Post Chicago Marathon

What a fantastic weekend! I really love Chicago. I haven't been to many big cities but it's just the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I was in New York City when I was 13 but my memory is fading of that trip. So, how am I feeling 2 days post marathon you ask? This was my third marathon and I'm not as sore as my first but I think a little more sore than my second. It all just depends on how much you push your own physical capabilities on the day of I think. I realized by mile 17 that my gooal of 4:30 (still trying to get back to where I was pre-second child) was a little too ambitious. I found myself questioning that capability from mile 1 through mile 17 though I was right on pace for those 17 miles and by right on I mean exactly to the minute. I also wasn't taking any walking breaks which I had been doing for all my long training runs. Every 5 miles I would do a gel and water and walk for at least a minute of 2 but not during the marathon. I think I was scared of being trampled by the mob of runners! :O) Chicago was definitely my favorite marathon so far. So much to see! People lining the entire route and you are in a crowd of runners the entire race. The 2 other races I did were Appleton and Green Bay and the crowd is very spread out very early and it can get pretty lonely. Not this race!

Anyway, by mile 17 I started beating myself up mentally. I was angry that I wasn't going to get my goal time of 4:30 (although the more I think about it now I didn't earn that time anyway since I didn't train to hit that time) and I was also angry that I strongly needed to walk for a little bit and stretch and didn't like that my legs were fatiguing already. I pretty much counted down every mile from here on out just walking for a minute at each mile marker. This makes for a long finish when you just keep looking to the horizon for the next mile marker. You can do this at Chicago to because it's a remarkably flat course! That was another reason I expected to hit my goal time I had been running hilly long runs through all my training and expected to be able to clip along a bit faster without the hills. Ah well, all in all it was a fantastic experience and it was the fall marathon I needed to do for my Ironman training.

Speaking of Ironman... There was a point toward the end of my marathon that I began to tear up and felt if my legs are this dead after only running today how the hell will I accomplish an Ironman finish. I had to remind myself that it's still a year away and I have a lot more training ahead of me. People have trained with far less base training than what I have done and I know in my heart that I will finish IM if I need to crawl across the finish line with 1 minute to go! Although I'm hoping for a much more honorable finsh than that. :O) I plan on doing a walk/run training method for my Ironman marathon. I'm not a strong enough marathon runner in my book to be able to run the entire thing so I had better train with the walking breaks so I don't set myself up for disappointment!

Okay, now what... on to a 90 day strength training with P90X starting next week and I'll be continuing my boot camps which I always participate in. I'm also contemplating an indoor 1/2 marathon in January.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, today is where my nervous energy has really no place to go and the coffee probably isn't going to help. No running, nada, zip, zero, zilch running until Saturday morning. No exercising, nothing! My tummy is already starting to get that nervous feeling and I'm already reflecting on my training and trying to think if I could have done anything differently. If I'm feeling like this for Chicago how am I going to feel leading into the Ironman next year?! I'll have to be on lithium or something! ;O) Today I am going to put some nervous energy toward shopping. Kids need winter gear (hats, mittens snowpants etc.) so I think we'll head out and look at that. I also really need to figure out what I'm wearing for this sofa king cold marathon! I know I'll warm up a lot but until I do I don't want to be quivering like crazy.

Trick for the next few days is to not nervously eat and to eat less than days when I'm burning 1000 calories. Very tricky!!!

Not much to post about his week. Ran my 3 miles yesterday and my 2 miles today. Now it's RELAX time until Saturday when we run one last 2 mile run and then the idea is I should be all rested up for the marathon Sunday! Weather is looking a little better now they took the showers out of the forecast anyway!

Lots of spin today!

I did back to back spin classes today (hour and 45 minutes total). I didn't push it very much and made sure to keep my heart rate in the 70-75% zone so it was really just an endurance ride nothing too crazy. The rest of the week I will be a good little marathon taper'er..

Go Pack Go! Tonight is the "Big" game between Favre/Vikings and the Pack. I have my money on the Vikings. Secretly I will be happy if the Vikings win because it's a little bit of a stickin' it to the man moment for Brett I think if that happens.. or at least that's how it plays out in my head. :O)

One week to go!

Only one more week until the Chicago Marathon. This is the week that I have wayyyyy too much time on my hands. I will be obsessively checking the weather in Chicago for the weekend (as of now it's looking like sunny and 55!) and crossing my fingers for no rain and no wind! The Milwaukee Marathon is about to kick off this morning and I hope all of my friends have the run they hoped and trained for. As for me today it's either a rest day or maybe a bike ride later. We'll see. All I know is I can't remember the last Sunday when I could make a pot of coffee and sit around in pajamas with the family so I'm actually pretty excited for that!

"Do you really want it, do you really want it..go, go, go Ole, Ole, Ole!"

Yep, that's the song that got my run groovin' today. I'm goofy that way I just never what song in my iPod will be the kicker! 8 mile run today and sadly the last long run before Chicago. This week is going to drag and suck arss. Only a 3 mile, then 2 mile and then 2 days off and another 2 mile run and then sweet home Chicago. My run was great today. Ran on the treadmill because it was supposed to be cold and rainy and I was meeting a friend who runs a different pace than me so figured we could run side by side. Turns out I probably should have run outside. The weather is cold but it wasn't raining! boo, oh well. HR was around 146 the entire run so that's great too. Looks like I'm ready. No pain in my body and that's always fantastic going into marathon week! Did a bunch of situps today too and biceps... Time to enjoy the weekend!

Rest Days = Lazy Days

Yesterday I did my 4 mile run on the treadmill and some sit ups at night because my 6 six pack is finally coming back and that's the one thing I'm not going to take a break from during taper. I'm too afraid to lose what I've gained over the past month. Today is a rest day. Hanging out at home with friends and going to watch TV and let the kids run around!

It's funny, I was thinking yesterday how my first Ironman experience is like being pregnant all over again in so many ways. Waiting in line for registration fearful that I wouldn't be able to register because maybe there were too many people in line in front of me was like waiting for the result of a positive or negative on the pregnancy pee stick. Seriously nerves and excitement and the fear of what to expect next. Now I'm in the beginning of the "pregnancy" I'm reading a ton doing lots of research and preparing for the year ahead. As the year progresses and the training gets harder and more uncomfortable so would a pregnancy. Finally, the day of Ironman family and friends will be there and I will have to endure pain and keep my mind in the game to get me through to the finish where the birth of a new Ironman will occur. Pretty deep, I know! HA!

Okay, gotta run... well, not really.. not today anyway. Sit-ups though! ;O)