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!

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? 

My Current Status and Race Predictions...

I'm 56 days away from the PGH Marathon and this is my current status at the "less than two months to go" mark:
⃢ I have completed 3 moderately long LRs (16 miles x 2; 15 miles x1)
⃢ I have 3 longer LRs left (18 miles x1; 20 miles x1; 22 miles x1)
⃢ I have 2 more races prior to the PGH Marathon weekend (Sunrise 1/2; Carmel Marathon relay)
⃢ I have 1 major trip that will somewhat interrupt my training cycle (FLL>>SEA>>PDX>>FLL)
⃢ I have 0 doubts in my ability to complete the PGH Marathon (based on how training has been going)
⃢ I have 1 tiny concern about getting a sub-5:30:00 finish (since I haven't been doing a lot of hill work)
⃢ I have 2 "back-up" race goals just in case (beat my Chicago marathon time; or get a sub-5:45:00 finish)
⃢ I have 3 minor things to finalize before my PGH trip (but the major stuff (flight & hotel) are taken care of)
⃢ I have 3 major work things to complete before I can start tackling those minor things

So about my race goals - I've been planning for a sub-5:30:00 finish time, which will not only be a PR for me but also a major accomplishment after the disasters of the NYC & Berlin marathons. For NY I was under-trained and for Berlin I got injured during the race. Not fun. Both those races had finish times of 6+hours and I'm not in the mood (or emotional frame of mind) to deal with that again. Not when my goal (for both) was 5:30:00 (I've been chasing that goal for a while). Anyway, choosing Pittsburgh to PR in may not have been the wisest idea (being from Florida with no hills and considering the entire second half of the race (pretty much) is nothing but hills...

I've invested a lot of time in my training plan for Pittsburgh; making edits and tweaking things as training has progressed; taking rest days when I feel myself approaching the "over training danger zone"; and adjusting for life (a lot) to accommodate competing priorities; and creating as much work:life:marathon training balance as I possibly can. So in keeping with my investment of time, and my desire to remain realistic about what my body can do, I decided to look at a couple of race predictors to see if I'm still on track for a 5:30:00 finish time.

Tool #1 from RunningAHEAD

(ok, not bad... especially since the 16 & 10 milers were my last two LRs)

Tool #2 from Chicago Endurance Sports

(so right under the goal time, but still... not bad)

Tool #3 from Runner's World

(RW asked for different info (13.1 miles & 10 miles) & had a significantly different estimation)

I'm not a big fan of the Runner's World prediction (as you can imagine) since it's worse than my time for the NY Marathon (during which I walked all the bridges... and then some) and Berlin (where I got injured at mile 21 and walked most of the remaining 5 miles). But, it also used different statistics for it's calculation so maybe, just maybe, I still have time to improve the prediction before race day. Plus, the distances and times I used for all these predictors weren't exactly race times, but rather my LR times over the past two weeks; and according to Hal's tweet...

Worst case scenario, if my Plan A, B, and C goals fall through, I will still attempt to finish under 6 hours (which will be a big improvement over both NY and Berlin).

All-in-all I refuse to let negative finish time predictions dampen my excitement about this trip (and this race). A lot of things will be different about this event, including my official blogger status...

(link to page)

I'm looking forward to meeting all the other amazing bloggers and organizers in person when I go, and (hopefully) getting to spend more time at the Expo fully exploring everything it has to offer (I've been rushing through every race expo so far this year). 

I also got my "I'm In!" yard sign recently so I've had that up on display...

Less than 2 months to go!!!

Have you ever used a race predictor when training for a race?

How often do you modify your training plan (during your training cycle)

Have you ever been to Pittsburgh? I need some restaurant recommendations please :)