Let’s get the eats out of the way – I have a fun announcement!
I went to Great Harvest to pick up some dinner rolls for a little get-together I’m hosted tonight and snagged a free sample of the Red, White, and Blue loaf. It was a sweet bread with real raspberries and blueberries mixed in!
Lunch was full of veggies. I’m really trying to pack in those veggies lately!
I had a salad with cucumbers, carrots, and kidney beans, as well as a side of broccoli + blue chips.
Not a very exciting lunch, but a healthy one. 🙂
Oops, I Did It Again
Soooo. Fun announcement! Yesterday morning, I was in quite the groggy state between birth control pill withdrawal and general life freak-out about the book release. For some reason, I thought it was be the ideal time to whip out my credit card and sign up for…
MY SECOND MARATHON!
Alright, so it was a pretty serious impulse buy, but the more and more I think about it, the more excited I get to run 26.2 miles again!
In case you haven’t been reading for long, here’s a summary of my journey to 26.2:
- Started running seriously when I was 22. Never, ever considered running a marathon. Aren’t the only people who do that absolutely insane (yes)?
- In 2008, I started to run Half Marathons (recaps of my first, second, and third). Realized that long distance races are awesome. Nothing feels as great as working so hard for so long and crossing that finish line!
- At the time time, I began to have knee problems, which sidelined me completely for 2.5 months. I eventually figured out how to “cure†my knee problems and began to run without pain again.
- Started to dream about doing 26.2 miles…
- My friend Megan was diagnosed with leukemia for the second time. This motivated me to spontaneously sign up for Team in Training and do the Disney Marathon in her honor.
- On January 10, 2010, I ran my first marathon (recap) with my BFF Lauren. We ran the entire race together and finished in 4:53. Considering the weather conditions and the fact that both Lauren and I had emotional meltdowns at different points, I was very happy with my time. I wrote afterwards that “I’m still in disbelief that Lauren and I did it – running 26.2 miles was so, so much harder than I thought it would be!†I actually suffered an injury during the race – here’s a recap of my post-marathon body.
- Due to my foot injury (which ended up just being an “angry tendon†due to the intense cold during the race – it was 19 degrees in Orlando!), I felt really turned off by the marathon for a LONG, LONG time. In fact, I probably wrote on the blog that I would “never†do another marathon. Only recently did I begin to reconsider it.
My second marathon will be in Charlotte on December 11, 2010. That’s exactly 140 days (20 weeks) from now, which works out pretty perfectly because that’s about how long marathon training should be when you’re already comfortably running 10Ks (which I am right now).
Although I’ve only done one other marathon, I learned a LOT. Here’s what I’m going to do the same:
- Not Care About My Time (Again): I’m not setting a time goal for this marathon. It’s going to be cold (but hopefully not as cold as Disney), and I hear the course is hilly. I just want to run 26.2 miles again as fast as I can that day. I’m not trying to impress anyone but myself. :) Whether I cross the line in 4:30 or 5:00, I’ll be happy.
- Run a 22-Miler: A lot of people said I was screwing up by doing a 22-mile long run before the marathon (the typical long run is 20 miles). But, I personally think it was the best decision I could’ve made. Running 22 miles is SO much closer to 26.2 than 20. Let me tell you, you don’t know what those last few miles are going to be like until you actually run them. I had a total meltdown at Mile 23 during Disney, so I’m really grateful I ran 22 – what if I had the meltdown at Mile 21? Ugh!
Here’s what I’m going to do differently:
- Not Be As Crazy About Training: I was REALLY nutty about training for Disney. I developed a 21-week long training plan and stuck to it almost religiously. I was very nervous about doing 26.2 miles and felt like I had to be “perfect†in training to succeed. This time around, I’m NOT going to develop an intense training plan – I *know* what I need to do to succeed (run 20 – 35 miles a week and do one long run every weekend, with some step-down weeks in between). Instead, I’m going to lay out my long runs in advance, but only plan the rest of my runs each Monday. This will allow me greater flexibility and help me stay sane. I recommend novices use training plans, though!
- Actually Do Speedwork: Training for Disney wiped my ability to run with speed because I was focusing only on distance. I am going to do one 4 – 6 mile speedwork session per week this time around.
- Yoga is My Friend: I’m going to try to focus on stretching and yoga. I think part of my foot issues were related to never stretching during Disney.
- Make the Taper Shorter: I tapered WAY TOO long for Disney, and I think it really screwed me over. I tapered for three weeks, mostly due to a vacation to England over Christmas break. I’m only going to taper for 1.5 weeks before Marathon #2. I think everyone is different, but long tapers don’t work for me.
- The BIG One… Run Alone: The biggest difference? I’m going to do this marathon ALONE. BFF Lauren was a huge help when I had the meltdown, and I’m SO glad I got to share that experience with her – I would never change it. But I want to see what I can do alone against the 26.2-mile beast. It’s scary to think about doing it alone, but also exciting!
If you’ve run the same race distance twice, what lessons have you learned? What things would you keep the same?
Good luck for training for the marathon! 🙂