21st Century Mom

I got up at 4:00, got a cup of coffee, grabbed the BodyGlide and started greasing up everything that would have an elastic band around it. Then I greased up my left foot and just as I was pulling my sock on decided I needed to trim and file my toenails. Have you ever needed to get across the room when your foot has been slathered in BodyGlide? I have - several times but I just never seem to learn. I hopped across the room, got the goods, fixed up my toenails and reapplied the BodyGlide. Then I did my right foot. Grabbed my Garmin (evil beast!), pinned on my bib, put my chip on, brushed my teeth, and headed out the door - anxious. So anxious.

I drove into the city, parked (after almost steering a bunch of followers into a shipping bay and then having to back up out of there and down 1/2 a block) and walked over to the marathon area to find Waddler26.2. She wasn't quite there yet so I headed for a porta-potty but the line was really long so I went back and found her. We met and then headed over to the starting line together. I was in panic because I couldn't find the sweat check but then I found it and all was well.

I lined up in a wave ahead of mine (bad, bad, bad) and waited to go. I bid Waddler adieu and I was off. The pack ran past the water and up the hill and it went like buttah. "Ahhhh", I thought, "that hill training really paid off". Of course it was a short hill but still I was feeling good. Sort of. I still felt not warmed up but I was happy with my ability to manage the hill. Across Crissy field where the sprinklers were going and getting us wet. It was kind of funny. Along the water and up, up to the bridge (much bigger hill but still okay). I love this part of the race because they close 1/2 the bridge to traffic and let the runners run right on the bridge. I just think that's cool. I ran down to the far end then turned around and came back and 2 things happened that made me glad I was still running.

First I saw a woman on the side of the bridge who had fallen or something and it looked like she had broken her nose. There was blood all down her front and a cop was putting a bandaid on her knee. I guess they moved the runners still coming onto the bridge on the sidewalk and sent an ambulance for her. Her race was over.

Then a cop car was clearing the traffic lane closest to the runners lane. I thought that was odd and wondered why he was there when all of a sudden a wheelchair runner came screaming along at a really fast pace and then BAM! I think his front tire blew. What a bummer for him - he was really hauling until that happened. An SUV started to pull up so I hoped that was his support crew and they could get him going again. Anyhow - I was still running and quite glad of it.

Off the bridge, up the big nasty hill and to a water station. I took my 2nd or 3rd little cup of Cytomax. Such a big mistake. I motored on. At this point I was just looking to hit the half before 2:30 and I made it - yippee!! But as I said, I started feeling queasy and icky and not happy at all. Honestly - for the rest of the race I was struggling and trying to make myself run instead of walk. I just couldn't force myself much, though.

Some good hearted people had set up speakers in the park and they were playing music and I realized that the music really helped so I took my iPod out of my pocket and started listening to my music and it did help. I even had a sub 12 minute mile in there.

When I got out of the park and in to the Haight I realized that I wanted water when I wanted it and I wanted it to be cold so I stopped into Happy Donuts and bought a bottle of water (I always keep a couple of bucks in my shoe pocket for just such emergencies). I almost bought a donut hole just to get something solid and high fat in my stomach but I couldn't fathom the act of eating anything so I nixed that idea. Not too long after that I encountered a woman passing out tortilla chips to runners so I took a couple. I took a bite and worked really hard to chew and swallow but it was like eating dust - I had no moisture in my mouth. I did manage to force down 2 whole chips with the help of my water and I started running again - it was downhill - whee!

My big mistake was going past the Hashers and not taking a beer. I'll bet a beer would have helped. I just couldn't manage it, though. I was also a little afraid I'd get drunk on 2 sips and say "F#ck It !" and call a cab. On I went. Finally I could see the ball park in the distance and that made me really happy because once you get around the back of the ballpark you are almost there (note to people on the sidelines who start with the "almost there!" at mile 20. No we're not - we still have 6.2 miles to go. Cut it out!)

I had been sticking to a group doing the run for the AIDS Foundation for pretty much the entire run and they started to get away and I started to think about sticking with them. Then a horrible thing happened. The 5:00 hour pace group blew past me. At that point I decided that the 5 hour ship had sailed and all I could do was try to keep the 5:30 pace group from passing me. They never did but they probably started 10 or 15 minutes behind me - but I digress. I watched that 5 hour group go by and wondered to myself "Why didn't you just line up with those guys to begin with" Arggghhh!!

