10 days away

I am not ready to run 26.2 miles.  Nope, no way.  However . . . a week ago today I registered to run 26.2 miles, and the race is in 10 days.  (I am so f'n crazy.)  I have to tell you, my training this year has been much worse than it was 2 years ago, and I thought it was bad 2 years ago. 

Last weekend I ran.  It was a gorgeous fall weekend (no rain!).  I decided to try to do a race pace run on Saturday, not necessarily for the upcoming marathon, but I've been kicking around the idea of going for my under 4 hr time at the Last Chance Marathon on Dec. 31. (I have to run that race to get the Washington Half/Full Marathon series medal, just haven't decided if I'm going to run the half or the full.)  Anyway, I ran 5 miles at a 8:27 average min/mile. 

And Sunday I was going to run 22 miles.  Saturday evening, about 5:30pm I realized I forgot to go to the running store to get Honey stingers.  Damn it!  The running store closes at 5 on Saturdays.  So I looked up online where I could find Honey Stingers, and was told that they are sold at Fred Meyer, perfect, I'll go there.  But no HS's, so back to Google, and Walmart has them!  Yay!  So on to Walmart, nope, that particular store doesn't sell them.  Ugh!  Okay, Super Supplements, this time I called, nope, they don't have the chews, only the waffles.

About a year ago I used the waffles and didn't care for them.  They are big, they are dry, and don't taste great.  While in the store I noticed they also had Gu, which I've never used.  I compared Gu, waffles, and the chews nutrition and decided to go with the waffles, even though they were lacking in stuff the chews had.  But I thought they would be better than nothing, I had to buy a million packages (okay, only 6) just to (hopefully) make it through 22 miles.  This is the nutrition info I found. (I know it's hard to see.)

While the waffles have less calories, I don't really care about calories in my fuel, I want the "good stuff" in the fuel.  (Note: the waffles have more fat, which I don't like.) So what is important in a good long run fuel?  Well, carbohydrates are the number one factor . . . so what do the chews have? 39g of carbohydrates, the waffle has 21g. 

 

I am a very salty sweater, and I noticed during my long runs 2 years ago that I'd get done and want to lick the salt off my skin, so I need salt . . . well, one flavor of the waffles I choose (salted caramel) has a lot of salt 150mg, the chews have 80mg.  I also bought Vanilla waffles, and they had less sodium 90mg, but still more than the chews. 

 

So what other things have I wanted in my long run fuel?  Well, I actually have never thought about it before, but I was looking at the nutrition in the store and saw that the chews had potassium (40mg), the waffles had none.  I thought "huh, I've heard potassium helps with cramps." 

 

Also, the chews have 1g of fiber, the waffles have none; chews have 27g of sugar, the waffles have 10g; and the chews have 1g of protein, the waffles have "less than 1g."  Also interesting, the chews have 100% of Vitamin C, the waffles had 0%. 

 

I also use Nuun in my water, which I started using because of the sodium.

Huh, well, I didn't look at the Nuun nutrition when comparing the waffles and the chews, so I would think that 100mg of potassium would make up for the lack of it in the waffles, however, I have been using both Nuun and chews for a long time . . .

Anyway, I bought the waffles.  Before my run I decided to break the waffles in half, I hated having to do that the one other time I used them during my long run, and I put them in a ziplock bag so it'd be easier to get to (and sweat proof).  And off I went.

I had decided on a different route for my 22 miles.  I get tired of the long run along the freeway (the roads I usually run along follow the freeway very closely for 10 miles or more) and I thought a change of scenery would be nice.  There's a winding road that I used to drive on all the time that I love, it also happens to be a part of the Nookachamps half marathon, so I thought it would be decently flat.  However, I didn't want to do an out and back on that road, mostly because the beginning of it is a steep decline that I didn't want to have to climb back up, so I mapped out another road, Highway 9, that loops around and connects to an old route.  Then I would run near my home (about 3 blocks away) at about mile 13 and Chris could fill my water bottle again, and I could finish the 9 miles on the long flat roads along the freeway. 

Beautiful day for a run!

