Race Week Prep - Big Sur
It may not be the full marathon, but 21 miles is a long way for me. I go back and forth between feeling super ready and feeling blah, but I know that taper time almost always (ok, always) results in those blah feelings. I was reminded of this by a few Twitter friends yesterday - I love the Twitter run community and their support. Thanks guys and gals!
How am I getting ready for Sunday?
One. Taking it easy on my body. I did a short 3 mile run/walk yesterday, am resting today, and plan to run a short distance with a friend tomorrow after work. She's (re)starting to run so we planned an easy workout. Perfect. I'll likely do a little arm and ab work Thursday and stay loose on the elliptical, but I'm leaving my legs alone after last week's hard core soreness. Add stretching and foam rolling, and that will be it for the week.
Two. Obsessively checking the weather forecast. So far it's looking a little warmer than my favorite race temp (50ish degrees) but still fine and nothing like Chicago 2010, the last time I ran this far. And the high dropped from 72 to 70 degrees today, a good trend. This is the current state of weather via weather.com. Considering the race starts super early, we should be in good shape if this holds up.
Three. Pumping myself full of Nuun, aka hydrating. I stocked up on Nuun at Sports Basement last week and now have new flavors to enjoy. Drinking just water tends to go right through me and Nuun has proved to be a great alternative this past year. I'm so glad my biking group told me about it last summer.
Four. Eating well, especially good carbs like whole wheat pasta. Even the work chefs are on board - they conveniently served whole wheat spaghetti yesterday and a lovely brown rice medley today. Yum.
Five. Planning my race day ensemble options! What to wear, what to wear. I'm thinking about my new favorites from Oiselle, the distance short and simplicity tank with arm warmers. I might swap the shorts for my long-term favorite Lululemon Run Inspire crops. It may be mental, but I like having the feel of even a little compression on my quads and knees when I'm running long. Both the shorts and crops - and more shirts too - will come along for the ride, and the final decision will be race morning as usual.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend and maybe I'll see some of you at Big Sur!
How am I getting ready for Sunday?
One. Taking it easy on my body. I did a short 3 mile run/walk yesterday, am resting today, and plan to run a short distance with a friend tomorrow after work. She's (re)starting to run so we planned an easy workout. Perfect. I'll likely do a little arm and ab work Thursday and stay loose on the elliptical, but I'm leaving my legs alone after last week's hard core soreness. Add stretching and foam rolling, and that will be it for the week.
Two. Obsessively checking the weather forecast. So far it's looking a little warmer than my favorite race temp (50ish degrees) but still fine and nothing like Chicago 2010, the last time I ran this far. And the high dropped from 72 to 70 degrees today, a good trend. This is the current state of weather via weather.com. Considering the race starts super early, we should be in good shape if this holds up.
Flavors new to me: Orange and Tropical
Four. Eating well, especially good carbs like whole wheat pasta. Even the work chefs are on board - they conveniently served whole wheat spaghetti yesterday and a lovely brown rice medley today. Yum.
Five. Planning my race day ensemble options! What to wear, what to wear. I'm thinking about my new favorites from Oiselle, the distance short and simplicity tank with arm warmers. I might swap the shorts for my long-term favorite Lululemon Run Inspire crops. It may be mental, but I like having the feel of even a little compression on my quads and knees when I'm running long. Both the shorts and crops - and more shirts too - will come along for the ride, and the final decision will be race morning as usual.
Oiselle Distance Short
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend and maybe I'll see some of you at Big Sur!
Also loving nuun. I am thinking about wearing my hydration belt for the marathon with nuun only so I can enjoy that instead of the gatorade they have at the hydration stations on the course!
ReplyDeleteI decided to take my handheld bottle with Nuun. Gatorade bothers my stomach so not an option...plus I love Nuun so much more!
DeleteSo excited to hear your race recap! Would you believe I've never tried Nuun? I feel like I'm the only one in the blogosphere.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Paulette! You'll do great (Kev too)! Also, love that Oiselle tank!
ReplyDeleteThanks Natalie, can't wait to tell you all about it. :)
DeleteI'm so glad you mentioned planning the race day ensemble:) It's so important! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteLove Nuun. Very cute race ensemble, too!
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that I'm sure that course is going to be sooo beautiful! I wish I had run it before I moved out of CA! Good luck!
ReplyDelete