Marathon on my radar

I'm running a marathon in 5 weeks, didn't you hear?

I put up that stupid little countdown box on the side of this today, and all of a sudden it was like...crap, am I ACTUALLY running a marathon in 1 month and 6 days? That isn't possible! I'm not ready! I won't be ready! I haven't really been training for a marathon...have I?

Oh, wait...

I guess when I started off on this marathon training business, I thought it would somehow be fundamentally different from all the other training I've done in my life. But really, it hasn't been. I mean, yes, I've been doing more mileage and longer runs and not racing as much and keeping the easy peasy short runs to a minimum...but essentially, I don't feel like I'm doing much different than I would have done in any summer of base training...a little higher mileage obviously, but the basic fact of just throwing myself out the door 6 days a week and getting my run in remains the same. So I guess maybe this is why I'm feeling kind of apprehensive with only 5 weeks to go...it's like, I KNOW I've put in the training, but I don't feel like I have? Does that make any sense? I just don't feel like I've done anything earth-shattering and in a way I feel like I should have, as I'm trying to conquer this ridiculous distance. Or maybe I just feel this way since I haven't done a LONG long run in awhile thanks to moving...perhaps 18+ miles on Sunday will change my mind...:) Either way, the marathon is now officially on my radar [and I've also had the Britney Spears song of the same name in my head for some reason today, hence the title of this post].

Speaking of which, I MIGHT hit 60 miles this week!! If not, something very close like 58. And it's ridiculous, because that will be my highest mileage ever and my legs are feeling freaking awesome this week...so I really don't know what's going on there. Training finally starting to pay off? Who knows. I also had a really great run today with an old WTC friend/coach at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, which I think is at the top of my list for favorite places to run here so far. It's a 1.5 mile loop around the reservoir on a dirt path [yay for not running on cement] and it's pretty and I loooove it! We did a fartlek sort of thing, doing 5 minutes at around 10K pace, 5 minutes easy, and for the first time in I don't even know how long, I felt fast! And strong! It was like...uh...excuse me? Where has this been the past few weeks? Maybe it's the cooler weather, or maybe it's running at 8 am [yes, I dragged myself out of bed...impressive I know] but I was feeling good! So that was nice, who doesn't need a little confidence boost once in awhile? It was also just fantastic to see a familiar face and have someone to run with...I'm doing my long run on Sunday with her and another woman and I can't WAIT to actually have people to run with [and talk to, and keep me from running at suicidal paces] on a long run!

And finally, on a non running related note, the BF and I discovered a bar here that has 112 beers on tap, and 380 bottles. No, you didn't read that wrong. Over 500 different types of beer. Plus amazing pizza, and lots of specials. I was pretty much speechless when I walked in...you would think with Wisconsin being a state known for its beer that they would have created a place like that by now...but nope, here in Boston is where it exists. Sadly, the only 3 Wisco beers featured were Leine's Sunset Wheat, Leine's Berry Weiss, and Miller Lite - not a very good representation, I would say. :P But there are more than enough amazing looking options to keep this bar as my new #1 place to go for...uh..."recovery" drinks. :)

Well, I may or may not be doing another early run tomorrow morning, because I need to get my 5-7 miles in before noon...Badger game kickoff! Thanks to the glory of the UW Alumni Association, we have a bar to meet at and a place to watch the game!! GAMEDAY: still the best thing ever, even when you're 1000 miles away from Madison. :)

Silly steeples

Tuesday is usually my day off, but it was so gorgeous today that I felt like I had to do something, so I decided I would try to get on the track and do some steeple practice since that's the next thing I'm racing. Buuut I totally forgot that the break I have between classes is right during the actual track team's practice so I couldn't get on the track (well, technically, we - and by we I mean anyone who isn't a member of the UW track team - can never get on the track anyway...but that's another story. It's easy enough to jump the fence.) So I ended up McGyvering a steeple workout that worked out surprisingly well! First I ran to the slanted situp boards on the parcourse thing and did some practice on the lowest one running up to it, not stuttering, jumping off and continuing to run - it was obviously quite a bit lower than the actual steeple but just kind of getting the general feeling in my legs. Then I got up on a higher board and practiced just jumping off - this one was closer to the actual distance from the top of the barrier to the bottom of the water pit, and my landing is my big problem so I was trying to land on one foot (which is hard!) I was planning on just running the rest of the way around the UBay fields back to the Nat, but all of a sudden something else caught my eye...there is a sort of fence set up around the edge of the field with posts every few meters. The posts come up about to my knee and they're situated on the side of a little hill...so if you were to jump off them, you would be jumping extra distance down the hill. See where I'm going with this? So yes, I got more than one awkward look as I ran across a street and jumped off a tiny post. And seriously - it was a GREAT approximation of steeple - at least what I remember it being like. A bit shorter than the real thing obviously, but still, the impact felt similar. I also realized while doing this that I think if I'm going to try to land on one foot, I'm going to have to take off my left (weaker, or at least not dominant) leg. When I take off my right, I can't land on my left without basically breaking an ankle but landing on my right is fine. I think that anything I lose from taking off of my non-dominant leg is going to be more than made up for if I can actually land on one foot and get my ass out of the pit, so this is a good thing to know!

So it was a fun time. I actually seriously considered trying a similar drill except actually into a flooded gulley thing, but I decided it wasn't worth the possibility of accidently killing myself on a random stick and turning my XC spikes into a muddier mess than they already are. I was laughing pretty much the whole time - seriously, I think I've completely accepted my running weirdness. Last night I had dance rehearsal after practice and I was walking around campus in my spandex shorts - and I thought to myself that only someone who's used to racing in almost nothing would just not give a crap about wearing that little in public. I mean hell, if fat coasties can wear long spandex, why shouldn't I show off my runners legs in short spandex? I mean, it was also 50 degrees and raining. But whatever...

Fun fun stuff. I'm really busy this week with my Optima dance show so I have been and will be dancing up a storm - which is quite a workout in and of itself. It's a good thing I'm a distance runner, because 8 dances basically back to back is kind of insanity...3-4 minutes of pretty much nonstop craziness. It's like 800 repeats! Lol...yeah...