While mapping this online it looked okay flat, and it sounded like a brilliant idea to run by home a little more than halfway to get more Nuun.  What mapping online doesn't show is the lack of shoulders on the road, and both roads were rather heavily traveled . . .  Oh, and hwy 9? several hills, not huge, but more than I'm used to on a long run.  So, I'm now running on soft shoulders and up and down hills I wasn't expecting, past traffic going 50+ miles an hour.  Not ideal, not ideal at all.  By the time I got to where I was meeting Chris (remember, this is at about mile 13) I was completely dead.  I was fueling with half a waffle every 2 miles starting at mile 5, and a sip of Nuun every mile.  I didn't realize that I wanted water so badly until Chris gave me water and I put another Nuun tablet in.  I regretted it as soon as I took a swallow, and he didn't bring any other water with him.

The run past my house is all uphill, it is uphill for just about a mile, which I normally don't mind much because I'm at the beginning of my run, but at mile 13.5 it is not really what I wanted to do.  But I did know this before I left, so I kept going.

There's a side road that I started taking that parallels the road along the freeway, but also adds some distance, that I was planning on running, however, that road is connected by another road, and you know what the connecting road has? another big hill.  So the whole time I'm on the road going uphill away from my house, I'm thinking "I don't want to run on Blodgett, I don't want to run on Blodgett."  So I try to do some quick calculations in my head (never works) to see if I need that extra distance or not.  I actually had to turn around at the very, very beginning of my run to get something, so I had already added at least a quarter of a mile, so I thought, I could skip that jaunt up Blodgett and just run along the freeway where it's flat.  I forgot to mention that this route would also have me finishing at home with 22 miles, that way I didn't have to ask Chris to come get me.

Well, by mile 18 I realized there was no way I was going to finish 22 miles. My legs were dead and I was starting to walk quite a bit. I called Chris, I had no idea how far I was exactly from the park he usually meets me at but I asked him to pick me up.  I proceeded to walk quite a bit, I think at least half of mile 19 was walking . . . and some crying. When I got to about 18.5 miles I started thinking (my most used mantra) "you can do anything for a mile" and I started to run. 

I forgot to mention, I had exactly 5 Honey Stinger chews left over.  I took 2 at mile 18.  By 18.5 I was feeling a little better and I was forcing "good" thoughts in my head.  At mile 19 I took the rest, and, outloud, said "Come on, Cathy!" and picked up the pace (a tiny bit).  I had decided during the walking breaks that I thought the park was about 20 miles, so I would go that far, and I would go a little farther if it wasn't 20 miles, because I have to run at least 20 miles once, right? 

Well, I hit 20 miles a little bit before the park and I started walking, I was dead.  And Chris wasn't at the park.  I called him, and he said he was "busy" and would be there soon . . . what was he busy doing?  making apple pie.  Insert eyeroll here.  I laid down next to a tree and put my feet up.

Heaven . . . well, until my feet start tingling
from all the blood leaving them.

So why did I go into all the nutrition info earlier?  Because I realized that I felt a lot better after eating those 5 chews at the end of the run.  I thought that the waffles were a huge factor in how my body felt during the run.  Well, the waffles, and the fact that I ran on a brand new route for more than half my run that was more difficult than any of my long runs have been (well, other than the soft dirt one the Leavenworth Half route). Goal this week, get honey stinger chews from the running store.

I haven't run at all since Sunday.  I was going to run on Tuesday, but I felt awful, and was actually laying in bed by 7:45pm.  Yesterday was a huge storm, plus Maddox's parent/teacher conference.  So today I'm going to run, probably 5 miles.  Probably 4 tomorrow, 5 Saturday and probably 8 miles on Sunday.

I have not been as nervous this year as I was 2 years ago.  I don't know why, if it's because I know I trained badly last time too and I still made it, or maybe I just don't care that much this time.  My training was worse this year, a lot worse, but so far I'm not obsessing as much over it.  I guess we'll see how I am next week when it's closer.  I suppose I should look up my eating plan that I did two years ago because I felt it really played a part in how I did for the race.