My Half Marathon Race Plan

Day 4 of six weeks

Weight today: lost 1 pounds

Total lost: 2 pounds

1/2 cup of oatmeal: 150
1 tsp of sugar:15
1 tbl of powder creamer with coffee:30
with sweet-n-low:0
total:195

3 oz banan:75
vanilla protein shake: 110
1 tsp of flaxseed oil:40
total: 225
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running total: 420

2 large eggs: 140
1 lefse:30
1/2 cup of fat free cottage cheese:80
3 1/2 oz of sliced strawberries:31
with 1 tsp of sugar: 15
1 tbl of creamer with coffee:30
total: 326
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running total: 746

2 1/2 oz banana:57
vanilla protein powder:110
1 tsp of flax seed oil: 40
total:207
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running total:953

1 1/2 cup of chicken alfredo dish: 250
7 oz of sliced tomatoe:28
with 1 tsp of sugar:15
1 tbl of powder creamer with coffee:30
snacking on cereal: 75
total: 393
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running total: 1346

Today's challenge: staying on-calorie, was feeling "snacky" last night. Also have been slacking on my abdominals.

Actual fitness: 50 minute chest and triceps workout, two mile run.

Note on picture: I made up this really easy meatball dish for my family last night. I cooked 2 pounds home style meatballs and two cans of creme of chicken soup for 25 minutes on medium, then served it on mashed potatoes. Very simple. For my serving: 3 1/2 oz boiled potatoes:77, with 1/2 tsp of Smart Balance butter:7, 3 meatballs:135, in cream of chicken soup: 15 (est), 3 1/2 of boiled broccoli:35, 6 oz of fresh sliced tomatoes:24, with 1 tsp of sugar:15 for a total of :301

Note on weight loss: See, I told you the scale was wavering yesterday. Those jeans I wore for my picture are starting to get loose.

My Half-Marathon Race Plan

Ok...so this half-marathon is two days away and I'll admit I'm getting a little nervous.

I can feel that little butterfly faintly flapping its wings in my belly.

This race starts at 7:00 a.m. this Saturday. That means I need to set my alarm at 4:30 a.m. to eat my bowl of oatmeal and protein shake. I'll try to put in about 500 calories before the race. I'll also drink a couple glasses of water at about the same time. Then, hopefully I pee it all out by 6:30 a.m. Also hopefully, I'll have a you-know-what before the race as well. Sorry don't want to get gross on you all. But 13 miles is a long way...you want to make sure those little bodily functions are taken care of before the race.

On my first marathon, I had to to pee at about three miles in. It was annoying because my legs were feeling great, but for this other nagging issue. There was a bathroom at mile 6.5, but still. I had to run three miles with a full bladder. Then, for second half-marathon, I stopped drinking water a few hours before the race and did NOT have to pee. How relieved (pun intended) do you think I was about that?

In my first race with my husband, I drank the water and ate the energy gels that they handed you along the way. We finished together in a time of about 2 hours and 24 minutes. It was a 10 minute, 15 second mile pace. For that race, I weighed about five pounds heavier than I am right now. However, I will admit, I could have ran faster... but didn't because I wanted to finish with my husband. We were a team.

In the second race, I wore a fanny pack thing that carried two bottles of water and had pockets that I could put my energy gels in. I liked it because I could eat and drink when I needed it versus waiting to come to a water station. The downside may be that it hindered my gait. In that race, I weighed about 20 pounds heavier than I am right now. I finished with a time of 2:07.56.

For this race, I can't decide if I should race with that fanny pack thing, or not. I have a system with my energy gels during a race where I basically gulp it down in two swallows and wash it down with water. Yes, I actually practiced this for my last half-marathon.

On my 12 mile run a few weeks ago, I ran without my fanny pack and wore some shorts that had zipper pockets and then just had my gels in conjunction with water fountains. But since you really need to have water when you eat an energy gel, it will be annoying to have to wait to eat it until I encounter a water station during the race. At the same time, it does feel rather freeing to run without the fanny pack.

Hmm...I might just end up bringing the fanny pack.

When I train for these half-marathons, I don't really do any kind of speed training. I haven't evolved to trying to be competitive yet. But since I have done a few, I have begun to develop some goals. In the last half-marathon that I ran, my sister-n-law finished in 2:00 exactly.
It wasn't 1:59, it was exactly two hours. So, part of the reason I'm shooting for under two hours is to beat her time....ha, ha... Just Kidding..."No, I'm doing it for you...cause you can't run it." (see, I know my sister-n-law is reading this.)

Actually I love my sister-n-law, she is so cool. Did you know that she totally followed my diet blog and got so excited when I actually lost the 20 pounds in ten weeks, and then e-mailed me to congratulate me? Now she's doing a diet too. She's awesome. But she won't start a blog because she's got too much to do.

Anyway, actually going under two hours seems like it's one of those things where at first you say, "yah, I ran a half-marathon" then...it's, "yah, I ran it in under two hours." I suppose the next thing will be, "Yah, I ran it in under 1 hour and 45 minutes."

Also, I'm hoping that carrying twenty less pounds of weight on the run will improve my time.

So, my strategy? Well, that I get to the half-way point without having to pee and under 60 minutes...and if I'm close to 60...I'll have to shake a leg to make up some good time coming back."

Sunshine Meg asked about pace and breathing. Honestly, for a half-marathon, I'll probably start out too fast, because there's like 800 people shooting out like a gun and you get swept up in it, then I'll try to keep a steady but not an I'm-going-to-die pace. If you're out of breath in the beginning, you're running too fast. I usually find that between mile eight and mile eleven is when time seems to slow down or at least my legs do. Then, I'll get a burst of adrenaline around mile ten or eleven because everybody is standing along the parade route and either staring at you blankly or cheering you on. (After the race there is this huge parade that people from miles around flock to see.) What I also notice is that my knees start to hurt at about mile eight too.

Inevitably at some point during the race I will think, "I can't believe I'm doing this."

Well, I'll let you know how I do.