Getting Nervous!

Happy Friday all! Short and sweet from me here today as I have a ton of work to do before the weekend. A few things:

• This week has been good for me foodwise. Green smoothies every day for breakfast and tons of veggies and fruit in general. Lots of salads!
  
• I might have been craving mac and cheese last night so I made a huge bowl of a quick "home made"version. It wasn't the best but it did the trick! (I also made BBQ tofu which was so gross I actually threw it out. Unless I get some good tofu recipes I might be giving up on the stuff.)
  
• Ran 5ish miles last night. It was hard.
• All of my runs this week (12 miler Monday, almost 4 miler Wednesday, and 5ish miler last night) have been VERY tough. My legs have felt sore & heavy and I generally have felt like I was out of shape or something. I'm trying not to worry about this, but I can't help it seeing as my 4 miler was almost too much for me Wednesday night. What is going on??
• I'm drinking tons of water (well over 70 oz. a day) and taking my vitamins, but I am still thirsty. I think I have a condition of some sort. Seriously.
  
• My shins hurt.
  
• My knees hurt.
• I have a date with Mr. Clean tonight and my apartment.
• I also have a date with ice bags tonight and will be taking the day off running to let my body rest...WTF?
• My final long run before my marathon next weekend will be 8 miles either tomorrow morning or Sunday.
  
• Next week I only plan on running two days prior to the Saturday race, and will be resting Thursday & Friday.
  
• I haven't really had too much soreness/aches/pains throughout this entire training period. That may be because I have been ice bathing it after each long run, plus I have been icing my shins and knees semi-regularly. I also have good shoes and insoles. I have felt very lucky!
• However, I did not ice bath after my 12 miler Monday...maybe that has been my problem this week???
• I will be hitting up the beach this weekend as it is supposed to be sunny and in the high 80's all weekend here!
  
• Matt and I are also planning on going hiking at some point.
  
• The rest of the weekend will be spent with my nose in a book as I prepare for my Series 7 General Securities Exam that is coming up....

Anybody have thoughts on why I'm feeling this way? Why have my runs all week been sooo hard even though they're incredibly short? Is this normal during taper time?

Hope everyone has a great Friday and I will be back this weekend with pics from the beach!

On My Own

I can't believe my first marathon is sooo close! I'm starting to make plans this week for when we drive up there, where everyone is staying, pre-race dinner, etc. and it's getting exciting/terrifying.

I think I mentioned a while back that I was running the race with a friend from Raleigh, we will call her M. (She was the one pictured with me here in Greece). M and I have been attempting to train for a marathon for almost two years now. Last year we were hoping to do the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, but ended up only doing the half. (She got the flu a few weeks before the race and I half assed my training.) So this year we were both pretty determined to get it done...so we decided on a race close to home & our families, the NC Marathon in Greensboro/High Point, NC and started training together/apart in January. My dad lives in Greensboro and the rest of my family is scattered throughout North Carolina and Virginia, so I was hoping that they could make it out to the race if we did it somewhere close.

Unfortunately during her training, M has become injured and so she will not be running the race with me. When she first told me the news, I was pretty sad about it/worried about running the race solo. But I figure if I can do all this horrendous training on my own, I can definitely run the race on my own! Plus, it's not like she intentionally injured herself, so I will have to make do!

So there's that. But fortunately, a lot of my family is going to come out to support me during the race! My grandmother from VA, my dad of course, I think my younger brother (who is in school at NC State in Raleigh), and my mom who lives in the Charlotte, NC area. Plus Matt will be there with me, and M and her boyfriend will be coming out to cheer me on! (I'm going to convince her to run miles 22-25 with me if we can meet up! I know I'm going to need some support at that point...)

I am very grateful to have family and friends that want to come out to support me in this! I love running races and seeing them along the sidelines, it definitely gives me a boost of energy and with 26.2 miles to run I will need all the help I can get!

***
Last night I completed last weekend's long run of 12 miles in 2:06:37 with an average pace of 10:33. I was actually pretty shocked that my pace wasn't slower, as it was the toughest run I have had in a while! I started out feeling okay, but my legs felt heavy and sore and my stomach was seriously not happy with me for almost the entire run. I had heartburn, I felt nauseous, I was tired, and I was cranky because of more seriously stupid wind. But, I kept on running and never stopped for a walk break, which I think is a true testament to my training. If this had happened a little over a month ago, I would have been walking every few miles, but I have been training hard and I think I finally got my fitness level up to where it needs to be to tackle long runs --even when they suck hard and I don't want to keep going.

Taper Schedule & Race Prep
Tonight I am going to do an easy 4, tomorrow an easy 5, another 4 on Thursday and a final long run this weekend of 8 miles. I am also focusing on seriously hydrating the next two weeks, taking my vitamins, getting a lot of sleep, and eating as cleanly and as healthy as possible.

For example, this morning for breakfast I had a green smoothie with two big handfuls of spinach, 1 chilled banana, 4 strawberries, 1/2 cup soy milk light, and some ground flax. (Although it would have been much more smoothie-like if I had a good blender, my food processor could be better.) I also had a piece of whole wheat double fiber bread with some chunky organic all natural PB. So far it has kept me full without needing a mid-morning snack!

I am so proud of everything I have accomplished so far, and I am really looking forward to setting even more ambitious goals post-marathon.

MCM + Farmer's Tan + Purple Sweet Potatoes?

