Monday, April 30, 2018

A (Race Week) Letter To Myself...

Dear Body & Mind,
It's RACE WEEK! Congratulations on making it this far. It's been a long season but you stuck with it and trained hard! The moment you've been waiting for will be arriving this weekend and by next week this time you'll be able to hang your 4th marathon medal on your wall of bling!

There were several "milestones" during Pittsburgh Marathon training that made this cycle stand out from others. First, you got through more distance this season than previous seasons and had 100+ miles months in January & March (congrats)! You did a good combination of solo and group runs with most of your mileage done before 6am (thank heavens for night lights)! You also strategically mixed in a few races as training runs to get that well needed crowd support and disproportionately mixed Gatorade ;)

And yes, you may have single-handedly kept Au bon Pain open with the amount of blueberry muffins you purchased. It's also possible that your "new found appreciation of Merlot" might not have been the best claim to fame this marathon season. And I know you're not happy with the whole marathon weight gain situation, but substituting your weekly hour of cross training for that glass of wine may have had a little to do with it.

Although last week was plagued with aches & pains and strict orders to rest (and not run), getting the official "OK" to toe the starting line on Sunday makes up for all the nights you cried yourself to sleep out of frustration and sadness. Yes, things looked grim for several days... even up to this morning you were worried about stress fractures and whether or not your bones loved you enough to keep themselves together. And while your legs may not be up to PR attempts on Sunday, your new mindset to "just have fun" will hopefully get them through the 26.2+ miles without giving up. 

With that in mind, here are some last minute words of advice and motivation:
  1. Run based on how you feel (there will be other marathons to PR at when you are not recovering from an injury).
  2. Enjoy the race (everyone's finisher medal looks the same so just enjoy the journey to get yours).
  3. Stay grateful (and hydrated) in each mile. So many people are unable to run, to run a marathon, to afford to travel for races. You are blessed to be able to do this so don't forget that.
  4. Warm up gently before you start (compression pants are great but they aren't magic). Warming up will help decrease injury risk.
  5. Fuel properly (you've done this before so I don't need to tell you how important it is).
You are ready. You've trained hard (next time we really need to fix that cross training plan though) and worked hard to get here. Do your best... run with your heart... and remember to smile

Always and Forever,
Your sense of satisfaction after the race.

P.S. Pittsburgh I can't wait to help you celebrate #10YearsRunning!

Saturday, April 21, 2018

The Last "Long" Run {a late post... kinda... but a timely update}

There is something about completing your 20 miler long runs that make you feel a slightly bit more confident about marathon training. Granted, I did my last 20 miler last weekend (and somehow my legs are still sore), but I still feel great about it... mainly because it was my fastest 20 mile training run ever!

The training run distance and pace translated into a pretty decent estimation of my upcoming marathon finish time...

This past week I've been nursing my tired legs through short distance mid-week runs (and my run this morning)...

And I even managed to earn a "highly improving" badge from Garmin on Thursday...

I run again tomorrow (for my last double digit mileage run of this training cycle) and next week I'll continue with my moderate mileage + decent intensity plan. After next week it will be RACE WEEK! 

I'm grateful for this training cycle. It has brought back the joy of running that I've missed for some most of the past two marathon training cycles. The Pittsburgh Marathon may not bring me a PR (p.s. you should always check the course elevation and difficulty level before you set a PR goal at the beginning of training); but it will be an amazing event and I'm determined to enjoy every aspect of my racecation!

Do you have any racecations coming up?

What big event are you training for right now?

Have you ever been to Pittsburgh? What restaurants would you recommend? 

Sunday, April 1, 2018

The 1st Quarter Recap...

So much has happened so far in 2018! You probably could have guessed that based on my relatively scant blog posts for the past 3 months. It's not that I haven't wanted to blog, it's just that time has been so limited recently with lots of competing priorities. Anyway, it's the end of the first quarter so this is the perfect time to recap the last few months!

January started off with a big bang work-wise. I got a promotion (yay!) and took on a lot more work related duties. Running-wise I did 3 races (the Key West virtual half marathon, the Tropical 5K, and the Miami half marathon) and I started noticing the downward trend in my overall running pace (sigh). I did make it to my first "100 miles in a month" milestone though so that's something right?

February kept the same work momentum because we started off the month with one of our major events for the Trauma Program at the hospital where I work. The event actually started in January and continued through to Feb 2nd. I also travelled back home to spend some time with family and friends. February had 2 races, another virtual half and the A1A Ft. Lauderdale half, but I didn't make my 100 miles milestone for February (I only got to 75 miles). I'm blaming that on the fact that it was a shorter month (but the truth is I skipped a few runs).

March was a major travel month. The first trip was to Seattle and Portland for part vacation/part work. Seattle was the vacation segment with Marc... we went to visit some of his friends from college. Then we went down to Portland where I presented at the STN's Trauma Conference (it was amazing!). And, in case that wasn't enough travel, I went to Carmel, Indiana with my friend Niqui from work and we completed the Carmel Marathon Relay. I also ran the Miami Beach 1/2 at the beginning of the month, so I ended up with a total of 115 miles for March :)

So now that the first quarter of the year is over (so fast right?!), it's time to look forward to some of the major life stuff happening in quarter two:
1. Some big birthdays are happening - Kai; San & Me; Marc; my Mom)
2. The Pittsburgh Marathon will kick off month 2 of quarter 2!
3. College tours with Kai will be taking place throughout June!

Any major/exciting things happened so far this year?

What are you looking forward to in quarter 2?

When is your birthday? Do you do a big birthday celebration?