I still got it

well - kind of. I did my long run on Thursday and decided to do a bit of a test. My last few long runs had been very very slow according to Runkeeper, and I wanted to get a sense of what was realistic for the marathon. So I put on some good music and ran comfortably fast (instead of relaxed long run pace) for the first half of my 20 miler. Here's what happened:

10:25 pace for the first 10 miles. That's just a few seconds per mile off my PR marathon pace. I was really happy with that, but know it's completely unrealistic to think I can come close to that for 26.2. Especially knowing how I felt on the return 10. I walked a lot. I took my time. I switched from running tunes to podcasts. I took probably a half hour longer to do the final 10. (I turned off Runkeeper because I didn't want to be taunted by my slowness). I know I have a half marathon at a good pace in me right now.

I also know that this marathon is not about a PR. At all. So my plan is to start with the 5:00 pace group. Take it easy. Run conservatively. And if I feel good at 18 or 20, I'll pick it up. I'd rather take my time and run the whole way than end up walking because I used it all up. I want to finish feeling good, not hurt myself, prove I can do this after all my body has been through, and then if it goes well, I'll do better the next time.

The W30 thing is becoming second nature. I'm not even counting the days anymore. I guess it's about day 13 of round 2 - two weeks since my hiatus. Oddly the biggest temptation I've faced was when I made rice for my husband to eat with the delicious lamb vindaloo I'd made. I couldn't taste the rice to check it when I was cooking, and I really wanted to pick at it when I was putting away leftovers. I don't even really like rice. I did not have any.

I took some Trader Joe's fruit snacks (just fruit concentrate and pulp, no added sugars or horribly nasty stuff, not W30, but I'm ok with it since I technically finished my W30 in September and am just continuing through the marathon since it seems to be working for me) on my run. They seemed to do the trick. (I tried sweet potatoes on a run. It was disgusting and didn't sit well.) I just drank water. I will probably do the same for the marathon. It wasn't hot out, but my face was still salty when I was done, so maybe I'll add some salt to the fruit snacks. Since I'm not really pushing for any aggressive performance goals I'm not terribly concerned with fine tuning nutrition. I just don't want to eat anything that makes me sick, and I want to avoid eating sugary plastic goo.

Recovery is so much better now than it was previously when I was eating pasta and Gu and Gatorade. I still feel fatigued two days later, but I'm not SORE. I can walk up and down stairs without any pain. It's pretty amazing.

I'm trying to limit nuts yet have been eating too much fruit. I need to focus on minimizing both and eating more fat to prevent snackiness. I'd like to drop a few more pounds before the race for the sake of my knees and having less to haul around for a few hours. I know I run happiest when I'm under 140 and I think I'm still a bit over.

Overall feeling good. Happy with my improving fitness. Thrilled that I'm just weeks away from marathon #7 (or #9 if you count the ultras, which I think for sure count). All good.

19ish and I may finally have had a big breakthrough

After 33 days, I took the weekend "off" from W30. That means that I played "is it worth it" and ate what I really wanted. I did not go nuts. I did not try to cram in all my old favorites before going back on the wagon. I did not eat bread just because it was in front of me. Mostly I drank. I went to a beer festival, but abandoned more than half of my giant Oktoberfest stein. I went to a wedding and had wine, from a glass which kept magically getting refilled. I ate ONE BITE of cheesecake wedding cake. WITH CARAMEL SAUCE (I looooooove caramel sauce).  I had brunch at my favorite brunch place and tasted the biscuit (another favorite), ate some roasted potatoes, and left both unfinished on my plate (again, previously unheard of). I did not feel great after eating a fraction of a buttery biscuit. I was on my own Saturday and thought about going out for lunch and eating a sandwich or something I once loved, but nothing seemed worth it, so I went home and defrosted some spicy Vietnamese beef stew and enjoyed it. And I happily got back on the W30 train after brunch for another 34 days. Which will get me to my marathon. I will potentially have something non-W30 after the race. If I really want it.

I feel good. I feel in control. I feel like I've turned a corner.

But... I am so slow!!!! I did last week's long run this morning and damn, I'm slow. I'm looking at a 5 hour marathon. I felt fine, nothing hurt, and I felt like I was going at a decent pace, but the app said otherwise. I was running in the city and had to stop at traffic lights, but still! I'm excited to be running. I'm enjoying being out there for hours (and hours). But I'm frustrated by how slow I am. True I haven't run this much in 5 years, and I'm 5 years older (crossing that critical 40 milestone in those 5 years), and a bit heavier (working on that), and I have a frankensteined foot (surgery fusing together two bones four years ago) which required a very long recovery. But I'm SLOW. Better slow and moving than couchbound I suppose. I did somewhere between 18 and 19 miles. I was having some trouble with my tracking apps, and just ran around my neighborhood in a bunch of loops since I was worried that last week's hip and foot pain might cut my run short, so I'm not really sure how much I did. I was out around 4 hours. So a lot.

I ate Trader Joe's fruit leather while I was out. It seemed to do the trick. It's fruit juice concentrate, no additional sugars. 50 calories per package and very portable and not nearly as gross as pureed sweet potato.