"Are You Trained? Or Untrained?" OR: How Ladypipes Plans to Spend Her Race Week

Race Week Preparations

One week from today I will compete in my 20th half marathon.  What a milestone that is!  In this, the year that I will celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary as well, I can't help but think that all this "20" in the same year is a good sign.  I feel positive karma all around me and am incredibly optimistic about the race ahead.

When I first became a runner, i was on the internet non-stop, learning about carb loading, race day strategies, pacing plans, the whole nine yards.  And for a while - mostly during 2012 and 2013, I got very complacent about race preparations.  Of course, I had also gained some weight and racing became more about the social connections than the actual race day experience - "oh, sure, i'm going another race with some friends.  Big Deal.  I figured, I've done this before, I can finish the race easy, I don't care about a PR, just-give-me-my-medal-and-then-let-me-eat-like-a-heifer."

Those days are over.  Between getting serious about living a healthy lifestyle and joining Jenny's Challengers, I'm approaching this race less like a social event and more like an endurance athlete.  Oh, sure, it's gonna be social...i'm running with two of my favorite girlfriends EVER.  And I can't wait to experience this weekend with them.  But I'm serious about racing hard.  I have a quest for an EPIC race experience.

What's that cool scene in MAN ON FIRE when Denzel asks Dakota Fanning about her swimming...."are you trained, or untrained?"  And she squeals, "I'M TRAINED!"  That's me.  I completely feel TRAINED.  Although my speed workouts weren't the fastest and my tempo runs might have been a little shorter than required, I followed my training program pretty regularly.  My long runs have been very strong and very regular.  And I'm ready to have fast feet on Sunday.  This week will feature the following workouts:

Monday:  Tempo Run at (mostly) HM pace
Tuesday:  Cross Train
Wednesday:  Easy Run
Thursday:  Short Speed Workout
Friday:  MILD cross train
Saturday:  light walking at the expo in Newport Beach

While I'm massively working a 21 day Nike+ Fuel Streak, I can't get too crazy about that this week.  I hope I make my goal each day, but feeling trained and well rested is more important.

Speaking of rest, I am shooting for 8 hours of sleep each night.  In bed by 9pm, and up at 5:30am.  No coffee after lunch and no Diet Coke at dinner.

Food - I have a whole other blog post prepared for that topic.  Suffice to say, there is joy and poetry in the carb loading experience, but one must be intentional so as to fuel properly and not just binge on a shit load of pasta.  To be continued on that...

Thank goodness my work week is light - only one foundation event and only one scheduled committee meeting.  Should be a stress-free lead in to an EPIC race weekend!  More to come....