Wow - just over two weeks until the marathon in Ottawa. Whenever I stop to think about it, I alternate between this excited, anticipatory, "let's go!" feeling, and this "what if I'm not really ready, and I crash and burn?" dread. IOW, perfectly normal. Or at least that's how it would appear based on what other people have to say about their first marathons.
Three more running sessions since the last time I wrote. Sunday's 32 km LSD was a mix of good and bad. Good in that I got through it. Bad in that there were all kinds of petty irritations: my visor kept slipping around and once blew right off. My fuel belt was bugging me. My bra started chafing about 16 km, despite the Body Glide. My bladder was due to explode at 16 km and I had to take a bathroom break. DH was supposed to meet me at the park, but was over an hour late, and I was worried something had happened to him. Partway through my park laps, there was a police parade and a bunch of people milling around one area, having to be "dodged" on every single lap. I would have gone somewhere else, except then when DH got there he wouldn't know where I was.
However, it was a nice day - sunny but not too hot, breezy but not too windy. I was very tired by the end but not dropping with exhaustion. No cramping from drinking water (probably didn't drink enough, though) or from eating sports beans and caramels. I wish there was time to do another 32 km or more LSD, but not this close to the actual marathon. This weekend calls for only 19 km, and then next weekend only 13 km. And while I may exceed that a bit, I won't deliberately go way over. The guy who wrote the training program has a much better idea about how this all works than I do.
Probably the best part of the LSD was how good I felt, overall. Some generalized stiffness and soreness, for sure. But no localised hip or ITB pain. The ART session that I'd booked in advance for Monday night, figuring I'd need it, probably wasn't necessary. But I didn't have 24 hours to cancel, and it certainly didn't hurt.
This week I did a brisk 8 km or so on Tuesday morning and then about 13 km yesterday morning. My ART provider wanted me to try back to back runs. Hmmm...maybe not quite ready, as my hip was sending out a few warning signals. But it's way better than before. Tomorrow's distance is 7 km - assuming that it's not raining I plan to do the hill run, with an extra repeat of just the hill. That will be a little over 7 km but not enough to matter.
It was very warm yesterday morning - about 19 C at 6:30 a.m. - so for the first time I wore shorts for my morning run. Fortunately it wasn't humid so the temperature wasn't a problem. Of course, who knows what it will be like the day of the marathon. Last year it was about the same temperature at the start, but more humid, and that made it a tough run. People keep talking about "unseasonably" hot so I can only hope...
One of the nicest things about running on Wednesday was that my running buddy came along for about the first 35 minutes. What that meant was a bit slower pace and less structure, the latter being a welcome break. Had I been running by myself, I would have known exactly how many km, or pretty close. But we left the gym without a set route, sort of made it up as we went along, and so I just decided that if I ran a total of about 1:15, then based on that time and the parts of the route whose distance I do know, it would be at least 13 km. Very nice run overall.
Lately I am aware of what I call "mileage tracking fatigue". For years I ran only according to time - periodically counting laps and checking my pace so I had an idea of where I was at, but not following a schedule, not logging it anywhere, and not really caring. Running just to run. But with training for the Waterfront Half last summer, and then for Around the Bay through much of the winter, and now for the marathon, I've paid a lot more attention to distance. Mostly just on the weekends, but with the marathon, on a bunch of weekdays too. And I'm logging it on the RR forum, and checking it off on my printout, and looking ahead at the schedule, and, well, I'm kind of missing my "running just to run". It will return - June is going to be an easy month before I resume training in July - so I'll just keep to the schedule until then.
Heck, I'm just lucky to have done this much running so far and to feel so good (as in: not injured) with so little time to go before the Big Day.
Unfortunately, the same is not true of DH. Although his calf issue seems to have resolved itself, he's having problems with one of his feet. It may just be the shoes, but of course it could also be something more serious. He ran 16 km on Sunday, but has only managed a couple km on his two attempts to run since then. So his plans for Ottawa are very uncertain. Could be the half, could be the 10 km on the Saturday night, could be neither. Stay tuned, film at 11:00...
