by | March 20, 2009 · 7:17 pm

Pre-race routines

My race-day running clothes are laid out on my dresser, right below my bib and Timex IronMan watch. The espresso machine is loaded, the Luna bar is sitting in the counter and my iPod (well, my friend Chris’ iPod, as mine isn’t back from the iPod infirmary — thanks, Chris!) is loaded with a carefully compiled playlist.

Now what? I consulted my friends for tips on how to chill out, and got some really fabulous ideas. Here are a few of my favorites:

From my friend Jim, whose son runs something in the neighborhood of a 4-minute mile, and who’s no slouch of a runner himself: “Be a total obsessive. Lay everything out. Know exactly what you will eat pre-race. Have that laid out. Every little detail: planned. Bathe very early. To bed very early. Then when you are laying there and you can’t sleep, you can tell yourself “f-it, I’m in bed early. I’m not worried about falling asleep.” Then you just let yourself drift. You don’t think about the race at all. Don’t imagine anything about it. Get out of bed early, knowing you will feel like s–t. It’s OK that you feel like s–t. You planned for that. Get to the race early so you can forget about parking and all of that crap. Have lots and lots of time to stretch and go for a pre-race run. Not too far before the race. You want to be warm and still a little sweaty when the gun sounds. Then you go like hell!”

From my friend Courtney: “I never sleep well the night before the race… EVER– no matter how big or small. So, I really have to count on good sleep for the other nights leading up to the race. I prepare everything… bib pinned to clothes, everything in a pile. Chip attached to shoe. Breakfast components on counter. You’d think that’d help me sleep, but NO WAY!”

And once that’s all done, I especially like this piece of advice from my friend Jen‘s older sister, Jessica. Jess was our absolute running idol growing up — she was fast in high school, faster in college, and impossibly cool to two 8th-graders. A year or so ago, she ran a half-marathon without any training at all, and still finished in about two hours. She offers this: “I used to get so nervous before a race. Now that I’m out of the racing scene, I look back and wonder: What was I so afraid of? Just relax and enjoy …”

Brilliant. Let the relaxing begin!

To that end, I’ll answer the aforementioned friend Jen’s question about pre-race dinners.

“Of course, you’re suppose to load up on carbs. Just curious if you have a “special” meal. I’ve been known to go to the Olive Garden and eat pasta and breadsticks…haven’t seen any big success with that meal….thinking I should try something different.”

In a word: Pizza. The light, crispy restaurant kind, or the kind we make at home with Whole Foods dough, topped with tomatoes, basil and peppers. Roasted-veggie lasagna is a fave, too, but longer races call for pizza. My opinion about this was totally justified last year, when Olympic marathoner Keith Brantly said this was HIS pre-race meal of choice. If it works for him …

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by | March 19, 2009 · 4:29 pm

Last pre-race run, more pre-race jitters

Just got back from a quick 25-minute tempo run — my last before the race! It felt awesome to get out and stretch my legs, and I worked in a couple of hills just to remind my body that I can do them.

Next up: the expo tomorrow, which is sure to be exciting. Even though it’s a pain having to trek downtown in the middle of the day, I’m sure getting my timing chip and race number will help me feel like I’m actually doing something to get ready for the race, which at this point, I want to JUST GET HERE ALREADY.

Any tips for coping with pre-race jitters? Post ’em below!

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by | March 18, 2009 · 2:21 pm

Repeat after me

Before training for a marathon in 2007, I scoffed at the idea of a mantra. I wasn’t a serious enough runner to chant crap to myself, I reasoned. I’m just not a mantra kind of girl.

Then, before a long run, I happened to read that before concerts, Beyonce tells herself: “I’m fierce!” I love me some Beyonce, so I gave it a try, repeating it nonstop for the last mile or so of my run.

It was the first long run I ever pulled out faster miles at the end than at the beginning. Turns out, I’m a mantra kind of girl after all.

I still make like Beyonce and tell myself I’m fierce when times get tough. I’ve added some new mantras and quotes to my repetiore since then, and I’ll share them here in the special race-week motivation series.

“Run til you puke.” (This seems to have the magical effect of preventing me from vomiting;I’ve never actually run til I puked on a day I employed this mantra).