On I went, around the ballpark and along the promenade and there I saw a woman not 1 mile from the finish, sitting on a bench having her blood pressure taken. And then I heard an ambulance. She was so close but she bonked and would DNF and I was glad to be running/walking still.

Finally I could see it - FINISH! And then I found my sweet Pookie holding up a big orange sign that said, "My Mom Is a Stud!" It warmed my heart. I slowed just long enough for her to get a picture. I look far better than I feel - trust me. I yelled out "Meet you on the other side!" and took off for the timing pads.

So what turned me around this morning? I opened the paper to read about a guy who died in the last 2 miles of that race. He was trained. He was healthy. He was only 43 years old and he died - just like that. He was William Goggins, a former deputy editor of Wired Magazine, a hip guy with a hip life full of people who adored him. He died of a heart attack. It's so incredibly sad. I didn't die - I made it. Not as fast I would have liked but I made it and I'm still here to tell the tale and I feel some obligation to appreciate that reality and so I do. I'm not probably ever going to celebrate it because I had a goal and I failed to meet my goal but I did cover 26.2 miles and I did it feeling lousy and I didn't quit. I finished. And that's good.

Marathon Training Tips (or - what I should have done but didn't)

1). Listen to your training. The fact that my long runs all got so hard at the end should have been a clue that I was running too fast. I had every intention of running my 2nd 20 miler slower than the first but did I do it? No. I just repeated the same hell I experienced the first time and lo and behold - my marathon went south on me. Listen to your body.

2). Train with what you will race with. That means figure out what sports nutrition works for you. If you get nauseated on one thing try another and keep trying stuff until you find something that keeps you going without making you sick. Then pack it along on your marathon. I scoffed at the people with the fuel belts and the 22 packs of Gu flopping up and down in their shorts with the back pockets but I'll bet they didn't get sick.

3). Watch it with the Garmin - I would have done well to (as I had intended) wear it on my upper arm while training so I got the data but didn't burden myself trying to hold a pace that wasn't comfortable. I didn't do myself any favors with that.

4). Avoid comparison shopping for validation or prediction. By that I mean don't go plugging numbers from training runs into predictors and expect it to work. There is no reason to think you can suddenly outperform yourself on race day. If you can't handle 20 miles at the race pace you need to make your time then you will not likely be able to handle 26.2 at that pace. I don't know who decided you could run a long race faster than you trained for it but I think it's daft. That might work for a 10K or even a 1/2 but a whole marathon is long, long way. Train at your race pace and live with whatever that is. If you have something left in the tank for the last 10K go for it.

What's Next?

Aug 20 I have a metric century on the bike. How I am going to train for that is beyond me. I have no time expectations and it isn't a race so I'll just do what I do and you can rest assured I'll be happy just to make it.

Sept 30 - See Jane Run is having a teeny-tri. 500 yd. swim, 11 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Sounds like a blast.

Oct 22 - possible for the Nike Women's 1/2. This involves serious fundraising so I'm not totally committed yet. I want the bling, though and I'd like to have a meet up with Juls and company.

Nov 26 - Run to the Far Side 10K. I'd like to do this in an hour.

Train Smart!

lap splits:
first 1/2 - 10:29, 10:30, 11:12, 10:46, 11:02, 12:07, 10:24, 11:09, 10:55, 11:40, 10:14, 12:33, 11:40

second 1/2 - 10:55, 14:39 (bathroom break), 13:41, 14:35, (I'm toast), 11:47 (thank you iPod), 14:56, 16:23 (water purchase), 14:15, 11:53, 14:13, 14:26, 13:37, 13:43, 11:91 pace to finish.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

I rocked the first half of this marathon, crossing the line at 2:28 - right on target. I never felt all that great while I was running it, though and not too long after that the wheels came off my little wagon in a big way. I felt horrible. Remember how I said Cytomax makes me sick? Well, my little 1 run test drive to see if I could handle it for the race was apparently a case of insufficient data. I got quite ill on this race. I just felt lousy.

A couple of friends came out to Golden Gate Park to cheer me and I looked up at them and said, "I am struggling! I'm really struggling!". I talked to them for a few minutes and then took off again. Then I felt a little better so that when they went to the other side of the loop we were running and cheered for me again I looked good - I was running. But honestly, I did a lot of walking in the middle. I bargained and cajoled and really tried to pick it up but I just couldn't do it.