First off, thank you all for your comments/suggestions on yesterday's post about whether or not I should sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon in October. I was also excited to have some new visitors! I hope I don't bore you guys too much and you decide to stick around...

I am pretty sure that I want to do this race, and now I realize that I don't have to hurry up and register if I run with a connected charity. After posting, I contacted our local TNT rep who answered some of my questions and gave me a better idea of how TNT works. I am planning on attending an informational meeting the week after the NC Marathon so at that point I will be more likely to make a decision.

As RunningLaur so kindly pointed out, there are dozens of other charities that partner with MCM that I could run with that also have spots reserved for their participants. My first thought was to run for troops wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, as my boyfriend Matt was wounded in Iraq in 2006.

I really want to make this next marathon mean something to someone other than myself, and for that reason, I really want to take my time researching the charity that I decide to run with. Obviously I would love to have the team aspect that TNT would provide, but that isn't as important to me as raising money for a reputable cause (not that TNT and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society isn't, I just want to research them a bit more first).

Tuesday's Hill Workout
OK, that being said...last night I was trying to decide whether to head to the track for a speed workout, or do my usual 5-6 mile hill workout over the Ravenel Bridge. I was feeling kind of lazy so I chose the hill workout.

I set out after work and immediately discovered that my headphones were only working in one ear. Great. Fantastic. Must spend more money on yet another pair of those. (My cat likes to chew the wires, I have lost about 4 pairs that way.) So that was crap thing number one about the run.

Then once I started up the first climb, I realized that it was considerably windier than I had previously thought. Awesome. I was still sore from Sunday somewhat so my legs were already tight and heavy, add on some wind and I was in for an unpleasant run.

Well, I generally don't like to let weather conditions make decisions for me too much, so of course I kept on going. Plus I figured that on the return trip the wind would be to my back.

With wind, comes the bearing of Kristin's ass/thighs (which are particularly white with farmer's tan compared to the rest of me. I'm actually quite worried about the beach this weekend) as my shorts basically become non-existent. I try not to worry about this usually, but it was rush hour traffic time on the bridge and there were three lanes of vehicles stopped in traffic sitting there waiting to stare at this crazy girl with white thighs huffing it up the bridge (with some difficulty, I might add).

So that was crap thing number two. I finally made it over and started climbing down the other side and the wind was still there, pissing me off. When I turned around at the 2.5 mile mark I was hoping that the wind would be to my back, but of course, it was a side wind so it was still there to make me angry.

I was in such a bad mood yesterday, definitely not even wanting to run, that this added irritation just made me so mad I wanted to just shout out THIS F***KING SUCKS! as loud as I could, but instead I just kept tugging at my stupid little shorts and hoping that the end would come soon.

I don't have my totals or splits but I did look at them last night, and basically every mile was in the 10s except for the last mile which I finished in like 8:20 or something rediculous.

Obviously, I was so over that run and just sprinted as fast as my legs would carry me back to my car.

Nom Nom Nom
When I got home, all I wanted was something fried to make me feel better. So I settled for the next best thing, Baked Spicy Purple Sweet Potato Fries. I have been making these fries for a while with regular sweet potatoes based on this recipe, but last night I changed it a bit and woofed these babies down.


Basically, I get out my coffee/spice grinder and pour in a bit of the following spices: fennel seeds, coriander, oregano, red pepper flakes, and rosemary. I grind them up (I have added the sea salt to the grinder before, but I like big chunks of salt so I left that for last this time) then I mix these spices together with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, toss the fries/wedges in the oil/herb mixture and then sprinkle them with sea salt.

Then I spread them out on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil, and bake for about 20-30 minutes at 425, check on them and turn them over and then continue baking for another 20 minutes or so. I like to keep an eye on them so they don't get burnt because sometimes they don't take quite that long.

Last night I only used one small potato, so I just eyeballed the spices based on what I know I like :) If you haven't noticed, I don't really follow recipes and so if I post any, I will most likely just say, 'I used these ingredients and threw it together." So there ya go!

These definitely are worth trying though, and they kind of made me feel better after my pull-my-hair-out-irritating run. I will say that I think I liked the purple sweet potato better than the regular! It just seemed to taste better, but maybe that was my mind tricking me out. I picked mine up at Whole Foods, I haven't seen them anywhere else.

Sorry for the poor photo quality, but I was starving and was in no mood to deal with my testy iPhone camera. The purple color was really bold once you bit into the fry!

One the running schedule this week:
Tonight I am going to attempt an easy 6 miler, do a TON of cleaning for our guests who are arriving tomorrow, and make sure I have enough groceries stocked for the weekend. I have not been doing so well with my ab work & calisthenics, but I plan on doing some of that after my run tonight and trying to get back into the groove.

Tomorrow at around 2, our guests arrive so running after work is out of the question. If I am feeling up to it (which I probably won't be) I will run my 5 mile speed workout before work tomorrow morning, otherwise I will take Thursday off and try to make up the miles later on in the weekend. I don't do well with running at night and then immediately again the following morning.

I have 12 miles on the agenda for this week's "long run" and will do that whichever morning this weekend that we didn't drink too much the night before. So, there's that. Since I am off Friday I would love to get it over with that morning before everyone wakes up.

Ideally, I would like to fit in both my speed work and my long run at some point this weekend. Did I confuse everyone yet??

***Question: How do you guys generally respond to comments on your posts? I want to answer the questions/comments you all leave, but if I answer them as another comment I feel like no one would go back to read that. How do you guys do it?