Finished!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Philly Here We Come!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Travel Day


Arrived in Philly today around 1pm.  After spending some time settling in, we went over to check out the expo and pick up our race numbers.

Tomorrow will be an early day.  The forecast is cool but it should be pretty sunny.  Getting all excited!

Gear all laid out.  Woo!

One More Week!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Afternoon Run
8.1 miles - Long Run
Road

Feeling great.  My running bud and I spent the afternoon planning race weekend details, buying iron-on letters for our race shirts, and watching You tube videos of last year's race.  Getting pumped!

www.philadelphiamarathon.com/

BenGay: Not Just for the Advanced in Years

Friday, November 9, 2012

Afternoon Run
3 miles - Easy Run
Treadmill

I gave in yesterday and bought my first tube of BenGay. 

It being cold here now has turned icing into a special form of torture.  My mom had mentioned BenGay the last time I was home.  She noted the possibility of me needing it after the marathon but I only half considered it.  After going half the week with an aching right calf from pushing too hard during Sunday's run and wincing at the touch of my ice packs, her suggestion made a little more sense.  I decided to give BenGay a try.

Not just any BenGay, mind you, but BenGay Ultra Strength, the self-proclaimed Strongest BenGay EVER.

I twisted off the cap and was immediately transported back to my childhood growing up around my grandmother's house.  Granny loves BenGay.  She would be proud that it is my ointment of choice. 

Couldn't get the lame picture to rotate... 
I could have gone with Icy Hot.  With all it's clever marketing, I must admit it was tempting but before giving in I decided to do some digging.  My five minutes of research on the internet lead me to believe that BenGay Ultrastrength has a more immediate and definite effect on achy muscles than Icy Hot any day. 

I was just relieved to see that there weren't any elderly folk pictured on the box.  Even with all the research favoring BG, that would have given me pause.  Look at that guy.  He's strong and confident and he uses BenGay too!  I used some on my calf and knees last night and woke up feeling like a champion (aside for that weird medicated smell of course).

BenGay, not just for old people, for real athletes everywhere!

It's Taper Time!

Monday, November 5, 2012

Afternoon Run
3 miles Easy Run
Treadmill
2 Weeks until the marathon!!

Last night, as we were doing our last significant run of this training plan (14 miles), we were getting really excited for the race.  I'm tempted to say we were almost too excited as we kept the pace pretty quick and as a result I'm wicked sore today but, "too" excited may not even be possible.  I am running my first marathon in 2 weeks! 

It seemed like it has been a long time coming but now that it's right around the corner it's getting real. 

These last two weeks are the tapering phase of the training.  It's basically a time to give the body a period of rest before the big effort on race day.  The runs are shorter-- I'm scheduled to run a 4, 3, 4 sequence this week with an 8 mile long run on the weekend-- and are to be run at an easy pace.  The week before the race week I will run a 3 and a couple of 2's... basically just keeping my legs moving so they don't get stale.  Then on Sunday, we race!

With my new found endurance (I just ran 23 last weekend for crying out loud!) tapering is going to be hard.  It seems like an unnatural break in momentum but all the training plans I've looked at and every runner I've talked to about marathon training (and maybe even every runner that have ever lived) emphasize the taper so it seems tried and true.  It will be good to have a bit of extra time now that I'm not running as far at least.  If only I could be disciplined enough to use it to get some extra rest.