I came in at 5:37 which is my worst time ever. I finished, though and I give myself a lot of credit for that because I really, really, really wanted to borrow someone's cell phone and just call a cab.

I'll post more later. Thanks again for you support.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)

I got lots a free stuff. Several packs of Jelly Belly Sports Beans, a couple of bags of chips (blue corn and black bean), some eco-friendly dishwashing and clothes washing detergent, some energy bars and some free food samples. I saw Bold's buddies at Tanita who had the good graces to give me a great keychain presumably to soften the blow of telling me that I have 28.6% body fat. I could have gone the rest of my life without that bit of information. On the plus side, I am physiologically only 33 - woo hoo! (please don't ask me if I actually believe that).

After I got out of there I met up with Waddler26.2 who is running the half marathon but completely forgot to take a picture - argh! . She is very nice and I met her very nice daughter, too.

Then I went to find the host of the Marathon, my main man Dean Karnazes a.k.a. UltraMarathon Man. This is the guy I wrote about here who has run over 300 miles in one shot. This year's trick will be to run 50 marathons in 50 cities in 50 days. My goal was to ask him to run me in on this marathon. Apparently that was a novel idea because he said, "sure - come find me and I'll do that" I had to explain that I'll be running and that he'll have to come find me. He said he would so I told him I would be coming in between 10:30 and 11:00 and then held my bib up - #1030! Whoa - get it? 10:30 is the number, people. If I come in at 10:30 it will be quite the miracle because I'm not supposed to take off until 6. So it's not bloody likely but it does give me something to focus on. The prospect of Dean showing up to run me in is also something to look forward to - we'll see. I can't imagine how he'll remember any of that but a girl can dream.

I bought another copy of his book which I had autographed and will raffle off for The Nike Women's Half if I decide to run that with TNT. I'm still thinking about it. I also bought another SF Marathon Hat, signed by the man himself, from Organs R Us.

So that's it. I'm drinking enough water to drown an oil tanker, Waddler and our girls and I had pizza for lunch, I'm going to a dinner thingie and then going to bed early and tomorrow I'm off to the races! If you want to see how I'm doing you can go to this site and enter my bib number. Please don't steal my thunder, though. I know it's silly but I'd like to be the first to post my results - for better or for worse.

Thanks for all the well wishes over lo these long hard weeks of training - it means everything to me!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

I'm trying to eat well and hydrate. The heat wave here has broken. My blog is fixed. My friend is having a dinner in my honor tonight (pasta and pizza!) because I already had an engagement for Saturday night. I'm pooped from a long hard week but life is good.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Thanks!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 05:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I have a couple of pre-marathon social engagements Saturday night but I think it would be fun to have a packet pickup rendezvous. I can come in any time as long as I can leave by about 4 PM. If you are interested please send email to 21stCenturyMom@gmail.com and we can swap contact info.

I did my 30 minutes run this morning (really 31:37). I don't think it really counts as easy as my splits were 9:22, 10:18 and 11:22. I didn't know what 5x60s were so I ran fast for 60 seconds 3 times. That was making my legs tired, though so I just did the 3 which is probably why that last mile was slow. That and the uphillness of it.

Anyhow, I test drove my marathon outfit and it worked great! I decided to wear black shorts and after reading Bold's post today I'm glad I did. If you haven't read that whole post yet get on over there and suck it up. It's a great story with a great message.

Bring it on, baby!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I am psyched, too. This morning when I left the house at 6 AM to head for a client I was a little sad that I didn't have time to run because it was cool and peaceful. It was probably only 70 degrees out and it felt nice. I was only sad because I thought I had to leave at 6 AM again tomorrow and I just don't have it in me to run in the dark at 4:30 and then get all gussied up for a client but as it turns out I got a reprieve. No meeting tomorrow so I can go on my 30 minute easy run with 5 x60s - whatever those are. I have to find out.

I've been thinking about the training and the ups and downs; about the days when we lose all confidence and think we are out of our minds to attempt whatever it is we are doing and the days when we feel strong and healthy; the days when we feel selfish and guilty for taking the time to train and the days when we are angry at the world for not letting us do what we need to do. It goes up it goes down but in the end it comes to this pre-event taper and the ensuing happy anticipation of finally, finally lacing that chip through our shoes and lining up at the start.

