Marathon Week! I had a really exhausting weekend, so I only ended up running my 8 miler on Sunday, but in addition to that I skated in the ice show Friday night and Saturday night; taught an hour of skating on Saturday; biked a mile and a half down to the library to pick up some books, and biked back up the looooong hill to our house; and worked in the yard all day Sunday planting our vegetable garden, and re-landscaping the entire side of our house by myself while Nick edged and mowed the lawn. My lower back is so sore, and the backs of my legs are really achy too. I don’t know how much running I’m going to do this week – probably only a 3-miler and a 2-miler. All I know is that I did WAY too much this past weekend considering what I’m going to be doing come Saturday. Oh, well.
I’m going to just take it easy this time in regard to food and water in the week leading up to the marathon. I’ve done just fine on my last two 20-milers by eating normally and just adding more water throughout the day. I am pretty sure the amount of carbs I ingested prior to the San Diego marathon contributed to my total crash halfway through – I seriously STUFFED myself on bread and potatoes at this awesome seafood place we ate at, and even before that, I ate a shitton of french fries right after I picked my bib up at the expo. I justified it to myself that I was carb loading. So I’m going to just eat a normal, decent meal on Friday night and just keep doing what I’ve been doing as far as my diet. I eat enough carbs anyway as it is, that it doesn’t really necessitate me eating an entire loaf of french bread and a bag of baked potatoes in one sitting.
Right now the forecast is saying thunderstorms possible, with a low temp of 50 and a high of 68. We are supposed to get rain tomorrow and Wednesday, and then clouds will hang around through Thursday and Friday. I REALLY hope we don’t get weather like we had this past weekend – the wind picked up and was howling through the canyons as I ran my 8 miles on Sunday. It was so exhausting to push into the wind, and my legs felt really worn out even though it was only 8 miles – my shortest long run since starting this training program back in January. They have also had to re-route a bit of the marathon due to flooding; the snowpack was really high and we didn’t have a very warm April, so snow kept accumulating every time a storm came through. Now that we’ve finally warmed up it’s melting all at once. The Ogden River Parkway that I run on occasionally has been washed out at one point of an underpass, and that’s where they’ve had to reroute it so far. I guess it’s at milepoint 25.1, so it’s good that I sort of have an idea of where I will be at during certain points of the course. Once I come out of the canyon it will be around Mile 23, and then 2 miles along the river. I’m just concerned that the South Fork of the Ogden River is flooding up in Huntsville, which is right where the entire first part of the race goes. We’ll have to see what happens! I guess they would just reroute us?
I am getting really excited this time around! I’m sure as it gets closer I will get more nervous, but I’m excited to see what I can do. I feel more confident this time, especially since I’ll be running in more familiar territory than I did in San Diego. I’m hoping that being able to pick out different landmarks and sites will help me mentally be able to add some more kick. For now, it is just time to rest and continue my taper.
