Gotta have a goal

Well, it's getting down to the wire!  The NYC Marathon is just a week and a day away!

I've been pretty calm in most aspects concerning the actual race, and running.  My aches and pains have seemed to have all fixed themselevs (knock on wood!), and the taper has been great for me to feel refreshed and to go into each run with energy.  Had a 5-mile "easy" run on Tuesday, a great, final speed session on Wednesday behind Steelyard Commons, a rest day on Thursday, and a little faster than expected 3-miler yesterday around Tremont.  (I wore my garmin, and it just kept saying paces that were fast for me!  I kept having to force myself to slow down!)  Part of the briskness of yesterday's run was the fact that it was raining, so I just wanted to sort of get it over with and nobody likes standing around in the rain.  But it felt really nice, and that last mile passed by so quickly and I almost felt that I could do one more...but I didn't.  I need to not push so much!

Today, I was going to do 8 but I think I might save that for tomorrow and just do an easy 2-3 today...part of the reason is because it's again overcast (and supposed to clear up tomorrow), we had a lot of errands to run this morning (dry cleaning, laundry, bank, groceries), and, uh, let's just say I had a little bit too much fun with the wine last night at Rob & Claire's.  Ha ha.  Which reminds me, I totally did not stick to my original plan of not drinking a full month before the race...but I'm going to at least try to do a good 5 days before if not a full week.  (I read up online and nobody really says it's necessary to fully cut it out except for a couple days before so that you're not dehydrated.)

So, I am feeling "ready."  But how do you ever really feel ready for something like this?  Will it be easier than I thought?  Harder?  It's gotta be easier than Phoenix in that I actually KNOW I am capable of finishing, and that I trained smarter and harder than last time around.  But the course itself will be hilly!  Oh well, at least NY will have tons of crowds - and my friends and family - to pull me along.  Here's the course:

NYC Marathon Course

And here, for the first time ever...are my marathon goals!  (Drum roll)
I've heard it's smart to always make three goals: a reachable goal (like I finished), a somewhat attainable goal (like I finished having a great time without any pain, or I beat my time by a few minutes or seconds), and a harder to achieve, "stretch" goal.

Being that I only ran one other marathon, and my time was not that impressive (5:53:45), I truly feel that I can beat that time, even with the hills of NY.  I think last time, I was very tentative and was so scared of pushing too hard and hitting the wall (which, by the way, I did anyway) that I ran super slowly.  We also stopped for the bathroom a ton of times, which I don't really want to do this time if I can help it.

So Goal A: Beat my time by at least 10 minutes.

I don't really know what times to put for the others...I am thinking of "milestone" times, like 5:30 as the next goal.  I don't know why, but for some reason, the time 5:11 keeps flashing in my head.  Maybe it's cause it was my address in Madison....haha.  But I feel that that might be something to think about.

Going to the McMillan calculator and putting in my last half-marathon PR (2:17:12) gives an output of 4:49:21 for the marathon.  But that is crazy!  I don't think I am capable of breaking 5 hours...however, in that same page, the output for 5000m is 29:41...one second off my last 5K race time.  Creepy, huh?

So my super-secret goal, that I might be able to do if EVERYTHING worked out and the stars were aligned (weather, no clothing mishaps/chafing, no hitting the wall, fully hydrated, etc.) is to break 5 hours.


Haha!

Dedications to come in a future post...now?  An easy 3-miler!  (And I mean easy!)

Taper Troubles

Oy vey.

Well, either what everyone says about the marathon taper is true, or I'm just paranoid about things feeling "off" that I am making it true.  Either way...this week has been quite annoying in terms of feeling "healthy."

After the half on Sunday, I was dead to the world.  Hurting everywhere, exhausted...nothing like the River Run 3 weeks ago or EVEN the 20 miler in Rocky River last weekend.  I don't know what the deal was.  I had mentioned I started feeling a little off on Saturday, but then I guess the half "washed it out" for the time being, but then the icky feeling came back with a vengeance.

