Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I'm Done Running...Time to Carb Load!

Yesterday's Run: Temperature: 65 degrees. Road: 4.1 not-so-easy miles; splits: 9:00; 9:03; 8:50; 9:00; :50; 35:44; 8:57/Mile pace.

Yesterday's run was a "Lead Legs" run. Yup, I wasn't feeling the love that I had felt the day before. My splits were about the same, but I didn't have the relaxed and easy feeling. So, because of that and also the strong winds today, my Hartford Marathon training is complete. Today would have been an easy 5 miler anyhow. So I'll rest my left foot which has decided to remind me the past 24 hours that it still has Morton's Neuroma. (I know you're doing a Google search right now!). It's not really a big deal, but this is one of those times that it bothers me enough to be noticeable. My left foot feels like "A feeling that something is inside the ball of the foot, or that there's a rise in the shoe or a sock is bunched up." Thank-you footphysicians.com for allowing me to copy and paste that. In less than 2 1/2 days I'll be run-walk-running the marathon. A few years ago I did an internet search and found some fantastic carb loading information. (Update 10/8: I used this method for my 2 previous marathons, and believe it helps). Here's the important information from it: **The first day of loading (TODAY!)is the most important. Begin with a big carb breakfast, such as pancakes or French toast. This is the day (Wednesday) for the traditional pasta dinner of spaghetti and bread. Try to stuff in as many complex carbohydrates as possible in these two meals (breakfast and dinner).
•Taper off bulk and switch to more *simple CHO's as the days progress. Do not load on large quantities of fruit or any other foodstuffs that you don't normally eat.
•The last major meal (Friday night) should be 12-15 hours before the race (between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.) and should not include too much bulk. It should be easily digestible so that it will pass through your system before the race.
So needless to say, Bruegger's Bagels were my BF today. I've consumed 4 or 5 or 6 (I lost track) of them today, along with a big slice of BLT pizza for lunch, yogurt, and lentil soup for dinner (Thanks wonderful wife Kathy). Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail has been my beverage of choice. I'm stuffed. I'm done eating and drinking for today.
The weather for the marathon is looking good. WFSB says: "Saturday: A chance for showers in the morning then partly sunny and quite breezy. Low: 54. High: 71."
WTNH says: "SATURDAY: Possible early shower, then clearing. Windy with falling temperatures. 60s early then falling through the 50s later in the day." I think I like WFSB's forecast better. They are closer to Hartford, and their temperature prediction is warmer.
I've decided to change most of the music on my mp3 player. Most of it is 70's hits, which is fine. I'm tired of listening to the same songs, and feel that a new playlist will help get me through the Marathon. So tomorrow one of the students in our classroom has the assignment of legally downloading a list of songs for me. I've done it at home before by myself, but it's always taken me forever to do, and I haven't done it in so long that I'm not sure if I still remember how to do it. Plus I always used Limewire, which everyone that knows anything about downloading music has told me NOT to use. Too many viruses I guess. So I'll do it the proper way, and also know it will be done faster and better by the song downloading expert student in our classroom. Worse case scenario he deletes all my songs and can't download any new songs. Then I'll just have to run music free. Just the thought of running 26.2 miles without my 70's tunes scares me. Maybe I'll wait until after the marathon to have him do it. But then again, I've always been a person willing to take chances (Hence 2 marathons in a 3 week period), so I'll probably have him do it. "Tune" in tomorrow to see how it went.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm curious, hope it works out and the expert helps out!

Lisa said...

Wow, you are so consistent in your running... look at those splits. Looks like the weather will be on your side for the marathon. I hope all goes well with the music downloading. Thanks very much for the nice post on my blog today, you are always so encourging and I do appreciate that.

Irish Cream said...

I have a ton of catching up to do, but I just wanted to say . . . Good luck this weekend!! Just remember to stick to the plan and you will do GREAT :) Can't wait to read all about the big race when I get back to O-town! :)

Mel -Tall Mom on the Run said...

GOOD GOOD LUCK!! I linked you in on High Five Friday.. CAn't wait for the race report.. Hope the led legs are gone.