3 weeks before raceday

   Do any of you ever actually feel like you are prepared for a race? I never feel like I've done enough for a race but it's not something I dwell on. I, personally, would rather be slightly undertrained than overtrained when it comes to racing. I don't really have a training strategy. I run when I want to and it's never more than 3 times a week; this seems to be working for me so I'm sticking with it.

   I did my longest training run, preparing for this race, on Saturday. My favorite man and I went out to Umstead SP about 8:15 that morning. It was still in the 20's and I was FREEZING! I had on tights, a thin long-sleeved shirt, and gloves hoping that I'd be warm enough. As soon as I started, I couldn't feel my fingers. I was double fisting water bottles and my thin Walmart gloves just weren't cutting it. I knew I'd warm up quick but it just didn't seem quick enough.

   After 2 miles, I could finally feel my fingers and I was cruising along. The first 9 miles were on single-track trail and I was loving the scenary. I'd never run that portion of the park before and didn't realize how pretty it was. I didn't know exactly where I was going so I'd have to stop at every trail intersection to look at the map; luckily they had one at every intersection but I had a paper copy just in case.

   With the single track and stopping every little bit, it took me 1:50 to do 10 miles! Also with it being so cold, I hadn't even gone through one full water bottle. About mile 10, I hit the gravel road portion of the park and would be running that the rest of the way. I took walk breaks periodically and felt pretty tight when I finished at 20 miles. When I finished and was lying on my back with my feet up, all I could think was, In a few weeks you're gonna have to do that twice!


   The next day, I did an additional 10 miles at the park for a two day total of 30. My legs were dead, the cold and wind kicked my butt but I still finished. I did some hot yoga on Monday which really helped me get stretched out and dealt with some of the soreness.

Distance: 20 miles
Route: Umstead SP
Shoes: Brooks Cascadia
Food:
Before the run- Blueberry muffin oatmeal and half a pita w/PB
During- 3 water bottles (1 filled half with grape Gatorade), 1 GU, 1 pack of sport beans and 1 mini Cliff bar
After- double tall soy latte, big can of soup, and a smoothie
Result- No GI issues before or after (I think my GI issues the weekend prior was due to the V8 juice in one of my bottles; won't be doing that again). I didn't take in as much food as I probably should have during the run but I'm trying to get my body use to not eating as much during. I usually take salt caps on long runs like these but I did fine without any. I'll probably use some for the 40 though.

"Endurance never sleeps." ~ Karno

LIVESTRONG!