“It makes my tushy less cushy.” I know — these hardly sound like the kind of hard-core words of wisdom that could power you through a tough workout. The mantra comes from a runner who’s qualified for the Boston Marathon several times, talking about a hill loop her group runs often. It crept into my head one day on one of my own hill workouts, and I found it both hilarious and oddly effective.

Some classic quotes that will also get you out the door:

“Running is a big question mark that’s there every day. It asks you, “Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?” – Peter Maher

“You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement. -Steve Prefontaine

“It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.” -George Sheehan

“You gain strength, confidence and courage by every experience in which you
really stop to look fear in the face.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“Some think guts is sprinting at the end of a race. But guts is what got you there to begin with. Guts start back in the hills with six miles to go and you’re thinking of how you can get out of this race without anyone noticing. Guts begin when you still have forty minutes of torture left and you’re already hurting more than you ever remember.” – George Sheehan

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

What quotes or mantras get you fired up during a tough workout? Post your own inspiring or hilarious words below.

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by | March 17, 2009 · 12:29 pm

Runner-friendly recipes: Roasted veggie lasagna, pumpkin-chocolate bread

Let me be honest here: I know there’s no need for me to carbo-load.

For those running 26.2 miles, loading up on carbohydrates leading up to race day is a necessary step to ensure they’ve got enough glycogen stored for the long haul. For half-marathoners, we’re not really on the road for long enough to merit that kind of pre-race gluttony, at least in the name of glycogen-storing.

So I try to bridge the gap between the carby foods my body craves and the wholesome stuff that lets me remain a healthy runner (and a healthy human). I give you my two favorite pre-race meals.

Pumpkin bread doesn't stay intact for long in my kitchen.

Pumpkin chocolate-chip bread

One 15-oz. can pure pumpkin (or the roasted, pureed flesh of half of a small sugar pumpkin)

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour

Two eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ea.cinnamon, nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just blended. Spoon batter into a loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, until the top of the loaf is firm to the touch.

I can’t really claim this next one as my own, but the good people at Weight Watchers (seriously) found a winner with this roasted vegetable lasagna. Works with a wide variety of veggies!

3 medium raw eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 medium sweet red pepper(s), chopped

4 small tomatoes, plum, seeded and chopped

4 medium garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp table salt, or more to taste

1/4 tsp black pepper, or more to taste

9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained

1/4 cup(s) grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 cup(s) part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 425°F. Roast vegetables and garlic with olive oil until tender — about 20 to 25 minutes. Puree half of vegetables, salt and pepper in food processor until smooth. Spoon 1/2 cup of vegetable purée into bottom of a 9 X 13-inch baking dish. Place three noodles over purée. Top with 1/2 cup of purée, 1/2 of remaining vegetables, 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers and then top with remaining 3 noodles, purée and cheese. Bake until bubbly, about 40 to 45 minutes. Slice into 6 pieces and serve.

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by | March 16, 2009 · 6:06 pm

Taper time, baby!

Is there a weirder time in training than the taper, the days before a race in which you dramatically cut back on mileage and intensity to give your muscles a chance to rest? You spend months amping up, getting your body to a place where it truly feels wrong not to run or cross-train. Then, you do a complete about-face. Just when you have the most nervous energy, the name of the game becomes chilling out.

Runner’s World calls the fits of nerves and anxiety that besiege even normally sane runners (not saying I’m ever one of these) “taper tantrums,” and offers some tips for coping here.

Here are some of my own tips for not going nuts during (and maybe even enjoying) a taper.

Practice positive visualization. More on this later in the week. for now: I like to use a tip I read in some running book about a million years ago that calls for runners to visualize a section of the race every day before race day. So today, I’ll be thinking about the first three miles, tomorrow, six through nine, and so on.

Memorize the course map. This is a tip from Olympic marathoner Keith Brantly, who I interviewed for the Finish Line, a series I wrote before Gainesville’s Five Points of Life Marathon. “Get the course map,” Brantly said. “Put it up on your fridge. Make it the screen saver on your computer. Imagine how great you’re going to feel at certain points. Let it become part of your daily life, and you’re kind of rehearsing the marathon every day.”

