OOH-RAH! 20 MILES!
This run felt great. I was even able to sprint out the last quarter mile with one of the coaches. Not my regular pace coach - he would surely have yelled at me for that. Even though my quads were screaming, it was fantastic to have the energy at the end of the run to finish strong. The coach I ran the last 10 miles with mentioned running these longest of the long runs at GAD pace - Go All Day pace. Being out on the trail for so long will improve endurance and prepare you for the marathon. Sometimes I feel like I am training at such a slow pace, and I wonder if I will be able to run the race at the faster pace I envisioned. I think I might be able to, but right now I am trying to balance my enjoyment of the day with my ideal time goal.
When I was training for my last marathon, I had a disastrous 20-miler. To make matters worse, it was our only 20-miler of the training schedule and it was three weeks before the marathon. When I started this marathon training program, I was concerned about the high weekly mileage and number of long long runs, including three 20-milers. Now, I realize that doing so many very long runs will make me feel comfortable and confident in my ability to complete the marathon. Even if one of my other 20s go terribly wrong, I can look back on this run and know that I am capable of doing the distance.
Since running 20 miles at a time and over 40 miles in one week allows someone the right to eat anything they damn well please, this is also a great time to talk about post-run nutrition. This is my go-to post-run meal (although I switched it up slightly this week):
I usually drink a big glass of ice-cold chocolate milk, which studies have found to be an excellent recovery drink because it contains a good balance of protein, carbs and fat. I drink it because it's chocolate milk and chocolate milk is awesome. I usually grab a cup of Greek yogurt with honey (more protein and carbs) and a bowl of cereal. This week, we broke in our new blender with some smoothies. I threw in some frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, a banana, vanilla soy milk, flaxseed and OJ. Yum.
I'm hooked.
Enough talk of food (this may be the one and only time I ever say that), this is my running schedule for this week:
Enough talk of food (this may be the one and only time I ever say that), this is my running schedule for this week:
TOO funny. I was running tonight with friends and they told me the same thing about chocolate milk and I immediately thought GOTTA TELL LAUREN. But apparently you already had this knowledge. We will be drinking lots and lots of chocolate milk October 30th my friend :)
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