I'm psyched people and I'm happy you are out there with me. Let's all give ourselves a standing ovation for doing what we do - we deserve it!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I am SO glad I don't have to do any running. It is already 75 by 6 AM. Too.Damned.Hot!

I know, I know.. you're all wondering if I'd like a little cheese with that whine. Sorry.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The run was good! I didn't get out until 6:30 (late again!) but it wasn't unbearable. After cruising downhill in the shade followed by motoring up a slight incline in the blazing sun, sweating buckets all the while, I was at the trail of many water fountains. I had carried a water bottle with me just in case and was glad I had because I pretty much emptied it before I got to fountain numero uno. The trail itself was nice and shady and I was tempted to just stay on it and run on and on but sadly I would just end up in some remote area of the state so I had to turn around when I had gone a total of 4.5 miles. When I got to the hill near my house I could hear you all saying "Taper! You're trained!" and I thought, "Hell yes - my legs are tired and I've run 8.5 miles" so I walked the rest of the way. Mission accomplished and I am finally really, really on a taper. Wa-Hoo! I just have to do a couple of 20 - 30 minute slow runs this week to keep my legs from suffering atrophy. No swimming, no biking. Just rest - ahhhhhhh.

My pace, including stops was 10:57 which will get me a sub 5 hour marathon. I predict that I go just sub 5 - nothing spectacular, I'll just make my goal and that would suit me fine.

I felt fine except for my feet hurting and I know this will be an issue in the marathon but foot pain is easy enough to ignore and easier still to treat. After some food and a shower I headed out for a pre-marathon pedicure and a foot massage. They let you pay extra for more massage time so I added an extra 5 minutes. I'm known to be a good tipper in this place so my 5 minutes was more like 15 - ahhhhhhh...... loved that. I could regale you with some lovely foot p0rn but I'll leave the results to your imagination (just don't be a perv about it, 'kay?)

So that's it - Roughly 350 training miles since the beginning of this training I'M READY! Thanks for all the support along the way! Weather.com is calling for rain next Sunday but I'm not worried. The weather could do anything between now and then. I'm hoping for typical San Francisco foggy, cool weather with a little sunshine by the time I come in at about 11. We'll see.

Note to Steve and walking/speed walking/running group - please send an email (link available at top) and let me know how to get in touch with you - I'd love to meet up.

In other news:
Jeanne's ipod trick is fine if you happen to plug your Shuffle into a USB port and set it up just before you leave the house. My problem is always that I am out the door before I turn it on and discover that the bookmark has been lost. To fix it you have to listen to the book through iTunes and move the slider until you find your place and then sync the iPod with your iTunes. Even at that it doesn't always hold. So annoying. I'm going to get a nano soon - very soon.

I bought a new pair of shorts today. I know you aren't supposed to change anything before the big day but shorts are shorts only these are black and will look stunning with my most excellent shirt that my daughter got me for Mother's Day. I also bought some Body Glide for my feet.

I have an hellacious schedule next week. I have to be about an hour from home (or 90 mins. depending on traffic) at 7:30 AM Monday and Tuesday then fly to Irvine Tuesday night for a Wednesday meeting then back up here Wednesday night. I'll be lucky to get any runs in at all. I'll figure out something because nothing is going to screw this marathon up for me now. I've made it to the start line injury free and I'm going for it.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I managed to run a little under 2 miles at a 9:35 pace and that felt like the perfect thing to do. I used my muscles a bit, got a little speed on and most important of all - I FELT GOOD!

It's been a while since I've said that.

Saturday I do my 9 miles and then I just shamble around a bit waiting to do the marathon. Ye-Haw!

In other news - if you want to listen to books while running do NOT buy an iPod shuffle. It isn't good at linear stuff and it often loses my place and reverts to where I had started last time. You can't flip through the chapters - you just have to hold you thumb on the fast forward. I spent most of my almost 2 miles today fast forwarding - and then the battery died. Arrrggghhhhh!!

As soon as I think of a good excuse I'm getting a nano.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I'm going to do my track workout tomorrow AM early and then Saturday I'm going to run 9 miles at a race pace plus 30 seconds/mile clip and then I'm going to do 2 little, short, keep it loose runs during the week and then I'm going to do this thing! Very exciting.

