sidebar | life and training 4.18 – 4.24
I haven’t the energy to share the totality of the Big Sur Marathon on Sunday. I’ll save that for next week, when I can absorb and internalize what I saw, felt, and experienced. My finish time was better than I could’ve expected and I airplaned through the finish line with the biggest, goofiest smile on my face. For my mind and soul, I ran this race just as I needed to. I felt connection and joy. That’s all I wanted.
If you’re curious about the pre-Marathon task list, keep reading. Preparation is strenuous in the training standpoint, but the few days leading up to the race are almost just as taxing. We flew in to California on Friday, both feeling woozy and blah from sitting so long on a stale plane. Saturday we finished our Expo business, rested, and ate. Sunday was showtime. This is the story of the first two days of our stay, before we hit Highway 1.
The Carb Load
My least favorite part of race prep. Many of my meals were utterly dull and colorless, but that’s the nature of carb loading. Stripped to its basic skeleton, carb loading is a means of stocking up the body’s glycogen levels to ensure longer lasting energy and prevent the “bonk” or “wall” during an endurance race. Carb loads generally last 2-3 days, but some programs and runners use a 7-day carb load. I could not even imagine.
With Big Sur landing on Sunday, I began my carb load on Thursday. I kept my ratio to about 8 grams of carb/kg of body weight, with the hope of increasing to 10g/kg on Saturday. This might sound easy – oooh carbs, all the cupcakes and pastries! – but the reality is the sources ideally come from lower-fat options. Think bread, bagels, potatoes, pasta, and rice, without many fun garnishes. No alfredo or risotto or super oily sauces. Even the healthy fats like avocado need be limited.
Bummer and a half.
If you find it interesting, here’s what my carb load meal plan looked like on Saturday.
Pre run: Nuun Prime with caffeine, half a Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar.
Breakfast: hotel buffet. 2 small pancakes with syrup, 1 1/2 cups Raisin bran, 1 cup low fat milk, and a boiled egg.
Snack: little fruit smoothie samples from the expo, small apple
Lunch: tuna salad sandwich on sourdough from a nearby deli
Snacks: a shit load of olive oil and sea salt popcorn, rice, banana and honey, the other half of the Clif bar from the morning
Dinner: Gigli pasta, tomato basil sauce, and shrimp, Cuban bread
Expo Day
Saturday was also expo day, where we ventured to pick up our bibs and bus tickets and browse the vendors for goodies. I ran a 35 minute shakeout along the Monterey Peninsula Trail on a brisk but lovely 47 degree morning and walked a short ways back to the hotel. I didn’t feel great. My legs worked okay but my breathing proved irregular and the cold wasn’t awesome in my lungs. I all day tried to remember that race day tends to yield different responses than training. The power of the Pacific, the beauty of nature, the energy of the few spectators and the special course entertainment, all of those meshed into one ball of positive influence. In 2019, I felt nothing but awe jogging alongside the booming waves and steep crags.
After breakfast, we walked to the Convention Center to view the festivities. If you’ve ever participated in a running race, the check-in is pretty much the same all around. We had to visit a transportation desk as well to grab our morning bus tickets, which leave at 3:30 am. Yikes.
We both got some Big Sur branded merch, including coffee mugs for both of us and a new visor for me. The expo isn’t very large so we didn’t linger all too long once we picked up what we needed. Off to lunch after, and snagged some shrimp to make for dinner.
Once our running around was done we essentially lounged all day to prevent tiring our legs too much. Very early bedtime after dinner with a 2 am alarm to rouse us on race morning.
Stay tuned next week. I’ll share more about race day. Thanks for tagging along on this journey, friends. Your attention means more than you know.
What I’m Up To This Week
Testing…Nada! Not at home so I’m obviously not cooking up to FMG status – we brought an induction cooktop on the trip but not to make anything fancy. I do have a good list of dishes to create when I get back though!
Eating at…Roy’s in Pebble Beach, vairous wineries we find in Monterey and around San Jose, and The Purple Pig and Hugo’s Frog Bar and Fish House in Chicago. I’m sure there’ll be more, but those are the notables for now.
Recovering with…Pure Spectrum CBD High Concentration Salve. Rubbing this shit over everything that hurts. Which is everything.
Eating…Trader Joe’s “These Sprinkles Walk Into a Sandwich Cookie.” They’re a tasty and happy little treat with sprinkles and buttercream that seem fitting after a celebratory race.
