The Joy of Tappering!!

Well this week is a good week!  As I prepare to head north to the Niagara Falls Marathon my training seems to take a bit of a slow and low focus.  Trying not to spend to much energy running and trashing my legs my workouts are just easy ones.  I had a 45 minute easy run on Monday, Tuesday a 50 minute run with a 15 minute warmup and then a 3 mile tempo run (basically just picking up the pace for 3 miles to get the heart pumping and legs a bit more loose and to also give the body the ability to speed up and slow down more easily) and then a 10 minute cool down.  I will be traveling to Canada on Wednesday so I won't get any running in and then I'll do a 30 minute run on Thursday.  This run is key for me to get a feel for the temperatures that I will be facing on Sunday.  I will be able to understand what layers if any I will need for race day!  Friday will be a total rest day, sipping my water and doing my best to eat the nutritionally energizing foods that will help me maintain a good pace. Saturday will be an even easier day, just a simple 25 minute run to again test the temps, loosen the legs a bit and to relax!!  THEN SUNDAY IS RACE DAY!! 

I am feeling very good about this race.  I feel I have trained better than years past and should be able to stay strong throughout the entire 26.2 miles!  Fueling is important as usual, however the main thing I think for me will be the temps.  I am told 50-60 degrees is the perfect temps to run and that is just what the weather is showing for sunday!!  I am excited and as long as I can stay warm enough I should have a great race!  For me time doesn't always mean everything.  Of course I love the fact that I can go out and do well and get a Personal Best and it really shouldn't be that hard this time.  My training has me doing good times and as long as I allow God's wisdom to guide me I will be great!  I am excited to see what God has for me in this race.  I know the last marathon I ran turned into a great opportunity to pray alongside people as we ran and encourage them to keep going.  It was incredible and I honestly didn't want to finish!  It was the longest marathon time that i've had but honestly I wouldn't trade it for anything because I was doing just what God wanted me to be doing that day!  It was where I really felt the desire and even experienced the great ministry opportunity that I had in the endurance sports world! 

So this marathon is no different, I am looking to see what God has for me.  It has been a great training period and even though the marathon is on sunday training will continue on so that I can run the St. Croix marathon on Dec. 2nd!  Its a big year and God's doing great things and each race He has something special in it so I am looking forward to sunday's time of worshiping for 26.2 miles!!

and I'm feeling GOOD!

Well I had quite the weekend that just passed.  I am in the final weeks of my training for the Niagara Falls marathon!!  I only have 1 more long run and then a decrease in the distance and then its race day!!  Saturday I had to do 19 miles (my longest run in almost a year actually)  I found it quite easy to prepare for the run which was delightful!  I knew I had to do it, and I knew that hydrating and fueling is so important on these runs.  I always have a few "go to" things in preparation for a long run.  I get up and eat a little bit of oatmeal not only to fuel the run but to take away the empty stomach rumbling that I normally wake up with!  I like to lay my stuff out on the counter so I can visualize the fuel and set the distance for when I will take each of them.  This run's fuel was a bit different however my experiment seemed to pay off.  I grabbed my GU for miles 4, and 16 and then I had a powerbar that I planned to eat half of at mile 8 and then the other half at 12.  The thinking behind this was to gain a bit more energy in the middle of the run so my body would have more to pull from later in the higher miles.  I also did my best to drink as much as possible the day before the run, I think I got a gallon and some which is GREAT!!  The run was great it started out with a nice easy 2 miles alone at 4:30am on the north shore that was beautifully lite by the full moon!  It was incredible and then I was joined by the rest of my running friends for 15 miles and then did the last 2 alone again and it was perfect!  I felt so strong, so fresh, and really good!  I haven't felt like that after a long run in awhile.  God truly kept me feeling this way! 

So having such a great run on Saturday led me to entering into a sprint triathlon on Sunday morning.  I didn't know if I would participate in it because of how I might feel after my run but honestly as I walked around saturday afternoon I didn't even feel like I had ran so I knew the Tri was gonna happen.  I was excited to do this triathlon, it was only my 3rd triathlon and every time I race I get more excited and fall in love all over again with it!  I was even able to get a new personal record on my time in completing it!  I was of course slow out of the water (I'm working on this) but I knew the bike course and I was able to regain ground on the bike and pull ahead of a number of people!  The run was good..... I am really learning my body, there is a difficulty in knowing how much you can push on the bike to still have energy to run.  It takes me a long time to get my running rhythm down where my legs don't feel like jello or noodles after I get off my bike.  I know in time my body will learn how to adjust quicker than the first mile of the run.  However it was a great race I felt again strong...well as strong as I could for swimming, cycling, and running!  I was caught off guard by the race director and was given a very VALUABLE piece of information that I will not forget in my next races.  He told me I wasn't smiling or looking happy when he saw me in the transition area.  I know there are lots of reasons for this, focus being the main one, just tuning everything and everyone out and just doing what I need to do at that time.  However I know that I race for a higher purpose and I don't have the same attitude that everyone else does so I need to be careful in the future to race with the Joy of the Lord shining through me!  Although someone might thing how can you smile when you swim 1/2 mile, bike 14 miles, and run 3 miles??!!  Well its possible and not only at the end of the race but during it!  I do know there were moments when I couldn't stop smiling because I was feeling so alive and just loving the gift God has given me in this way!