In case you missed it, I'm pimping for funds for this race. Not a lot of money and not to cure anything. The money goes to helping kids learn how to write. Illiteracy and bad grammar are not life threatening but I like the cause and it gives me an excuse to post my pirate picture.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

As I wrote some time ago I adopted the FIRST, "more is less" training program more than 1/2 way through my training. It seemed like a great idea at the time. It is a low frequency, high mileage approach to marathon training but it's kind of killing me. Be that as it may, that has become THE PLAN. So here's the final steps in the plan which covers this week and next week

Tues - 3 x 1600 on the track with 400 recovery
Thurs - 8 miles ("The speedwork and tempo runs taper down just a little, with a final eight-mile tempo run at marathon goal pace coming 10 days before the marathon")
Sat - 10 miles

Tues - 30 min easy w 5x60s
Thurs - 20 min easy w 3 or 4 pickups
Sunday - Marathon

I've already blown it, though. I had a guest this weekend and didn't do my long run until Sunday. I also hated most of it (the run, not the guest visit!).

It is Wednesday and I swam yesterday and I'm sitting here in running clothes but have no time to run. So - what would you do? I'm inclined to get that track workout in and then split the difference on the 18 remaining miles and run 9 miles on Friday or Saturday and then throttle back. What do you think?

One more thing - I wasn't going to do any fundraising for this but 826 Valencia decided to pull together a team really quickly and they have set an individual fundraising goal of just $200. I'm hoping I can find 40 people who will toss 5 bucks their way. 826 boasts the worlds largest retail store exclusively dedicated to selling Pirate Supplies, hence the team is called the Booty Team and has a general piratey feel to it.

From their website:

Simply put, 826 Valencia helps students, ages 8 - 18, to develop their writing skills. Whether the students are working in the realm of fiction, nonfiction, or English as a second language, we are here to help them explore their love of writing. We offer free drop-in tutoring, workshops, and storytelling. We also help students create their own story collections, zines, and other publications.

I used to be a regular volunteer and spent many happy hours working on writing projects with students all over San Francisco. I also was a tutor to elementary aged kids once a week. 826 is a great organization and I would love to help them out but have no time to be an active volunteer any more. If you are interested in helping me help them you can do it here.

Thanks in advance!

If you are going to be in SF please let me know! I'd love to have a packet pickup meet up! I have plans for the evening of the 29th but not for the day.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The first one was June 3rd and I had a very hard time with the last 2 or 3 miles.
The second one was July 1 and was apparently pretty unremarkable. It went 'okay'
The second was yesterday and I didn't bonk but I was fatigued pretty much the whole time and really dragged butt.

Stuff like this shatters my confidence that I will make my sub 5 hour goal but at this point I hardly care. I know I will finish and right now that feels good enough. I'm not very fond of 'good enough', preferring 'I rocked' under almost all circumstances but at this point I don't have a lot of fight left in me. I have had too many really hard, uncomfortable runs to care.

In all fairness my pace, including long bathroom break at the 1/2 point and a couple of stops to find my water bottles was 11:31 which is still a 5 hour pace (hope springs eternal) but I in no way felt that I had another 11 miles left in me*. I don't know if it was fatigue from my track workout on Thursday and the fact that I spent Saturday on my flip-flopped feet in a museum plus high heat (I left at 6:30 and was melting by 8) or if I've just lost my running mojo. I can only hope that by marathon day I will be rested, fed, hydrated and ready to rock this thing. And if I don't then so be it.

When I got to 15 I did make myself keep going for a little while. I wanted to transcend that 'I just can't do this anymore' feeling and I wanted to cross the line and get my second wind. I sort of did - enough to remember that in a marathon I'm willing to endure pain and the desire to quit in order to get to the finish line. In fact, now that I think about, since this will be my 3rd marathon I hope the 3rd time really is a charm

*Update - talk about a self defeating attitude. I would only need to go another 9 miles, not 11! I think you are all right - I just need a REAL taper, not this crazy pseudo taper.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 07:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

I did what the FIRST program says and didn't sweat it. Yesterday I decided would be the day to get in 7 x 800 with 400 recovery. I got up, got dressed and the bargaining began.
"Maybe I'll just do 5 because I have to run 15 miles this weekend and I don't want my legs to be tired"
"The program says 7"
"I know but well... we'll see"

