This Week's Long Run

Coach Christine Wanted: 10 miles with mid 5 miles at race pace
I Delivered: 10 miles with mid 5 miles right around race pace

 This week I "only" had to run 10 miles, half as much as last week! It's funny how I've lost all perspective on what is a long or short run, I was really excited by such a short long run. The catch was that I had to do the mid-5 miles at race pace and that (as has been well documented here) makes me nervous. I set out to do 2 miles easy and then try to get up to race pace but not go too crazy. Coach Christine had told me that I was going out too fast on some of the other race pace and tempo runs and that if I can control the pace at the beginning, then I'll be able to do the later ones faster. That's part of the whole negative splits, strong finish philosophy that I'm trying to incorporate into my racing.

And...I did it! My mile splits ranged from 8:12-8:23 so I was right around where I was supposed to be. It felt hard but not crazy. I still have trouble believing that I will be able to keep up that pace for 21 more miles but I know that on race day I'll be pumped up and adrenaline will take me through. I just need to work on not shooting out of the start and burning up all my fuel right away.

I finished my 5 mile section at mile seven and then just relaxed and cruised home. It was nice to finish at a reasonable time and to not be totally wiped out. After I got cleaned up, Matt and the kids revealed the t-shirts they had made to wear in Rio! So cute, I love them! Now the pressure is really on!

GO MOM GO!

This week the taper is in full effect but on Tuesday I do have to do a 6 mile run with 3 miles at race pace. I like how Coach Christine keeps putting those in there to keep me on my toes. No slacking off! 13 days until the marathon!

3:35 Here I come!!!

Some of you might remember that at the start of my training in February I posted here about running Yasso 800s. Bart Yasso of Runners World came up with a formula for predicting your readiness to run a certain time in a marathon. He says that if you can run ten 800s (a half mile or 2 laps around the track) at the time you want to finish the marathon in, then you are ready. So I set the goal for myself of running each of my ten in 3:35 (three minutes and thirty five seconds) since I want to finish the marathon in 3:35 (three hours and thirty five minutes). I started off running four with Coach BB and then when she left I kept increasing them on my own.

So this Wednesday was my grande finale, my chance to shine, my opportunity to prove to Bart Yasso that I can do his workout. No pressure though, just relax and enjoy them!

And BOOM! I did it! Only #2  and #4 were off and I'm not sweating those, one was by a second and the other one is clearly an outlier.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
1	3:33.5	0.50	7:07
2	3:41.6	0.50	7:22
3	3:33.2	0.50	7:06
4	3:36.1	0.50	7:12
5	3:33.6	0.50	7:06
6	3:33.9	0.50	7:06
7	3:34.7	0.50	7:08
8	3:31.2	0.50	7:02
9	3:35.6	0.50	7:10
10	3:32.8	0.50	7:04

So Bart Yasso believes I can run a 3:35 in Rio. Deep breath and...I KNOW I CAN RUN A 3:35 IN RIO! I'm adding that to my mental bank of positivity that is growing bigger and bigger. It's crazy to read my blog post from February and see how tentative I was about using 3:35 as my goal time. I wasn't totally sure that I could do ten of them and now I did. I feel good about that accomplishment.

In other Rio Marathon news, they released the altitude map of the course so we could see where the hills are. It looks like only 2 hills, neither of them higher than 20 meters and neither of them at the very end. Sweet!

Now if they would just tell us where the kit pickup is going to be, I'd feel a lot better about things! 

This Week's Long Run

 Coach Christine Wanted: 20 miles
I Delivered: 20 miles

Happy Father's Day!

This week's long run was unfortunately preceded by a freak out of epic porportions. My plan was to get up at 6 am and leave for my run at 7 which is the start time of the marathon. Then I would get a taste of how hot  and sunny it is at that time. One of the big mistakes I made in training before my last marathon was to do all my runs at 5:00 in the morning and then when race day came, I wasn't ready to run in the heat of 8 am. So before this run, I ate some food and drank water and was all ready to leave at 7 when...I couldn't find my ipod. I had the headphones but no ipod. Shoot! I looked all around and couldn't find it and I didn't want to run for 3 hours without any music. Then I became convinced that I had flushed it down the toilet and it was gone forever. Then I started crying and screaming that I can't run this far, I can't do the marathon, etc etc. It was not pretty. The children started to look scared and whisper, What's wrong with Mommy? But Matt was a good sport and dutifully plunged the toilet while muttering I really don't think it's in here. Meanwhile I kept looking and I found it in the back of the shoe cabinet. Who knows how it got there. So I wiped my tears, took a deep breath, and set out on my run.

