5 weeks to go and the nerves are settling in. I find myself super excited at times and very nervous at others. Totally normally, I know. I’m nervous mainly about the logistics and magnitude of the race. From flying to the city, fueling away from home, a later race start time, and running with thousands of other people. Like usual I’m probably overthinking everything and need to just focus on what I can control…like my training.
The Good
-Mental strength. I’ve been really building up my mental strength during the long runs by listening to podcasts and not music. I’ve also done some of the middle miles in the long run without any sound. I know some people prefer running without music and while I do enjoy that too, I need some sound for long runs. By “saving” my music for later I feel like I’ll get an extra boost of energy on race day.
-Nutrition. I’ve done a really good job at making sure I’m well nourished before and after all runs. It’s hard living with people who avoid carbs, but I know that does not work for me. I drink coconut water immediately after my run and I eat a lot of fruit with peanut butter within 15 minutes of finishing. I follow that up with a big breakfast (protein/carbs/fats) and continue eating enough throughout the day.
-Morning motivation. I don’t dread waking up at 5:30 am to workout. Sure, some days I want to sleep in -and I definitely do- but I know well enough that if I don’t workout in the morning it’s not happening later at night. Sometimes that is motivation enough.
-Adjusting my schedule as needed. For example, this past week I changed up the weekday runs and also ended up cutting my long run short. My body wasn’t feeling it and I knew it wasn’t a situation that I needed to “push through.” I treated it as a “change-up” and not a setback.
The Bad (aka I need to work on)
-Foam rolling. Why oh why do I only foam roll when I feel tight/sore? I know I need to do this regularly and NOT just when I need it to work.
-Overthinking. As seen in the introduction above, I need to take a chill pill when it comes to thinking about certain things. For example, after my run last Sunday I woke up Monday morning convinced I had a tibial stress fracture (pain came out of nowhere!). I even wrote an entire post about how I thought I was severely injured. Well an extra day of rest and special attention (ice, ointment, Aleeve) did the trick. But I seriously spent all day Monday googling and self-diagnosing my injury. It was the first real pain I felt during training and I blew it out of proportion. However, when dealing with a suspected injury it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
On the horizon I have two more 18+ mile runs and then I start tapering. But I have so much on my plate from now until race day that it’s hard to envision it actually being here. I’m looking forward to hopefully running with my school’s running group next weekend- yay for company!
How was your weekend?
I’m so excited for you! Haha, I’m going to be cheering you on BIG TIME! XOXO
:) :) :)
Ah you’re running NYC?? I love that race so much. I ran it in 2011 and 2013. It was my first marathon. Sounds like you’re doing a good job training and good for you for getting up at 530!! I can’t do that lol.
I feel ya on the overthinking thing. I have shin splints all the time so during my last marathon training bout I got pretty bad pain and was so paranoid it was a stress fracture. It did end up being tendonitis but all I needed to do was take time off running to heal. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all about the race! I’ll be there this year as a spectator :)
YES! I’m so excited! Uh the sleep thing is not fun though.
Emailing you soon :)
You live with people who don’t eat carbs? What?! I love all the carbssss especially during marathon training. They must be cranky and sad haha.
Yeah it’s definitely different from how I eat. I would be VERY hangry if I didn’t eat carbs. Plus, they’re essential when marathon training!
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I need your level of passion and dedication! Thank you so much for sharing your story….. I’ll be checking up periodically! Good luck with your training!
xox Payton
Thanks, Payton!