I got to the track, set my Garmin for intervals of 1/2 mile run, 1/4 mile recovery and and hit start, immediately realizing that I should have done a warm up first. Oh well - I took the first 1/2 mile easy. On the 2nd interval the bargaining was getting really strident

"Man, I really am NOT feeling it! I'll TRY to go for 5 but I don't know"
"The plan calls for 7 - you need to to 7"
"I know but... my legs... I'm tired... you know I haven't really been doing my track work"
"You need to do 7"
"Okay fine, I'll get to 4 and think about it"
"Don't forget to do some in the other direction"
"check"

But if I've learned nothing else about myself during training I've learned that if I just keep going I can do what I set out to do. On a remote corner of my brain I was thinking "If you just get through 4 you'll be more than 1/2 way done" and with that in mind I carried on.

After 4 I turned and started going the other way.
After 5 I thought "One more - you can do it"
After 6 I thought "you only have 1 more so what's that? 5 or 6 minutes. Keep going"
After 7 I was really happy. My Garmin played a happy little tune and said "Finished!"

And thusly, one bargained interval at a time I did all of my repeats. Today I was going to get in my 15 miles because I have a friend coming in from out of town tomorrow but I didn't have time so I will either do them tonight, or early tomorrow or late Sunday. I'm not worrying about it anymore because I'm starting my taper and I will get it done and I am almost to my marathon. And that's a good thing.

Interval Splits (in min/mile):
9:14, 8:06, 8:29, 8:50, 8:27, 8:14, 8:29
not bad.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 07:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

So to ThisNext I mist say - if you don't want people to find your site before it is ready for launch hide your URL from search engines. If, on the other hand, the "don't tell" line is just a Jedi mind trick to get people talking then please, give me a break.

I can say with some authority that you folks are off to a very bad start. I'm as much of a traffic ho as the next blogger but I prefer people referring to me out loud, not behind my back and most certainly not for commercial gain.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 06:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

http://blog.thisnext.com/blog/when-in-doubt-buy-shoes.html

Someone is using me to pimp Saucony's shoes. Weird!

Anyone else ever have this experience?

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Fatty was pretty proud of herself and pretty mad at me. I think it was Susan who suggested that the solution to cat problems is, in a word - microwaves. I was tempted; I really was.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I decided, in my infinite wisdom that the best thing to do would be to run around for a couple of miles and then tackle a huge hill because that's what happens on the SF course. Here are the elevation maps of my run today(on top) and of the marathon course (on bottom)

Note - The huge hill is that first dramatic bump at about 7 miles - the long climb is pretty gradual and it is only the camel humps that really seem like hills.

I think the scale on those 2 images is comparable and I think it is fair to say that I worked maybe a little harder on this run than I will have to work on the marathon and that's a good thing. It's a good thing because my total time (including a couple of fairly luxurious bathroom breaks complete with running water and paper towels) was 4:06.35 and there is no way I could have covered the last 5.2 miles (turns out I ran 21.06) in less that 54 minutes. I was too pooped and my feet were throbbing and it was hot. I did not do the run 5 miles, walk 2 minutes thing and I wish I had. I think that's a really good methodology and when I did that last time my average pace was 20 second/mile faster.

At the end of the run I was totally discouraged and hating myself for ever signing up for this thing. My feet were killing me and I felt worse than poop on toast. I could barely choke down a string cheese when I got back and I was deeply disappointed in my time. I seriously considered just giving it up and not running the marathon - why bother? Fortunately, a shower and a little rest later I felt okay and decided that if I don't make a sub 5 hour marathon it isn't the end of the world. If don't PR you may never hear from me again but that gives me another 16 minutes to work with so let's all keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Parrot predictor calls for 4:55, McMillan calls for 5:11.

Lessons learned -

1). No need to kill yourself

2). Having water bottles along the trail is good (I hid them from view so they were there when I needed them)

3). Cytomax sports drink is manageable as long as the quantity is low

4). Cytomax gel rocks

5). The hotter it gets, the harder it is to run

6). The run/walk thing has some advantages

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

In an effort to avoid carrying a water bottle tomorrow I just went out in the dark and drove my car sort of along the trail and stopped every once in awhile to leave some water bottles. I hope I can find them tomorrow when I go for my final 20 mile run before The Big Day. I also scored some Cytomax and Ctyomax Gel which is what will be on the marathon course so I'm taking it for a test drive. I hope I don't spend the rest of the day hugging the porcelain Goddess.

