Mentally going long

As I wrote on Sunday, I've had to rejigger my training a bit to stop the excuses and to ensure that I get in the miles both during the week and on my long run days. 'Cause that's pretty much what marathon training is - getting in the miles and making them "good" miles so you get stronger and can go longer.

I'll be honest, it's been hard this time around.

I'm chalking a bit up to age. Definitely my slower time per mile is due to the additional 5 years on this body (not to mention the extra 20lbs and additional child birthed), but that's physical and if there is anything those ladies at anothermotherrunner.com have told and showed me, there are things you can do (speed work anyone?!?) to get back to those 30 something speeds.

Nope, this has been mental.

Don't know really how to describe it, but the best description is: I'm bored. I switch up routes, I throw in some great podcasts (yes, that's me, giggling down the road with Dimity and Sarah and with the WaitWait gang) I've got music that within the first bars, no one, I mean no one, can stop their feet from moving. I meet friends along the route to run with. I even take the most-opinionate dog for part of the run.

I just haven't been able to find my long run mojo.
Anyone else lose this?
Did you find it again?

It's not that I can't do the runs, I'm just not able to start cruising around mile 6 and just let the miles go one by one past me until I either hit that last struggle or cruise the last mile at race pace. I came pretty close during last weeks 15 miler. Maybe it was the fact I was back on Cilley Hill and that I can run that road in my sleep, but it was the first run where I was cruising, body moving, mind at rest or at least paging through the thoughts mindfully.

I'll take that as a good sign. We'll see if I can do it again this week.

Snow....

Yup, we woke up to two inches of "freshes" on the ground and another inch or so fell during my run, that plus a nice "breeze" made it feel like spring in VT again! All this warm weather was making me feel strange...I shouldn't get sunburn in March, that has to wait until April!

Today's run was likely 17, if not more. Conservative measurements brought up 17.4 on the gmaps pedometer, but because I ran three 5+ mile out and backs, along with a two mile addition, it was hard to calculate perfectly. The last mile was definitely pushing the legs - but walking for a short bursts allowed me to finish running - downhill hurts, but I'm glad I have ours to prepare for Boston's last few miles. Now I think I need to do a bit more flat road running, I really feel better going uphill, strange as it may sound.

I ran this strange three loopie thing in order to test out a fueling strategy. I think most folks are familiar with the phrase "hitting the wall" and I've had experience with this when I was 23 and thought I could run a half marathon on coffee and a muffin. Bam, 12 miles hit and I just shoke my head and laughed - so that's what they mean. You really feel like you've hit a wall. The cure for this is to make sure you have enough carbs and electrolytes (and protein, some think) in your system as you run (or do any exercise) over an hour. So over the years I've been experimenting with the new gel, drinks, etc and just haven't had much success of finding something that works for my stomach and allows me to run too (I can eat most everything while I ski or row).

Enter a sample pack of HEED, a desperate Mom of a toddler with no time to go to the sports store to buy something else, her first 13+ run, and the rest was history. One of my best runs and no stomach issues. I've tested a few other things since that run, but nothing buffers my stomach better and today my energy level was consistant through the run (it was just my legs that pooped out). This run I also tried their endurance drink (for exercise longer than 2 hours) - that stuff looked and tasted horrible before the run, but at 2+ hours, it was strangely exactly what my body was craving. Weird, but cool. I've got my fuel.

I think that's it for now. Got a few other posts rolling around my head, but got a body and a Bryn to feed!

Flat

Yup, that's what Minnesota is, flat, at least in comparison to my neighborhood and typical running routes. This is not to disparage any MN athletes either - no way! I know way too many folks from MN who kick my butt! Instead it just allowed me to get in two good runs while we are visiting here over Christmas. There is a nice 5 mile loop on bike paths that I did once on Christmas and then twice yesterday. Yup, did my ten miles - managed to run slow enough for the first 5 to negative split by nearly three minutes the second 5 miles. It was a good run. Now I'm a little tight around the quads and calves, but a few yoga series seems to help and we'll get in another walk this afternoon to make sure I get some blood running through those legs before the flights back to VT.

Hopefully there will be snow still in VT when we get back so we can enjoy some nordic and tele time. It will be a balancing act (what's new?) to get in the ski time and still keep up with the long runs. I'm not really concerned about the fitness part of things - beleive me, nordic skiing will keep me in shape, but yesterday's run confirmed to me that nothing else will do but running for these long runs.