I can do it!

This morning I did P90X legs and ab-ripper routine.  I skipped "back" again, since I'm not equipped with a pull-up bar where I work out.  I'm going to have to figure out how to rectify that situation...  Anyway, I followed that up with a 5K run with my daughter Britnee.  I'm really proud of her.  She's decided to train for a half-marathon in January, and has put together a training schedule that she's been really good about following.  We ran slow and easy - 35 minutes total, taking one minute walk breaks after every three minutes of running.  It was enough for me to work up a sweat, even though it was FREEZING cold this morning!!!  But not so much that it will affect my marathon.  This weekend will be interesting.  Since I've been racing every weekend, I haven't really done any training, because every day feels like a recovery!  I have no idea what to expect from my body for the marathon.  It would be fun to set a new PR - I feel pretty confident that I can do a sub-four now.  But I'm not sure that it would be a good idea.  "Patience, grasshopper!"  There is always another race.  I don't want to kill myself off with an injury by doing more than my old bod is capable of yet.  I think I will just run what feels good at the marathon, and maybe I'll get a new PR, and maybe I won't.  Either way, I plan to have an incredible time!!!

This evening Ben and I went to the rec center to do part of a spin class.  I ended up spending 42 minutes on the bike, and logging 10 miles.  I also did a few back exercises to make up for this morning.  After the gym, we went to the pool and I did a modified version of my regular pool workout, adding an additional 500 yards to the swim, for a total of 2500 yards.  I'm feeling my gluts tonight!  I hope I didn't overdo....

Oh! So sore today! I was going to get up and do P90X, but with the marathon on the horizon and every muscle in my body SORE, I decided to skip it and went and got a massage instead. I DID go to yoga tonight, but that's it. I've decided to ground myself for the week. At least....that's the plan! :-D

I took Britnee to the gym this morning so she could run without freezing...so I decided to do a light workout.  First I did a 20 minute HIIT on the elliptical.  It was surprisingly difficult!  I don't know if it is because I haven't done that workout in a long time, or because my muscles are still REALLY tired!  I took it pretty easy, knowing that I've got to give them some rest before the weekend.  After that I hopped on the treadmill, walked a quarter mile, ran a mile, then walked another quarter mile.  I was tempted to do more for my ego's sake, but wisdom ruled out and I quit when Britnee did.  I finished with some light stretching, and went home with the intention of doing P90X ab-ripper.  But when I found it difficult to get through the first three sets, I decided that I'd better not push it, and I quit.  Crazy how you can feel so strong one day, and then feel like you've never worked out in your life the next day!!!

I've started carbing up for the weekend, but my intention is to do it differently than before.  So I threw an extra half banana into my shake for breakfast, had a nice whole wheat sandwich for lunch, and for dinner made fried rice using brown and wild rice instead of white, shrimp instead of ham, and egg whites instead of whole eggs.  It was really good!  Over the next two days, I'll try to include more complex carbohydrates with my regular meals, and will continue to avoid sugar and other simple carbs.  We'll see if I feel better or worse for this race than I did for the Saint George Marathon, where I went on a one-week sugar binge before the race!  :-)

One hour of yoga this evening is all I did today. I'm being good!  :D

Wow.  I did absolutely NOTHING today.  I didn't even stretch.  I guess I'm calling today a rest day.  Tomorrow....MARATHON!!!

Today I discovered that I AM capable of running the last eight miles of a marathon even when my legs have totally cramped up and just walking is painful. It was a good day.  :D

I think that this race was the hardest I've ever run...not necessarily because of the course or the conditions, but because I've never had my legs cramp up like that before - either in training OR in a race.  It was a totally new experience for me.  It was mile 18....and I felt certain that there was NO WAY I could even WALK eight more miles, much less RUN it.

Imagine the thrill I felt in discovering that I DID have the strength to finish a seemingly impossible task! If I could have begged, bribed, or cheated my way to the finish line, I would have. But there was no choice other than to finish or quit. I kept telling myself, "four more minutes of running, and then I can quit if I need to." That four minutes turned into an hour and a half or the hardest running I've ever done. But I did it! And I feel incredible! NOT my best race. But a GREAT experience. I learned a lot about myself today. :D

So here's the breakdown...

I woke up thinking, "I'll bet I can do a sub-four today."  Ben had broken up the race into timed segments, and he was even going to pace us.  Having already run the hilly part of the course, I knew what I was up for.  So when the race began on that nice gentle downhill, I felt great running a nice, "fast" pace.  In fact, I set a new 10K distance PR for myself, clocking 50:25 for the first 6.2 miles.  My average pace here, including walk breaks, was an 8:08.  By the half-way point, I was WAY ahead of schedule!  The hilly section had begun, but still I had left Ben behind, and hit 13.1 miles in 1:53:54, averaging 9:12 for that section.  Then there was the series of steep uphills.  That was when I began to notice that my legs wee cramping up.  I didn't worry about it too much, because I had never had a problem with cramping, and I figured it would stop as soon as I finished climbing.  But it didn't.  It got steadily worse, until just after mile 17, and then I knew I was in trouble.  I was thinking, "all I have to do is a 10 minute pace from here on out, and I'll easily do a sub-four."  But I just couldn't make my legs go.  I tried walking for longer periods of time, but nothing helped.  What I would have given for some icy-hot or something!!!  My cardio felt great, and I didn't physically feel like I had been working too hard, but I was completely cramped from foot to glut.  When I got to the top of the last big hill entering Mesquite, I realized that sub-four was out-of-the-question.  I thought I might have to walk the rest of the way, but honestly walking was just as painful as running, and the thought of being on my feet for another 2 1/2 hours was excrutiating!  When I hit mile 20, I was at 3:09:04, and the last 6.9 miles I had averaged a 10:54 pace.  So I MADE myself run for four minutes.  Then I would walk for two.  Then I would MAKE myself run four more.  I wanted so badly to give up!  It really was the hardest run I have ever done.  I managed to finish the race off that way, averaging a 12:48 pace for the last 6.2 miles.  My finish time was 4:31:32.  I was pretty disappointed at first, hobbling in that way.  But then I remembered how seven weeks ago, I would have been THRILLED with a 4:31 finish!  And I began to think that maybe that time wasn't so bad.  And then, as time went on, I began to realize what I had REALLY accomplished.  And now I'm pretty dang happy about the race!

Because my legs were so cramped up and sore, I had a really hard time walking around the expo afterwards.  But now my legs feel pretty good!  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  I don't think there's going to be any long-term soreness.  I'm not sure what went wrong today.  Maybe I started out too fast.  Or maybe I was just tired from all the events these last few weeks.  Whatever.  I finished my third marathon.  And every finish is a victory!!!  :D

Oh!  My son Elijah ended up setting a new PR for himself - with a 4:16 finish!  He took second in his age division...against an 18-year-old.  Elijah just turned 12 two weeks ago.  :-)