Pre meltdown

I had decided to do my usual half marathon loop and then add on some miles by going out to the airport. It was a gorgeous day here in Brasilia, really sunny but not too hot. There was excitement in the air because the first game of the Confederations Cup soccer tournament was being played later in the day here in Brasilia-Brazil vs. Japan! So there were lots of police driving around and I even saw a police boat patrolling out on the lake. Going later in the morning meant that there were a ton of runners out getting their miles in. I even saw my Brazilian doppleganger-a woman ran towards me wearing a visor, sunglasses, and hot pink compression socks! I gave her a thumbs up, she looked great!

                                             

This was my first time running with my sunglasses on and I was glad that I had them. I felt like not squinting at the sun helped me relax my face and feel less lost. I've had a couple mornings where the sun was shining right in my eyes and I felt like I was running blind. As I was running out towards the airport, Matt and the kids finally found me and gave me some much needed cold water and Gatorade and oranges. After I saw them, I still had 7 miles to go so it was a good boost.

The rest of the run went well until I was about a mile from home and I ran into a giant smoke cloud. It turned out they were doing road work and kicking up lots of toxic smelling dust. Not a great way to finish but I just kept going and tried to finish strong. And that's it! My last long run of marathon training is in the books. I just have one more hard workout-ten 800s on Wednesday and then the taper begins! 3 weeks to go until the marathon! 

Next stop Rio!

I was happy with how all my clothes did so I think this is going to be my marathon day outfit with my visor and sunglasses. Unless the red white and blue USA compression socks I just ordered come in time and then I'm going to rock those!

It's important to stop and smell the roses after a long run

Battling My Mind

Ugh. Three weeks to go before the marathon and I should be feeling excited but I'm not. I feel nervous and stressed and about every 5 minutes my mind is telling me that I can't do it. That I'm going to fail. That I'm going to come soooo close but not make it. That I don't have what it takes to meet my goal. That I set the bar too high and I can't reach it.

I don't doubt that I have the physical strength to succeed, my legs are strong, my lungs are strong, my core is stronger, my arms are stronger. When I picture myself not succeeding, it's always my mind giving up and telling my body to hold back. I hold back and then finish and say I could have done it, I should have pushed myself, I have gas left in the tank.

And I don't want that. I want the ending where I spot the finish line and the clock reads 3:34 and I know that I can hustle in (I can see the clock, I  must be so close!) and make my goal. I finish strong and I make my goal! Then I feel happy and proud and elated and I can say I did it! I am strong! I qualified for Boston!  Matt and the kids will find me and be so happy for me and I will ride that high for a long time. That's the ending I want, that's how I want this journey to end. NOT with frustration and what if? why didn't I? if only....

I need to snap out of this. I don't know why my mind is sabotaging all my hard work, why I'm letting my brain torture me like this but I'm not going to give in to it. I'm going to push negative thoughts out when they come in and to stay positive. Instead of thinking I will fail, I think I WILL SUCCEED.  I am a Boston Qualifier. I am strong. I am prepared for success.

From  my reading and talking to coaches I've learned that anxiety and stress about times and goals actually work against you in the race because they waste your energy. I need to trust my training, I put in the miles, I did the workouts and I prepared my body. The marathon is my chance to show the results of all that hard work. I am lucky that I get the chance to run in Rio de Janeiro, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I need to relax and enjoy the run.

Tomorrow I run 20 miles, my last big long run before the marathon. Coach Christine said to treat it like a dress rehearsal so I'm wearing the clothes I plan to wear and eating and drinking what I plan to eat and drink. I need to get my mind in the calm, happy place that I want it to be in when I stand on that starting line. I want to feel that confidence that I can achieve my dreams. Then the next three weeks is the taper when I don't run as many miles so my body can recover and prepare to run the marathon. I plan to use that time to train my mind with only positive thoughts. To repeat over and over:
I am strong. 
I am tough. 
I am a fast runner.
I am a Boston Qualifier. 
I run a 3:35 marathon. 
I've got the magic in me. 
I empty the tank. 
I dream it, I believe it, I achieve it. 
I relax my face to run my pace. 

This Week's Long Run

Coach Christine Wanted: 12 miles with the last 6 miles at race pace
I Delivered: 12 miles with 4 of the last 6 at race pace

This week's long run was an "easy" one after last week's epic 22 miler but I knew it was going to be tough because it was my second chance at running the last half of a long run faster than the first half. After my epic fail the last time, I was hoping that I would do better this time. In my mind, I approached the run as two different 6 mile runs. The first one would be an easy warm-up type run and then I would turn around and start to run at my marathon race pace. I picked a route that was an out and back so that it really was like two runs.

