July 29, 2008

Five days!!!

I started posting this as a comment on Aron’s latest post, but it got long so I decided to turn it into my own post.

My race week strategy:
1. Hydration: drink lots of water all week. Drink lots of alcohol on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Try to avoid alcohol on Friday night but probably not succeed. Saturday definitely no alcohol.
2. Carbs: avoid bread/pasta/dry carbs because they’re empty calories that I generally avoid except before a race. Eat tons of veggies, though, and then on Friday and Saturday I will eat dry carbs because it’s close to the race and I still feel like I kind of have to even after Tim showed me that veggies are all you need.
3. Sleep: very little b/c I’m on a project that has me working 14 hours/day
4. Vitamins: if I remember them/if I get a sugar craving (I take Viactiv in the form of caramels/fudge pieces)
5. Stretching: do at least one session of runner’s yoga this week. If I remember and if I’m not too tired to rearrange my hotel room so I have room to do it
6. Runs: don’t bother running because I hate the treadmill and it’s dark out whenever I get back to my hotel. Plus I don’t think this area is very safe for a single woman running. However, this is definitely a great week to get myself back on track with my workout routine (weights, elliptical, aerobics, etc) and get into marathon shape. It’s totally not last minute or anything!
7. Eating: eat super healthy but still reasonably, hitting my daily calorie goals but not exceeding them. Lose a pound by Sunday so I can shave 52 seconds off my time (using the two seconds per mile per pound formula)
8. Get excited!!!! It’s almost here 🙂

So basically, the only thing the same about our list is number 8. I have a feeling Aron is going to kick my butt 🙂 Lam and Julianne haven’t posted a list like this (tag, you’re both it!) but Lam’s last marathon was over an hour faster than me and Julianne’s was a few minutes faster and she’s totally prepared, so I think it’s safe to assume they’ll slaughter me. Audrey and Scarinzic are both doing the 5K, which means unless they go nine times slower than my pace, they will be done before I will be too. How discouraging. I’ll need to make it a point to do some chicking to make myself feel better (PS – Vanilla, I think an impromptu full would be perfect training for your half in two weeks).

Wow, all that cross-linking made me realize this is really turning into a RBF meetup event! I’m flying out Saturday morning to arrive in SFO at noon. I’m going to drop my stuff off at the hotel and then head for the expo in time for Dean Karnazes at 2 PM. I’m basically planning on spending the whole afternoon/early evening at the expo because of all the speakers and the pasta party, so it would be a good place to meet up. Leave me a comment if you want to meet up and we can coordinate by e-mail, or just look for me in my obnoxious bright green and blue Calgary marathon shirt. I tried to find a picture of it online, but it’s so ugly that even Google doesn’t have it. Here’s a pic of the short sleeved version, but the long sleeved (which is what I have) clashes more b/c there’s way more green on it. And the writing on the front is bright red, which you can’t tell from that pic. Fire engine red + marine blue + jungle green… now those are my palette picks for a classy race shirt! At least it’s technical. And at least I got a shirt.

On the actual day of the race, I’ll be wearing another really bright (but actually cute instead of tacky like that Calgary shirt) outfit: a sherbet pink/orange tank and skort that I got on Sunday at a Danskin outlet clearance (if you’re in NYC, check it out – 66th and Amsterdam, and each of those pieces was only $15! There are a ton more styles too). Yes, I’m wearing new gear for the race… but I also got almost the same thing in shades of green and I’m testing it out this week, so hopefully I’ll find problems before the race if there are any. I liked getting outfit compliments in Calgary so I’ve decided to wear fun outfits to more marathons 🙂

One of my best friends from high school/college is randomly going to be in San Fran this weekend, staying with a good friend of hers who lives only a few blocks from the finish, so she’s going to hopefully come cheer me on. She also runs sometimes for fitness so I’m going to try to convince her to run with me for the last few miles. That’s typically where I lose motivation to get a good time and just kind of start slogging my way to the end, so hopefully she’ll make me go faster.

I’m halfway done with my spectator’s report from Sunday’s half marathon (yes, I’m pretty verbose) – will post soon. It even includes video footage of the lead packs (men’s and women’s) at both miles 1 and 7! Get excited 🙂

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24 thoughts on “Five days!!!”

  1. Ha, excellent strategy!

    And if you move forward with your plan of being a 50 Stater, make your Iowa race the Des Moines Marathon and you’ll meet Amy and Tom.

    Or…

    Come run the Quad Cities Marathon with me on September 28 and hit two states at once.

  2. I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told Laminator…pace yourself, think negative splits 🙂

    (I did the 2nd half last year and it was hilly, but not horrible-no worse than 2 loops of Central Park!!)

  3. I’m STILL waiting on your Providence report woman. Sheesh. :)Just kidding. And I TOTALLY think you should do Wicked. Maybe we could plan a meetup in Salem! HAH!

  4. hey! my wife takes those chocolate-coated viactiv vitamins too. you guys are funny.

    i’ll try to drop by the expo – give me a shout via e-mail and we can definitely make it an RBF meet up! how fun!

  5. Hey!

    Sorry for getting back to you so late. Anyhoo…I won’t be around on Saturday because I hear there’s a birthday party being planned in my honor. We’ll definitely meet up at the Sunday bbq after the race though. I’ll be wearing my Flyers uniform and my signature bandana!

  6. wooooo love the list!!! i am getting SO excited! ok so i am realllly going to try to get there to see dean speak so maybe we can meet up there? if not maybe we can find each other in the wave somehow!! i will be in purple – will do a post on it though 🙂

    oh and i havent had ANY alcohol in a MONTH – seriously… will definitely need some celebration drinks on sunday!

  7. Get it girl!! you are totally going to rock this thing out!!!!!! Man I better get my *ish in gear for January. You will have like 30 marathons under your belt by then! haha

  8. Hey Laura…I just got here in San Fran…and let me warn you…it’s pretty chilly, so pack warmly. I lost my mind in the rush and packed for weather in the 80s…Now I have to go shopping for some warm clothes.

    Just a word to the wise if you haven’t left the east coast yet.

  9. Hey 🙂 I’m in St. Louis until Tuesday! My mom, sister and I run Forest Park this morning for one lap and tomorrow we are planning to do 2. Pretty pumped. Where are you staying in the lou?

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