A Few Things I’m Digging
Pasta…You’d think carb loading would burn me out real quick on noodles, but I’m really loving developing new pasta recipes. One of my newer obsessions: Blackened Shrimp Caesar Pasta. I could eat this over and over and never get sick of it.
Nails…Since I’m out of town for awhile and, hence, not working, I’m finally able to get my nails done! I went with this gorgeous, opulent shade from OPI at the salon. Felt really good to pamper myself after a rough and stressful afternoon.
Tarts…Puff pastry is my new jam and these Everything Pesto Cheese and Egg Breakfast Tarts are just the simplest, cutest brunch option using the buttery mainstay.
Gels…Probably mentioned this before, but because of my race experience I’m really going to credit Maurten with staying the bonk. I never felt that my energy was so spent that I couldn’t continue, and I think my fueling really prevented shit from slamming against the wall.
Lunch spot…Both times we’ve been in Monterey we dined at Googie Grill in Seaside. The portions are excellent, the food homestyle but not overblown, and just what you could want after racing 26.2
Week in Training
Monday, 4.18: 4.21 miles, 10:41 pace + 45 minute upper body
Strength training is definitely diminishing this week, so I did a good compound workout with light weights and a big core focus. I still felt the burn even though I didn’t end up sore afterwards, which is what I was going for. Keeping routine is really important to me as a whole, and this session helped me feel more stable in this reduced-mileage format.
Strength:
- 3 x 10 ea. plank reach back 10#
- 3 x 15 lying extension with knee-in 20#
- 3 x 12 ea. single leg balanced punch 10#
- 3 x 10 ea. single leg dumbbell “drops” 20#
- 3 x 15 ea. single leg wide row 20#
- 3 x 12 chair press (barbell) SS 12 triceps extension (barbell)
- 3 x 12 ea. single leg dumbbell passes 20#
- 3 x 20 ea. deadbug 10#
Tuesday, 4.19: 3.86 miles, 10:23 pace
After a bout of severe stomach pain the night before, I worried this run wouldn’t go well especially since I didn’t feel like eating beforehand. I did take in my preworkout which has a few calories, so I hoped that’d help. I wound up feeling really good and the weather was beautiful! I walked a mile home to finish up before heading to work.
Wednesday, 4.20: 6.46 miles, 10:04 pace + 45 minute legs and mobility
Workout didn’t quite go as I wanted, but the effort was there and by the end of the main set I felt pretty good. The wind was pretty killer too. 5k at race effort, averaged 9:21 which is not ideal, followed by a short recovery and 3 x hill. Good enough stimulation before Sunday.
Strength:
- 3 x 10 ea. step up 20#
- 3 x 10 ea. lunge 70#
- 3 x 12 plie squat with toe raise 70#
- 3 x 20 calf raise 140#
- 3 x 20 banded step out 30# OH
- 3 x 20 slow mountain clumbers
- 3 x 12 ea. weighed donkey kick 20#
- 3 x 20 ea. banded clams
- 3 x 15 ea. standing banded hydrants 20# OH
- :30 plank rock
Thursday, 4.21: 3.32 miles, 10:33 pace
Really nice, quiet morning for a run and subsequent walk home. I felt really relaxed and my heart rate was normal for the paces. I’m hoping this is an indicator that my allergy meds are starting to work!
On my afternoon walk, I collided with a bicycle coming down the sidewalk. She wasn’t going fast but I literally had no idea which way to step out of the way and she didn’t stop on time, so we bumped right into one another. I fell down and thankfully managed to roll so I didn’t slam too hard, but I was still left with quite a few nasty bruises. She was very nice, helped me up and brushed off the dirt, so at least there was humanity there. Very unfortunate speedbump on an otherwise lovely day.
Friday, 4.22: 3.38 mile walk (50 minutes)
Moved Walking Sunday to Walking Friday, for obvious reasons. Pretty stressed in the morning so being outside was helpful and so too was working the stiffness out of some bruises from yesterday.
Saturday, 4.23: 3.37 miles, 10:23 pace
Gorgeous morning for a shakeout run along the Monterey Peninsula Trail. Body didn’t feel great, but I tried to distract myself with the amazing sunrise views over Old Fisherman’s Wharf. Solid reminders that I’ll hopefully feed off nature’s power and energy tomorrow during the race.
Sunday, 4.24: 26.36 miles, 9:53 pace – BIG SUR MARATHON!
My official chip time was 4:20:25 (nice) and a 9:56 pace, with which I’m over the moon.
Total running mileage: 47.57 miles
