Don't let the exclamation points fool you... I'm soooo not excited about this race (yet?). In fact I'm the opposite. I got in a 3-hour 18 mile run this past weekend including bathroom, water and a few walking breaks (mainly to mess with my Audible and iTunes accounts). This has been the longest run of my entire life to date, and instead of celebrating the fact that my short stems made it that far, my only thought was "I have to run 8 MORE miles after this to finish the race!?"
I had enough fuel from a wonderful home-cooked (day after) Valentine's day dinner the night before & packed my favorite GU's & plenty of water for the run, but I think the lack of a good night's sleep played a part in my fatigue after mile 14 of 18. I'm still such a novice that I need everything to be jusssst right to get in a good run. I need the right fuel(s), an embarrassing amount of sleep, sunny but chilly weather, to be really pissed off about something, my lucky socks, etc etc. It's very rare (never happens) that all of these elements are present when I have a big workout scheduled. I can't wait for the day when I can just go out at any point to run an obscene amount of miles and just love/enjoy/appreciate every bit of it.
Running 6-8 miles is my very sweet spot. This is the amount of running I can do without an iPod or break, have peaked endorphin levels and feel like I got a great workout in. Anything up in the double digits has not been the most enjoyable experience of my life to say the least... aside from the bragging rights. All of the 15+ mile training runs have only been enjoyable AFTER I'm done, have had a hot shower & any kind of food in front of me. I usually treat myself to Blenders. No judging. Although this past weekend I had a Crushcakes cupcake for breakfast. Sorry I'm not sorry. (oooh I can just imagine most of you cringing at the mere thought of eating processed sugar!!) :)
I'm not sure what's on deck the next couple weeks for my long distance runs yet, but I can guarantee you that I will be giving myself a lot of sugary rewards every step of the way. I may not enjoy 3+ hours of running, but I am pretty proud of my legs and can't wait until I can say that I ran & finished a FULL marathon. Not trying to qualify for Boston... just want to FINISH the race. I'm sure my coach is thrilled to read about how shameless I am about aiming at the very lowest point possible to achieve my goal. I'm sure I'll pay for that at track practice :)
Other positive notes: marathon training makes me like swim practice a lot more, I don't feel guilty about eating like a human garbage disposal, I have a deeper appreciation for other runners & for yoga, & truly enjoying the horrified looks on people's faces when they ask "how far did you run today?". Also I can't possible forget about, or forget to thank, all the people who are so supportive of me & my crazy goals ;)
See y'all out there (because let's be honest, that's probably the only time I will see most of you) :)
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