The first part of the run was easy, I tried to keep the pace between 9:00 and 10:00 minutes per mile and just be relaxed and enjoying the run. Of course all of my pump it up get psyched songs came on during this relaxed part but I tried to just stay calm. When I hit 6 miles, I turned around and picked up my legs. The first couple of miles were a little too fast but it was soooo much easier than the last time I had tried this. I kept my head in the game and stayed on pace until mile 10 when woooosh, the air suddenly went out of my tires. It was partly because that was right after the turn off for our old house and my body is still tuned into being done then So the fact that I still had to run 2 more miles was a bit of a let down for my mind and my legs. And there was a little hill right there that I struggled up. But I stayed in it and while the last 2 miles were off pace, they were still pretty close.

All in all I was happy with how it went, I feel like I'm understanding more how to run negative splits and my body is responding to my demands that it run faster at the end. I'm realizing that it is the exact opposite of my previous race day strategy which was go out fast and then limp to the finish. Coach Christine is happy with my progress on this concept and she has been reassuring me that this is the way to go on race day. She said 99% of world records are run on negative or even splits, I forgot to ask her about the figures for Boston Qualifiers.

So now I'm in the final month of training. I have one more gigantic run, 20 miles, this weekend and then I start to taper before the race. My emotions are all over the place, some days I feel super confident and ready to take it on and other days my heart starts pounding and I break into a sweat just thinking about running the race. I'm really trying to push out the negative emotions and focus on the positive ones. I'm repeating affirmations and doing lots of visualization of success.

Post-run toucan shot

 "Believe that you can run farther or faster. Believe that you're young enough, old enough, strong enough, and so on to accomplish everything you want to do. Don't let worn-out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself." -John Bingham

This Week's EPIC Long Run

Coach Christine Wanted: 22 miles (!?!?) with 5-10 minute Strong Finish
I Delivered: 22 miles (!!!!!) with the last mile at 8:13!

Ready to rock n roll

This week's long run was my longest run in my training plan, my longest run in 2 years, and just plain long: 22 miles! I was dreading it all week while trying to stay in my positive mindset. I've been reading a great book, Running Within, about improving your mental state while running. It's a little cheesy in parts but I've been trying to take what I can to help me reach my true potential by getting my brain to cooperate. 

                                                           

Today I tried to put some of the advice into practice during my run and I felt like it really helped. The ideas about pushing through fatigue and relaxing your face and body were especially helpful and got me through some rough parts. 

Only my knees didn't get compression

I decided to break the run up into 2 loops: my hill route that has the mile long uphill which I thought would be about 10 miles back to my house and then the half marathon loop which is a little less than 13 miles. So I set out on my hill loop and really tried to concentrate only on that loop and not think about the giant 22 number which was too much for my brain and legs to comprehend. Luckily with our new location, the mile-long hill came up at mile 1.5 so I got that out of the way at the beginning. I got yelled at by a biker for running in the bike lane (whatever!) but otherwise it was a pretty chill run. I kept working on keeping my pace slow, between 9-10 minute miles, and enjoying the run. On my way back I decided I was going to swing by the house and go to the bathroom and get cold water. At mile 9 I was just about to call Matt to warn him when he drove by me and pulled over. The kids got out and gave me cold water and oranges then rushed home to open up the house for me. I ran in, did my stuff and hit the road again pretty quickly. It was a good stop though because my spi belt had been bugging me so I was glad to take that off.

I set off again on my second loop and just putted along, listening to my music and trying to keep up my positive attitude. When I got to the first bridge I saw a lot of runners out training for something as part of a team from a gym. They had matching t-shirts and coaches and water stations set up along the road, it was very impressive! After I crossed the bridge, I ran along a mall parking lot and just when I got to the end, at mile 16, my support vehicle pulled up! They filled my water bottle and admitted that they had been at McDonald's having breakfast while I was running-a big treat for the kids! 

I continued along and then headed down to the JK Bridge. Just as I was running on to it, I looked over to the playground and saw Matt running towards me with the water bottle. I waved him off and told them to keep having fun on the playground and not to worry about me. 3.5 miles to go! As I was crossing the bridge my legs really started to feel tired but I worked on pushing those negative thoughts out of my mind and concentrating on how far I had come and how close I was to finishing. There are a couple of hills after the bridge but I just worked my way up them and thought about hitting mile 21 and starting my strong finish. 

When I hit mile 21, I picked up the pace and it felt great! My legs were tired but I felt like I had the strength to run a little bit faster. It was such a different feeling from the trudging, crying slog fest that is the usual end to my long runs. I loved it! I kept thinking, I can run the marathon! I could run 4 more miles now! It was an amazing feeling! My time for my last mile was 8:13! Race pace! I was really happy with that, it shows that I can pick it up at the end. 

Ah endorphins! Feeling a little silly post run

My legs loved the cold water

After I finished I sat down in the pool for an improvised ice bath and Murray kept me company. I was so happy and proud of myself that I ran so far and finished so strong. I felt confident that I can finish the marathon and achieve my goals. But more importantly, that it could be a fun experience. Bring on Rio!!!

Murray was good company