Stretch. I have to force myself to make time for this. Luckily, this week, time is all I’ve got (at least when it comes to time I’d usually spend training). For me, this usually means yoga, as the poses seem to loosen my hip muscles and generally relax me. Check out some yoga-for-runners tips here. I especially like the pigeon pose for stretching your hips and glutes. I also like stretching with a foam roller. I was skeptical about this when my physical therapist first recommended it. But it’s truly amazing, and is a great way to stretch/do self-massage for slackers. Check out a few ideas for how to use a foam roller here. A lot of gyms have them, or you can buy one for about $15 from Sports Authority.

Don’t feel like you’re slacking. Brantly suggests repeating the following: “Rest is training. Rest is training.”

Besides obsessively checking race-day weather forecasts, I’ve actually been handling this taper pretty well. After my long run on Saturday, I enjoyed pizza with some good buddies, then plopped myself on my good buddies’ couch, where I spent a few hours doing nothing but eating chocolate and watching movies. I didn’t do anything yesterday, and I’m planning on just an easy swim today. Later this week, I might even take a yoga class.

Got some tips for how to make the most out of taper week? Post ’em below!

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by | March 15, 2009 · 4:20 pm

Last long run!

My friend Sarah, a veteran of several (fast) marathons, gave me this advice about long runs while we were training for the Nashville Country Music Marathon: “The point is just to get through them. You don’t have to feel good. You just have to convince your body that you can go a little farther each week.”

I repeated this advice to myself several times yesterday, during my last long run before the half marathon. It was an 11-miler, not one of the 20-milers required for a full marathon, but it encompassed all the same ups and downs, sense of motion and serendipitous encounters that make long runs special.

I ran somewhere between 10 and 11 miles of the race course, which starts at RFK Stadium in downtown DC. The route goes by the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the White House, and between the pretty sights and the warm, fuzzy feeling I got from appreciating my new home town, I barely even noticed the miles slipping by. I passed other runners who were also clearly following the course. I spotted forsythia and cherry blossoms blooming for the first time this spring. Life was good.

Then, I hit mile five. Within about two minutes, the following happened: Steve’s iPod died; I realized I’d missed a turn on the race course, and took myself farther out of the way to make it up; and I realized that this course includes some hills that will eat your quads alive.

I slogged through the next mile, which was one, big, long, nasty uphill. It was so hard, I found myself adjusting my race goals in my head, and telling myself that there’s no shame in walking. And I would have walked right then, except I had reached some neighborhoods that weren’t the worst in DC, but that also weren’t the best. Is there any better motivation to keep going than to get away from the guy who’s yelling, “Hello, mommy,” which you can hear loud and clear since your iPod died?

I had also realized I had to find a restroom, and quick. I was OK until the horribly suggestive “P Street,” at which point the situation became really urgent. I dashed into a sketchy-looking 7-11 and asked, breathlessly, if they had a restroom.

Here’s where the run took a turn for the better. The clerk looked at my sweaty, dejected face and smiled.

“Sure, baby. It’s not open to the public, but you look like you need it,” she said, and pointed me down a dim stairwell, to a bathroom that doubled as a utility closet.

I headed out again renewed, and determined to make the last three miles of the run my fastest. The uphill was over, and the gentle downhill that came next reminded me that I’ve trained on hills, and that they’re supposed to be hard. I had a slight scare when I thought I’d missed another turn. But then, the most amazing thing happened.

A van pulled up beside me, and three dudes got out, holding stacks of posters. They started affixing them to fences and lightposts. They read: “National Marathon Race Course. Special Event Notice.” For the next three miles, I roughly kept pace with the van. It was like they were tough-guy flower girls at a running-themed wedding, decorating the aisle with these magical posters confirming I was headed in the right direction.

After the first few stops, one guy stopped and said: “Damn, girl! You’re keeping pace with us!” I smiled. Hey, it’s better than, “Hello mommy!”

I figure I ran almost 11 miles, and certainly not less than 10.5 miles. It took me an hour and 32 minutes — way faster than my usual long-run pace, however you slice it. And you know how sometimes, you finish a long run and realize you could have gone longer or harder? When I got done yesterday, I felt like my legs were going to fall off. It was awesome.

