Random Contemplations About Our Training.

Yesterday’s run= 5 miles with 4 x 20 second strides at around marathon pace to remind ourselves what that pace feels like!

We are taking today off, running 2 miles tomorrow and 1 mile on Saturday.  THE WORK IS DONE and now we just get to rest and celebrate during the race.

Skye will be staying with Megan this weekend while we are gone so we took her over there to get used to her house.

She was upset when we had to leave to go back home.  She is going to be just fine this weekend.

12 days apart!  It was so great to see Knox again.  Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we missed our weekend with Knox and it ended up being 12 days since we had last seen him.

PS Brooke lost her tooth biting into a soft piece of bread at Great Harvest so that was a big deal.

As of today, Andrew has a week off from work… I love his nursing shifts!

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I have a few things I’ve been thinking about lately with our training that I wanted to share:

*We did our last mini workout ahhh!  On Tuesday we did 2 miles in the morning @ 8:45 pace and then in the afternoon we did 5 miles with one of those miles fast!  We did it side by side in 5:12 and carb depleted (some downhill in that mile but not as much as the other area where we do downhill mile repeats).  For St. George we did our depletion mile in 5:27 on the course with more downhill.  When we finished we actually couldn’t even believe our watches because we were feeling terrible from no carbs but somehow managed to do it way faster than we imagined.  That depletion mile really does feel like the last mile of a marathon and you question why you are choosing to do the marathon in a few days.  BUT you do it and it reminds you during the marathon that you won’t die when you feel that terrible and you can do it again.

After this workout we started the carb load and then starting today we are just eating like normal again.

I wonder how many miles we have run together this year?

*Our coach told us that with this week of tapering he wants us to feel like a caged animal come Sunday morning before the race starts.  Now that we are carb loaded again and with the huge drop in mileage, I am really starting to feel that way.  I have so much energy that is just ready to be released and it’s hard not running as much as normal (I’m definitely crazy… I know).

I’m probably going to feel like this for the rest of December after this race ha:

*The other day Emilee said that our coach’s training is kind of like the Rocky Training of marathon training and it made me laugh so hard because it’s true.  It really has been so different from ANYTHING that I’ve done in the past and I think his training of having us do things like sprint up mountains followed by fast miles on the road and things like that have really developed different gears for us to use on race day… which has led to PRs in every race distance.  He has coached 40something girls to an OTQ time and he said he has a lot of faith in Emilee and I doing the same which makes me very excited!  If you are ever in Utah, you must go in to Runner’s Corner and meet him (PS I’ve had a lot of people ask for his information for coaching but he only coaches people in person and not online)

*I really think the carb depletion might be the hardest part of training for me.  The workouts were never over a few hours so you knew the hard stuff would be over soon but 4 days without my normal foods= very hard for me.  I didn’t sleep super well, I dreamed about Lucky Charms and my runs felt miserable.  Those 4 days go by SO slowly ha.  It makes me so grateful for the variety of foods that I normally eat and get to enjoy.  I’ll let you know my thoughts next week on how much I think it helps me this weekend but I’m sure it will.

*It really has been so fun to see the improvements that have happened this year with our training.  This picture was from my first speed workout in May after my ultra and it was SO hard.  That is the most addicting part about running for me—> we get to see all of our improvements!

*I saw this on IG and it gave me instant goosebumps and it is exactly what I need to think about this weekend when things get tough.  We just have to remember who we are, how incredibly strong we are, the hard things we’ve overcome a million times before (in life and in running) and that WE BELONG.  We can’t forget who we are!

*I’m really excited to not have to worry about ice everywhere during CIM like we do right now!

*We are going to be carrying little flasks with us on race day.  We won’t be getting bottles from the tables at CIM but staying hydrated with bottles during St. George helped us out big time so we are just going to carry a few along with us.  One of my bottles will be full of caffeine… I’m going to wait until 15ish to take caffeine again like I did for St. George.  I feel like my stomach was so much happier because I didn’t start out with any caffeine and then I got the boost from it when I needed it later on in the race.

*I’m going to be eating a donut or two a day every day next week in case anyone wants to join me.

*I’m really grateful that Emilee helped me to dream bigger.  Before I met her I thought for sure that my marathon PR was all I would ever be able to do with the marathon.  She really inspired me to dream big and go after what I want!

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I would love to hear any random thoughts about your running/training right now!!

What’s the best part of your Thursday going to be?

I’d love to hear your favorite mantra/thought that you’ve used in a race please!

Since I am just feeling extra grateful for carbohydrates, I’d love to hear your current favorite.