The fall edition of Race Pace Training Diaries follows Brittany, a Race Pace Runner, on her journey of training for her first marathon, the New York City Marathon on November 3rd. Learn more about Brittany here or follow her daily adventures on twitter.
The first thing I did when I received my long run schedule from Jess was scroll down to see when my first 20-miler would be. As a first time marathoner, the thought of running 20 miles was beyond me. It’s a milestone that I thought would make me feel like a “real” long-distance runner. I’ve been so excited and nervous for it to finally come!
Training has been going really well, I can tell I’m getting stronger and faster, and luckily I’ve had very few hiccups. Seeing so many friends out because of injuries has made me grateful to be healthy. Last weekend my 18-miler went so well I convinced myself I wouldn’t have another long run go that well again. I have no idea why I tell myself these things!
I tried to block this out of my mind and stay focused on what I needed to do to prepare for the 20-miler. The good news is that I got it done, but it did not go as well as I hoped. I thought I’d share some of the things I did right to prepare, and what I did wrong.
The Good:
The past 2 weeks I’ve had extremely tight calves that is also causing foot pain. Before I even realized that my calves were the root of the problem, Jess told me to keep up with my calf stretches and foam rolling. I guess she really does know what she’s talking about! 😉 I was worried that my calf and foot pain would turn into something worse, so I was a good runner and stretched and foam rolled multiple times a day. I even brought my Stick to work, and now my coworkers officially think I’m crazy.
I mentioned in my last post that I was constantly hungry and felt like I wasn’t eating enough. I really made an effort this week to eat larger dinners and to make sure I always had a snack bar on me. I never thought I’d see a day where I was proud of myself for eating more!
The So-So:
When it comes to sleeping, I’ve been doing an okay job at getting my usual seven hours a night. One of my goals going forward is to try to bump that up to eight. I hate the annoying cycle of staying up too late and then not wanting to work out in the morning. I seriously just need to stop playing on my phone at night!
The Bad:
Let me start off by blaming all of the bad on college football! My long run was scheduled for Sunday this week, which meant that everything I did on Saturday would affect how I felt on my long run. There’s no reason that I can’t watch football Saturdays, but I’ve learned my lesson about how eating crappy bar food and drinking too much will make me feel. My lunch was a buffalo chicken wrap that was so spicy I could literally feel the acid reflux coming on and then my dinner was [fried] doughnuts. If that’s not a recipe for disaster, let’s add in a few IPAs.
Long story short, my stomach was miserable during the run. I think because I’ve never fueled so poorly before a long run, I didn’t realize what I was doing to myself. I never really found my groove on this long run, and because I was dehydrated, I also had to stop quite often to get water.
Well I survived, learned a few lessons, and won’t be making those mistakes again. Having both an amazing and not so amazing long run under my belt, I feel more confident in my 22-miler coming up in two weeks. I’m hoping to report back that it went much better!
Stephanie says
Loved reading this! I’m on my journey for my first marathon as well. My mileage is nearing the peak, after a great half marathon race I had a huge runner’s high…well, that is until I did my longest run to date last Sunday – 17miles. It was hard and I got discouraged. But after reading this, I know I need to enjoy it, but also make sure I improve and make better decisions before “Long Run Day”! Thanks for the post, it helped get me excited for my first 20-miler this Sunday 🙂