I LOVE carbs!

Yes, we are down to the last moments before the race. There is nothing I can do to improve my training now except eat. :)

I'm good at eating. I've found that I'm really good at eating carbs, which is making my plan difficult.

My plan, after some research on pre-race nutrition, is to deprive my body of carbs for 4 days, then carbo load the last four days. In theory, your body will then over-load the glycogen stores in your muscles because it didn't like the deprivation and would like to avoid it in the future.

The problem. EVERYTHING I love to eat and makes my tummy happy is filled with carbs. Seriously! Cereal... nope, rice, nope, tortillas, bread, crackers, nope, nope, nope.  I haven't gone 100% without carbs though. That can't be good for you.  I'm just trying to cut back where it's totally obvious.

When day 4 comes though (tomorrow-ish) I'm going to carb up baby! I've got a nice stack of bagels calling my name, bananas, yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, bread mmmmm.

I don't know how anyone can do the whole low carb diets. I would die!

I LOVE CARBS!!!!

Oh and there is the subject of sleep that haunts me. Already I'm having bad dreams about the race. Last night I had a dream that I didn't even wake up until I was miles into the race (don't ask me how this is possible) But when I did finally "wake up" I couldn't move very well and OH! I had pee!!!! I finally came across a port-a-potty and was able to go... at which point I really woke up in a panic because I was worried I had peed in the bed. Wouldn't that have been interesting. Don't worry, I didn't But I did REALLY have to go.  End of sleep for me.

I'm hoping the Advil PM helps me out the night before the race. I'm gonna need all the help I can get.

The finish line

The race is nearly a week away! OH. MY. GOSH!

What was I thinking? I'm not even excited. I'm terrified!

I'm afraid to have any expectations whatsoever for fear of failing misserably.

Four hours of running !!!! What was I thinking???!?!??

I will say this though... I can run a mean 3 miles ;)

My hips no longer bother me, but now I have a new nagging pain in my hamstring. I have to stop and stretch it often and it hurts on and off durring the day as well. It seems so deep in my leg that it's hare to pinpoint or rub, So I stretch and stretch and stretch more

I hope it doesn't give up on me. That is actually my biggest fear is that I will get hurt. I'm not worried about being so tired. I expect it. I just worry about not finishing.

Two weeks from now it will be over and I can run if I want to, not because I have to. Translation= I probably won't get my self out there very much.

race # 3.5

So, I hadn't planned on running another race but I can't pass up on a free race to test my speed.

My high school has an Alumni race every year. I did it last year and gasped my way through 3-9 minute miles. It was kind of embarrassing considering I had been running all summer. I wasn't prepared though. Grass and hills were something I had not done in a long time. That is all the race is.

This year was a little different. I've been running.... A LOT!

And I've been running more hills (see previous post). I was ready to go kick butt...at the rate of about 8 minute miles. :)

So, I went, I ran and I totally surprised myself.

I ran three rather consistent 7:25 miles. My finish time was faster than I've been since my high school days. 23:00:06 or something like that. :)

I felt pretty good throughout too.  Thank to my friend Dorothy for pacing with me for most of the race and keeping me going.

so YEA!

I'm still aiming for 9 minute miles on the marathon though. Not that I'm going to even wear a watch. But I just can't see myself going much faster for that long.

the one where I "ran" the twenty miles

So yeah, I did actually run the twenty miles and lived...barely.

I made the mistake of making the first ten miles kind of tough. I ran  up to the hobble creek golf course and back. In a car it seems like nothing but running it is not an easy run. Lots of up and downs with about 500 ft elevation difference.

Not to mention that I had to start my run before 5 pm to finish before it got dark. It was hot, and miserable.

I've been wanting to run this route all summer but never had a good opportunity. It's a little scary to do alone because there isn't a whole lot of foot traffic along the trail and there some very secluded areas where bears and cougars while rare and not typically aggressive, are still there. And I can't guarantee that I don't look like an injured animal when I run. HA! I decided to be brave and do it anyway. I'm glad I did but It would definitely be less scary with someone. Luckily the scariest thing I saw was a tiny little snake that was about the size of a pencil.


I got a drink at the park on the east side of the golf course and headed back down.

When I got home from that leg I didn't want to continue. I was pretty tired. But I gagged down a cliff shot and left home... again.

This time I went and ran my "around Mapleton" route. It's actually more like 8 miles but I figure with the extra hardness of the first part and I think I went a bit farther than 10 miles on that part so all in all I probably went closer to 19 miles. I made it home just as it really got uncomfortably dark.

Good enough.

Surprisingly, I probably felt best in mile 16-18 or so. 12-15 were absolutely dreadful.

It's all down hill from here right?

I can't believe my race is going to be longer than that. Whoever does these often is just plane crazy. So many hours of running. I'm starting to decided that I really LOVE running 5k races.

The dreaded day

Today is the dreaded day.... I guess.

I run 20 miles tonight. And I LOATH this day. I couldn't sleep last night... like all the nights before my long run I just can't stop thinking about running enough to get a good solid sleep in.  I wasn't even possitive that I was going to do my 20 miler today and I still couldn't sleep.  I've gotta do something about that. I can't imagine running a marathon on 4 hours of poor sleep. But at least I have lots of practice at running on next to no sleep.

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

As soon as Shane gets home from work I will quickly feed my family, jump into my running clothes and run, and run, and run, and die, and run some more. The goal is to make in home before dark. Actually I will probably run two 10 mile loops so that I can go to the bathroom, get a decent drink and contemplate skipping the second loop all together.

a little more than 4 weeks and it will be history. The pain, I'm sure, will not be.

I read an article about doing sprints to keep your twitch muscles in check so that even when you are exhausted you can keep a good turnover. This is really what I need because I get really slow and worn out and all my runs aren't really improving my form, just my endurance. But the thought of doing sprints after my runs makes me want to barf. I did some yesterday. Maybe every other time? 

I'm ready to go back to running 3-5 miles 3 days a week for the heck of it.  chances are, I won't even be able to keep that up. SIGH