Splits on the 5 miler -
9:39, 10:12, 10:21, 10:12, 10:24 and the last 480 ft at 9:39

so now I have both consistency and symmetry. I hope it serves me well.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The Article is called The New Rules of Hydration and discusses the veracity of the current conventional wisdom on hydration. The biggest problem with conventional wisdom is that it often changes. It's a very good read and applies to both genders and hopefully the men don't need a secret decoder ring to view it.

It has information under headings like:

Old: Drink ahead of your thirst.
New:Drink according to your thirst.
but then there is this:
Old: Use either a sports drink or water for hydration.
New: Use a sports drink instead of water.

So it isn't perfect because if I drank only a sports drink for hydration I'd spend most of my run hurltilizing the local flora. In spite of its lack of perfection the article comes highly recommended.

In other news:
I almost had to write a post called "Plastered to my Bed" about how much I didn't want to get up this morning. I only have to run 5 miles which is a piece of cake at this point but for some reason I just don't want to. I will, though and because I really don't want to it will probably be a great run. It always seems to go that way.

Or I might have written a post called 'This Little Piggy" about my out of control eating yesterday. I swam 2300 meters, many of them faster than I wanted to and when I swim like that my appetite goes astral on me. I should probably follow swims like that with a run just to set my body right. I could not stop thinking about food all day. After swimming I ate the following:

To test the theory (that new shoes make the woman) I put them on today, tightened the laces and went out for a run with no particular committment to length. I was supposed to go to the track to run 10 Yassos which would have been about 6 miles total) but I knew I couldn't pull that off and I didn't want to be disappointed with myself (way to go, eh?). As it was I managed a medium fast 3 mile run and I feel okay.

Can I just say how glad I am to be finishing up training? I have a 20 mile run on Saturday and then one more 15 miler the following Saturday and then it is taper time. I'm so sold on taper time that I'm going to do a brick workout on the 15th and go bike riding and swimming with my friends after I finish the run. That somehow feels liberating. I guess you know you're hooked on something when a multi-hour, multi-sport workout spells relief.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and suggestions. Just for the record, most of my runs are out and backs so I don't think that is the problem. I've only done a couple of long track workouts but next time I will do 1/2 in one direction and 1/2 in the other and see if that helps. Special thanks to TriGreyHound for words of encouragement. I hope you are right!!

As Bold would say Much 4th!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 06:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Last week I was almost perfect about my workouts. I swam Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I ran Yassos on Tuesday, tempo on Thursday and 15 miles on Saturday. It went okay. Not brilliant, but okay. The not quite perfect part is that Tuesday I was supposed to run 8 repeats and I only ran 7. On Saturday I was going to toss in an extra 1/2 mile to make up for it but I was hurting so I skipped it.

When I got home Saturday I plugged the numbers into Breaking the Tape and came up a little short for the parrot predictor to do its thing so I made up an extra, slow mile to see what I could see. What I saw was a projected marathon time of 4:36 - which is what I wanted to see. And therein lies the problem.

My target for this marathon is just sub 5 hours. I've been training well and consistently (except for graduation week) and it is paying off. Now what were my secret ambitions are bubbling up to become conscience ambitions and the ambition is to go a 4:40 and I need to stop that. I need to focus on sub 5 hours and plan for that because 4:40 is too fast for me. I know that because after Saturday's okay run I am having problems with my left side. My left glute is sore and I have a shin splint on my left leg. My left knee was hurting yesterday*. Not good, not good. Every time I get overly ambitious I start to show signs of wear and tear that could nuke the whole deal.

Tomorrow is a swim day and Tuesday is supposed to be 10 Yassos. I'm not doing that, though. I may or may not swim tomorrow (it's awfully late...) but if I don't swim I will bike. Tuesday I will do something but it won't be 10 Yassos and it won't be a 4th of July 10K in under 60 minutes. I have to take it easy so I can keep on going and I have to keep going to hit a just sub 5 hour marathon. Must.stay.on.track!

Thanks to people who suggested Hammer Gel. Much better than Gu. I tried 1 raspberry and 1 apple cinnamon and they both went down well.

Happy 4th!

*what could be responsible for al of these problems on my left side? Stride? uneven legs? What the hell!!??

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)