Prepping for a Long Run

Yesterday marked my longest and best run of marathon training!

After last Saturday’s half marathon, I was feeling a bit defeated. My legs were hurting around mile 8 and I didn’t know how I was ever going to run 17 miles the following weekend. I ended up getting a cold on Wednesday, so I knew I had to rest some to get my energy back up for Saturday’s run. I ended up skipping Thursday’s run to get more rest.

Friday night rolled around and I spent it relaxing. I did some knitting, lit some candles, and watched a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother (my latest addiction on Netflix Instant!). I made dinner with our CSA veggies: roasted beets and potatoes, along with Trader Joe’s edamame nuggets. I also had one of these.

I normally steer clear of alcoholic beverages the night before races, but with long runs I’ve been more lax–one beer won’t hurt (extra carbs!) as long as you hydrate with water, too, which I made sure to do.

Saturday morning I got up an hour before our long run time of 7am, had my cereal (puffins, maple walnut granola with almond milk) and drank some water. I still had cold symptoms so I took some cold meds and hoped for the best for 17 miles.

My running buddy Melissa (and Chris!) joined me for the long run. Chris isn’t training for anything but felt like running, so he said he was going to try to do 17 miles with me.

We ran our usual route of 9 miles, made a stop at my apartment, rehydrated with water and energy gel and parted ways with Melissa, who was only running 10 that morning. I noticed that after 9 miles, my legs felt like they hadn’t even ran a mile, even though our route had majors hills, that I made sure to run up! It was so strange. Chris and I went back out to finish the run…8 miles to go. Here is how I looked at it: after making our pit stop, it was like we were just going out for an 8 mile run. Seriously, it’s all mental.

Despite my cold I felt great. The weather was perfect (mid 50s) and that helped too! We ran the rest of the run through of my favorite neighborhoods and Chris and I both finished 17 miles in 2:52. We were done with our run by 10:30am. (I can’t fathom how Chris ran 17 without training, but I’m trying to convince him to sign up for my marathon now!)

This run was a serious confident booster. For the first time I feel like I can actually run the marathon. It feels more real now. I’m hoping I have more training runs like this, because this one was awesome!