Three more running sessions since the last time I wrote. Sunday's 32 km LSD was a mix of good and bad. Good in that I got through it. Bad in that there were all kinds of petty irritations: my visor kept slipping around and once blew right off. My fuel belt was bugging me. My bra started chafing about 16 km, despite the Body Glide. My bladder was due to explode at 16 km and I had to take a bathroom break. DH was supposed to meet me at the park, but was over an hour late, and I was worried something had happened to him. Partway through my park laps, there was a police parade and a bunch of people milling around one area, having to be "dodged" on every single lap. I would have gone somewhere else, except then when DH got there he wouldn't know where I was.
However, it was a nice day - sunny but not too hot, breezy but not too windy. I was very tired by the end but not dropping with exhaustion. No cramping from drinking water (probably didn't drink enough, though) or from eating sports beans and caramels. I wish there was time to do another 32 km or more LSD, but not this close to the actual marathon. This weekend calls for only 19 km, and then next weekend only 13 km. And while I may exceed that a bit, I won't deliberately go way over. The guy who wrote the training program has a much better idea about how this all works than I do.
Probably the best part of the LSD was how good I felt, overall. Some generalized stiffness and soreness, for sure. But no localised hip or ITB pain. The ART session that I'd booked in advance for Monday night, figuring I'd need it, probably wasn't necessary. But I didn't have 24 hours to cancel, and it certainly didn't hurt.
This week I did a brisk 8 km or so on Tuesday morning and then about 13 km yesterday morning. My ART provider wanted me to try back to back runs. Hmmm...maybe not quite ready, as my hip was sending out a few warning signals. But it's way better than before. Tomorrow's distance is 7 km - assuming that it's not raining I plan to do the hill run, with an extra repeat of just the hill. That will be a little over 7 km but not enough to matter.
It was very warm yesterday morning - about 19 C at 6:30 a.m. - so for the first time I wore shorts for my morning run. Fortunately it wasn't humid so the temperature wasn't a problem. Of course, who knows what it will be like the day of the marathon. Last year it was about the same temperature at the start, but more humid, and that made it a tough run. People keep talking about "unseasonably" hot so I can only hope...
One of the nicest things about running on Wednesday was that my running buddy came along for about the first 35 minutes. What that meant was a bit slower pace and less structure, the latter being a welcome break. Had I been running by myself, I would have known exactly how many km, or pretty close. But we left the gym without a set route, sort of made it up as we went along, and so I just decided that if I ran a total of about 1:15, then based on that time and the parts of the route whose distance I do know, it would be at least 13 km. Very nice run overall.
Lately I am aware of what I call "mileage tracking fatigue". For years I ran only according to time - periodically counting laps and checking my pace so I had an idea of where I was at, but not following a schedule, not logging it anywhere, and not really caring. Running just to run. But with training for the Waterfront Half last summer, and then for Around the Bay through much of the winter, and now for the marathon, I've paid a lot more attention to distance. Mostly just on the weekends, but with the marathon, on a bunch of weekdays too. And I'm logging it on the RR forum, and checking it off on my printout, and looking ahead at the schedule, and, well, I'm kind of missing my "running just to run". It will return - June is going to be an easy month before I resume training in July - so I'll just keep to the schedule until then.
Heck, I'm just lucky to have done this much running so far and to feel so good (as in: not injured) with so little time to go before the Big Day.
Unfortunately, the same is not true of DH. Although his calf issue seems to have resolved itself, he's having problems with one of his feet. It may just be the shoes, but of course it could also be something more serious. He ran 16 km on Sunday, but has only managed a couple km on his two attempts to run since then. So his plans for Ottawa are very uncertain. Could be the half, could be the 10 km on the Saturday night, could be neither. Stay tuned, film at 11:00...
posted by Jogger Barbie | 7:47 PM
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