Monday I felt stiff, groggy, and had a headache and jaw pain most of the day.  Kept taking Tylenol/Advil/whatever for it, but I hate taking medicine.  I was going to go to yoga at 6pm on Monday--which I've done before and has actually helped a lot after a long run or race--but then I had a baking mishap while making Derek anniversary cupcakes (Salted caramel filled chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting).  Everything started off fine, but then when it came time to make the caramel...WTF!?!?!?!  It took me three tries.  Finally, I got it. 

But by that point, the kitchen was a mess, I had chocolate all over me...and there was no going to yoga.  Oh well.

Derek did enjoy the cupcakes immensely though...

Anyway. I was a little on edge from not doing ANY type of working out on Monday, even though I didn't have a run planned.  Derek and I went out that night for our anniversary at Farenheit, which was fabulous. 

The only thing wrong was that my head started feeling gross again, and I couldn't get the smell of that caramel out of my mind...and all those dishes that had to be washed when we got home...

I did, however, enjoy a glass of my new favorite red wine, InZINerator, a Zinfandel (not to be confused with its trashy pink counterpart, White Zinfandel). 

I got exactly ZERO sleep Monday night, adding to the problems.  By Tuesday morning, I felt so tired.  I didn't know what to do about running, because I know I am tapering, but not that much, not yet!  I still have to do up to 80% of what I was doing last week, maybe even more since I didn't really do high-mileage throughout the training.  Ugh.

Got a flu shot Tuesday afternoon (the spell is broken; after getting my first flu shot I am no longer convinced that it will give me the flu -- but knock on wood), then did a measley 20-minute run by the Steelyard.  I just wasn't able to continue; too many things felt "off."

Wednesday the headache still wasn't gone.  I was getting really upset!  My tooth was still kinda hurting too (I have never gotten my wisdom teeth extracted, and so sometimes I bite my cheek and it hurts for a little while but then the pain goes away.  Dumb, I know, I should get them taken out, yadda yadda yadda.  I probably will.  In fact, I made an appointment this morning to see the dentist so I will see what he tells me).  I made myself go running, not only because I am stubborn but because I honestly did think it would make me feel better.  And it did, for a while.  I did around 5 miles and even tried to pick up the pace a mile at at time for a little makeshift speedwork session.  I decided not to take any meds all day, but then kinda gave up that idea around 6 o'clock when I had to go meet Derek and his boss for dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  I wasn't just going to go and feel miserable; I wanted it to be a pleasant experience.  I took some Advil...and...the headache went away and stayed away!!! YAY!!

I am thinking it was sort of like a migraine...I only get those at times of stress.  Saturday could have been the "aura" because I was feeling weird and lightheaded...and then the half put it off and then it came back.  Ugh.  I hate migraines.  I think the nausea is the worst part of it. Blecch.  So what's the stress?  I dunno...not knowing where I stand job-wise...while part-time is good, it's not what I really need in order to feel secure.  Been waiting to hear back from a couple places so we'll see.  Also, tapering is good put it is also weird...how much do I run, how many days do I take off, with what intensity do I do my workouts?  It's all kind of a mystery. 

Went to Hot Powerful Flow yoga today at Inner Bliss...it was awesome, just what I needed.  I am planning on doing 10 miles sometime in the next few days - maybe tomorrow, because I just signed up for a 5K for Sunday (or maybe just running 6-7 before the race?), then cutting back next week to two runs of 4 miles and maybe one of 3 miles...and then the week after that maybe 4, 3, and 2?  I don't know, I think I'll just wait and see what my body tells me.  As so many running experts will tell you, less is more in these situations.  I just don't want to lose fitness (hence the 5K and some other minimal speedwork to keep me sharp).  But I guess it's all just a mental thing right now; the hard part is done...now all I can do is TRUST MY TRAINING!!