looking forward to today’s run, 13 miles seems like a nice break between a 18 mile long run and a 20 mile long run. (I can’t believe I just called a 13 mile run a “break”).

I met up with a few of my running buddies this morning for a new route. I knew within the first 4 miles that this wasn’t a break after all. I felt sluggish and heavy and I just couldn’t find my comfortable pace.

Finally after about 6 miles I started getting my groove and then all of a sudden I started having a sharp pain in my lower abdomen. It wasn’t enough that I had to stop running, but it was noticeable and annoying. It bothered me the rest of the run.

We did manage to have some fun during the run though which made up for the difficulties.

Apparently Vanilla Bean Gu tastes delicious and I make funny faces when I eat it.

We took a Gu/stretch/photo op break at mile 8.

Thank goodness I had a fun group of friends to run with today because otherwise I don’t know if I would have completed this run.

After my run I went to visit my friend Jessica who had her baby yesterday!

Jessica just completed a Half Marathon only six weeks ago!

Welcome to the world Elizabeth!

Lunch was a Hummus and Salad Plate from Zoe’s Kitchen with a side of slaw.

Nom nom nom.

Now I’m nursing my painful spot that I have self-diagnosed as an ovarian cyst. After 800 mg of Motrin and 2 beers the pain is starting to ease.

Fall Vacation 2011 – Day 1

I woke up in Fort Oglethorp, Georgia this morning. Our vacation wasn’t technically suppose to start until today, but because I had a 14 mile long run on the training schedule for this weekend we left a day early. The plan was to run at Chickamauga Battlefield and then to head to Gatlinburg for the real vacation. I was actually super stoked about running in the battlefield, everyone raves about it!

Things didn’t turn out as planned. As I reported on DailyMile …

Started off at the beginning of the Chickamauga Half Marathon course, but I could never get my Garmin to follow the route so I realized very quickly that I didn’t even know which direction to go. Called Tim to bring me the map, thought I figured it out and started again. It started raining on me hard almost immediately. There was lots of traffic on the windy road and I was afraid I was going to get hit by a car so I ended up running in the grass and getting my feet soaking wet. Then I was afraid I was going to trip and fall into traffic … a few minutes later after getting chased by a dog and caught in a rainstorm I also ended up on the interstate somehow. Finally decided to give up and call it quits. Called Tim to come pick me up, in the meantime a creepy looking guy stopped on the interstate and told me that the “lord instructed him to bring me an umbrella”. I tried to explain to him that I was already soaking wet and the rain was the least of my worries, but he insisted. All of this happened within 1.75 miles. It ended in lots of tears.

Got back to the hotel and something in me just wouldn’t let me quit. I ended up running the last 12.25 miles on the treadmill in the hotel gym. It was an absolute struggle. I had to think every positive and reassuring thought about myself that I could muster. At one point I even repeated “hardwork – dedication – hardwork – dedication” outloud for atleast 10 minutes. This was probably my toughest day so far as a runner, but it showed me what I’m made of and I’m grateful for that.

I tried my best to put the run behind me and enjoy the start of the real vacation. Before heading out of town we stopped at a great little Greek/Italian restaurant for lunch. They had an awesome salad and pizza bar.

I also discovered pickled okra. O … M .. G

I spent most of my day staring out the window of the car. Dreary, rainy and miserable … all day.

Once we finally made it to Gatlinburg we decided to pick up some things to make dinner at our cabin since we had already eaten lunch out. The cabin has a big nice gas grill on the porch by the hot tub. I envisioned an evening of grilling, hot tubbin’ and beer drinking. So far I’m 2 for 3. Still gotta make it to the hot tub.

We made grilled portobello burgers, grilled asparagus and homemade guacamole. Soooo good!

Atleast as good as any real burger I’ve ever eaten and probably better.

Before we made it to the cabin I had something happen that hasn’t happened to me in several years. I had a STRAIGHT UP panic attack. I had a flashback of driving here 2 years ago and sliding all over the road when it was raining and we were trying to go up the mountain. Of course it was raining again today. I started crying as soon as I thought about it. I honestly felt like I was going to vomit I was so scared. I considered getting out of the car and walking up the moutain carrying my 3.5 year old son, in the rain. Tim can figure out his way up himself. Ha!

Anyway … obviously I lived. And I didn’t have to walk. I just closed my eyes and held on for dear life. Good job husband for not getting me kilt today.

Now I think I hear that hot tub calling my name. Here’s hoping day 2 goes more smoothly.

Longest Long Run Yet, 17 Miles

In the past 24 hours, I’ve done two things that scare me. Can you guess the first one?

I did yoga in the park! My good friend Marsha’s yoga studio held a free sunset session in the Shakespeare park in Montgomery yesterday afternoon. I’ve been trying out some yoga at home on DVDs and really enjoy it so Marsha talked me in to stepping it up a little bit and going to a live session. Loved it!

This morning I woke up to face my longest attempt at a long run ever. My training scheduled called for 16.5 miles, but I’ve always been a stickler about whole numbers so I called it 17.

I met some running buddies at the Shakespeare park this morning at 0:dark:30 to get started.

Notice the darkness surrounding us.

I would have never dreamed that I would be out running before the sun came up.

Each of us had our own distances and paces to run today, so we didn’t stay together long but we followed the same general route. Barbara (the one in the pink) and I set out slower than the rest to pace ourselves for our distance. We followed the faster runners through an amazing route where we saw beautiful scenery, sheep in the field with shepherd dogs, fog hanging over a pond with a canoe overturned nearby … just beautiful quiet peaceful roads. We then crossed over into a business area and did a big loop around our outdoor mall.

Barbara and I stopped at McDonalds around the 7.5 mile mark to take a Gu, Salt tab and use the restroom before we got going again.

At mile 11 Barbara had a sudden sharp pain in her hamstring that would not allow her to continue. She insisted I go ahead and let her walk the rest of the way back. I reluctantly agreed after I had made several phone calls to find her some help and couldn’t get anyone on the phone. I figured I could run back as fast as I could and come get her with my car. Luckily one of our runner buddies (Duane) that we started the run with had a sixth sense to check on us and drove by shortly after Barbara’s injury occurred.

I ran 3 more miles alone. Then I got lost. Really lost.

I stopped and stood on the street corner trying to navigate my way back to the park with my phone when Drew appeared out of nowhere. These men sure saved the day today. I ran the final 3 miles back to the park with Drew … at more his pace than mine, to finish out the 17 total.

Splits were:

9:36 – 9:02 – 9:08 – 9:11 – 9:05 – 9:05 – 9:14 – 9:26 – 9:25 – 9:31 – 9:21 – 9:38 – 9:00 – 8:46 – 8:12 – 8:19 – 8:16

The whole experience other than Barb’s injury was fantastic! I’ve never felt stronger or more accomplished than I did today. I’m going to kick that marathon’s ass!

The whole group met back up at the park and then Barb, Duane and I headed off to Starbucks.

When I got back home I was so hungry I could have gnawed my arm off. I created some strange concoction that actually turned out quite well. I call it Quinoa Crusted Veggie Quiche.

I had about a cup of cooked quinoa left in the fridge which I layered in the bottom of a baking dish:

Topped it with some sautéed veggies (onions, mushrooms and zucchini)  and then poured 6 beaten eggs over the top …

Baked it in the oven at 350 for about 20-25 minutes and topped with cheese.

I was surprised at how well the quinoa stayed together as a crust. I tried to get a good pic of the crust …

Time for some more yoga stretches before heading off for work tonight.