funk a di funk funk funk

Marathon is in 10 days. TEN DAYS.



and I'm in a funk. self pity rant ahead....

I should be psyched, but I think I'm psyching myself out.

I tripped and nearly kissed the ground on Monday. ankle pain is gone, but yesterday I did 5 miles and afterwords, my left GROIN area and the back of my left thigh where it meets the butt was aching (a littler over a year ago we were hiking and I fell...ever since that fall, I tend to have mild discomfort in that area where the thigh meets the butt).

I stretched. Last night I put on some tiger balm. Today, I'm supposed to run 2 (my schedule is a little off, I know), but it's 44* and drizzling outside. I'm sitting on the couch in pajamas with a warm cup of coffee (not my favorite mug, since on Tuesday I BROKE my favorite, handmade mug purchased on same hiking vacation as mentioned above).

And my toe. My left big toe nail has been bothering me. I took off the nail polish and sure enough....there's a bit of black in the toenail. I'm not sure if this is from the running or from the oh-so-sexy support hose that I started wearing to work.

And I can't help but thing, "Greeeattt...friends & family know I'm planning on running 26.2. Co-workers are expecting me to run 26.2. I worked so hard to get people to switch weekends with me so that I could run (and not work). AND a friend is flying up to see my run 26.2." and all this! Is it mental? I hope. Because I woke up with a scratchy throat today, too.

This is sounding like a terrible, horrible no good very bad week! Let's hope I get some good vibes soon!

Down Down Down

It's taper time! Yesterday I was supposed to do a 12 miler, one of the last long runs before the big 26.2. Except I was working yesterday from 7-3, and for some reason that I've yet to figure out, I can't run more than 6 miles in the afternoon. My GI system goes crazy at mile 6 and while I can get through the 6+ mile runs in the afternoon, the rest of the afternoon/night is spent in the fetal position sipping Pepto.

So I forwent the Sunday long run and woke up early this morning to get in 12. It was a great run. Started slow and easy, but picked up the pace for the second half of the run (I saw chickens on my run!). The Garmin beeped at mile 10 and looked at my watch and was happy with my pace. kept running. Started thinking "how cool, I'm running 12 and feeling great!" when BAM
BAM
BAM

I was THIS close to kissing the sidewalk. At that point in my run the shoulder of the road is next to non-existent, plus the road is pretty busy so I run on the sidewalk, which apparently needs to be fixed as half of the slabs are sticking up.

Pride hurt. Now the area of my left upper hamstring/butt cheek and left ankle are hurting. not cool.

Ice Ice Baby

A couple of weeks ago, Danica @ Chic Runner wrote a hilarious & detailed post about her ice baths.

When hubs was on his deployment this summer, I would also do my own version of an ice bath. Without the ice. I would sit in a tub of cold water. Not exactly an ice bath, but it was still super hard to sit in that water. When hubs came home last month and I did my first 20 miler, he 'surprised' me with a bag of ice.

Like Danica, I was already sitting in a bath of cold water when he poured the ice into the bath. Unlike Danica, I screamed and yelped so loudly that hubs tried to sush me as surely the neighbors would think something nefarious was happening. This has been happening for the last 3 or 4 weeks. Bath time is 15 minutes.

Yesterday I was on my own. the night before the run, I purchase and shoved 2 bags of ice into the freezer. Hubs didn't say anything about the TWO bags. He left early Sunday morning, I went about my run, came home, stretched, and started the bath. Sat in the bath.

Reached over the side for bag one. Poured it in and tried to not yelp. Then poured the second bag. Yelped and tried to control my breathing. tried to relax my legs. While trying to get all the ice out of the second bag, my sweatshirt got soaked in the bath. so much for trying to keep warm.

Now, usually after about 5 minutes of sitting in the ice bath, I can pick up my book and read a couple of pages. This ice bath was the coldest ice bath I've ever taken. I tried to keep wiggling my toes and moving my feet, but within minutes I noticed that my large left toe was turning a funny shade of purple/blue. After 9 or 10 minutes, I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up with pins and needles in my feet. My entire lower body was bright red and goose-bumped. took a very warm shower and warmed up.