Next up: taper week, baby! Let the slackerdom and sloth commence!

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by | March 13, 2009 · 4:52 pm

To Gu or not to Gu?

So I’m flipping through Runner’s World last night, and I come upon the following question in the nutrition Q&A: “Do I need an energy gel or some form of carbohydrate during a half-marathon?”

In my head, I was saying, “Nooo, silly,” before I even finished the question. Then, I got to the answer:

“It’s a good idea,” writes nutritionist Liz Applegate.

Say WHAT?

She goes on to write that your body starts using up its glycogen stores after an hour. I’d always heard two hours is the magic number, and I typically slurp down an energy gel about halfway through runs of longer than 15 miles. But for the half?

I have my long run tomorrow to practice whichever strategy I plan to employ on race day, Gu or no Gu. What would you do?

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by | March 12, 2009 · 9:48 pm

Last speed workout

I set out this morning to do what will serve as my last real speed workout before the half marathon. To mix things up and boost my confidence in the hills, I headed for the Mormon Temple, one of Montgomery County’s landmarks and the site of one of its most brutal hill workouts.

I heard about this hill loop from Montgomery County Road Runners Club Coach Mike Broderick, who trains runners for the Boston Marathon. It’s part of a longer route that starts in Bethesda, but I’ve heard from many a runner that they’ve trained for Heartbreak Hill by doing loops of the hill portion — roughly between miles 11 and 13 on this map. A longer version of the route served as one of my first long runs, so going back for my final speed workout today felt kind of cathartic.

I never look forward to speed workouts. But today, I actually felt performance anxiety, like this was the race itself and I’d be publicly humiliated if I failed. But per my usual speedwork routine, I ignored the voices in my head and just got started.

At roughly half a mile, the hill is long enough and steep enough to really kick your butt. I attacked it every time. I told myself to leave it all on the (metaphorical) field, as tomorrow’s an off day and next week’s a taper. I told myself to run out the stress that’s been making me toss and turn the past couple nights. And I told myself that if I didn’t attack the hill now, I WOULD be publicly humiliated on March 21 (probably not true, but it kept me going).

I finished four loops — a total of eight miles — in an hour and 10 minutes. That’s something like 8:50-minute miles, which is pretty good for me on the hills, especially considering I wasn’t pushing it on the downhill and flat portions. I wish I could bottle the feeling I had when I finished — it was nothing short of euphoria.

Next up: My last long run on Saturday. (Gulp!)

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by | March 12, 2009 · 1:46 am

Shake your rump

On account of my iPod’s convalescence, I borrowed Steve’s iPod for today’s lifting workout. When I sat down at the leg-press machine, I cycled through the list of artists, desperately searching for my standard pump-up tunes. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Wu-Tang Clan.

But then, I found something even better.

There it was, for the first time since that dance in seventh grade: Rump Shaker, by Wrecks-N-Effect. It was like meeting up with a skanky but encouraging old friend, and it powered me through not only the leg presses, but several sets of walking lunges with 25-pound dumbells — a big upgrade from my usual 20-pounders, which are typically more than enough to get me huffing and puffing.

Download this (or dig it up off some mixed tape) before your next workout. I promise you won’t regret it.

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by | March 11, 2009 · 11:30 am

On the move

Notice anything different?

It’s not my hair, or my outfit (though I did just get a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline shoes — thanks for noticing). It’s the blog, silly! At the advice of a Webby friend, I have migrated from Blogger to wordpress.com to take advantage of some of the neato layouts, widgets and other features wordpress has to offer. I’ll be working out a few kinks over the next few days, but the switch should make this blog much more readable in the long run.

Speaking of the long run, this is my last week of hard training before THE long run — the half marathon on March 21. So last night, at my Pacers fun run, I went out with a faster pace group than I usually do. I love running with these guys — for the first three miles. They almost always lose me by the fourth mile, though, and that’s what happened last night.

But I still posted a quicker finish for the five-miler than usual, which made me feel pretty fabulous.

Next up: cross-training this afternoon, and then some sort of speed work tomorrow. I’m thinking of doing a hill workout to mix up the 1-mile repeats on the treadmill. Wish me luck!

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