Later, when telling hubs about the ice bath he said, "2 bags? I always pour in just one."

Ahhh! Thanks for the heads up babe! :)

So Close!

Today was my 20 miler day. I've done 20 miles once before, about a month ago, and the hubs found me around mile 15 to cheer me on.

No hubs today as he's out of town.

Up early this morning, ate 2 slices of toast, drank some coffee, and evantually made it out the door.

Turned on the garmin and nothing. No beep. I pressed the power button again, and again, nothing happened. Funny because I had turned it on last night to upload some old runs and to give it a charge. The screen even said "charge complete" when unplugged.

Went back into the house and plugged the garmin into the computer and nothing. not even a sad face on the screen (the old macs used to do that). Great. Thank goodness for backing up your info. In addition to the garmin, I log my runs in runningahead.com and found that it took me about 3 hours 39 minutes to run 20 miles last month.

So finally, around 6:45, I made it out the door and began running. had to stop at home once to pee (how I'm going to do that on marathon day has yet to be determined). I ran and ran. my first gu was about an hour into the run, then about every 30 minutes.

You know when you find that happy pace? I had it today. i felt strong. My pace was good, and got slightly better throughout the run. there were parts where I felt myself slow down, but then I would pick it up right up.

Once back into the neighborhood I wanted to finish, but I was just at the 3 hours point. I'm so glad I pushed myself to go further. For the first time, I didn't feel like dying at the end. My feet hurt a little, but not like usual. At 3:30 I stopped and while feeling somewhat winded, I didn't want to die. I was able to walk.

Which naturally had me wondering if I really ran 20. After driving the run (no thanks to the dead garmin), the final mileage is in: 19.9. woot woot!

off the store to make a pasta picnic lunch :) 20 more days until 26.2!

Remember When

I remember the first time I ran 6 miles, I was pretty amazed. Me. run 6 miles? sheesh. that NEVER would have happened one or two years ago.

Than I had to run 9 miles. I remember dreading it. I remember thinking that 9 miles was a long run. But I've since learned or realized that 20 miles is a lot longer than 9 miles.

woot woot, yup, that's right.

20. miles. on foot.

after two horrible super long runs (kept hitting walls at the 15ish mile point), I made it through to 20.

not to say it was easy. I had to wake up before the crack of dawn. 3 miles into the run I realized I needed to use the bathroom so it was a quick run BACK home into the house before finishing mile 4. Somewhere around mile 14 I realized I was going to make it through. Not sure if it was the slightly larger breakfast, combination of water & and watered down Gatorade in the fuel belt, or the bits of Gu I snacked on (didn't eat all the Gu in the packets all the time). It could have been the new route (hello corn fields!). It also could have been the husband who found me near mile 15, providing cheer & encouragement.

I did nearly crash. for some reason I thought mile 16 was really mile 17 and the fact that I had FOUR more miles (not 3) was almost too much to bear. My last two miles were slow and painful. I probably should have opened another Gu around mile 18, but I just didn't want ANOTHER gu, especially since I was so close to home.

Immediately after the run it hurt to walk. it hurt to sit down & stretch. Within thirty minutes I started the bath and this time, instead of just sitting in cold water, we put a bag of ice in the tub. Windows were open. I can only imagine what the neighbors thought.

Sometimes I have to remind myself why I'm doing this. Still not totally sure. Marathon by 30 will probably guarantee arthritis by 30. That being said, at least I'll have good legs ;)

clothing dilema

ok. for the pick up, need What To Wear Advice (husband is coming for dinner, that's who!).

basic black (BCBG dress...which I think lost 70% of the fabric around the waist in the sale)

or

Mad Men meets Miami: high waisted leopard skirt with black tee & high waisted thick black belt.

I think I know which I'm doing. but need opinion.

Have other options, but one dress is too Mojitos in Miami and the other dress I'm pretty sure he will hate (too 70s, watercolor free flowing pregnancy hiding dress). (not pregnant!)

I could wear jeans and a top, but let's face it...he'll see all that soon enough.

What do you think?

Guess....

who's coming for dinner tomorrow night???