therunnerwithin

Hello Readers!

Sorry I’ve been a little MIA lately. Last week at work we had a two day film shoot on Wednesday and Thursday, which I had the pleasure of working. Though I logged two full 12 hour days on set and was at work till 8pm the night before, my body was just too exhausted mentally and physically to even think of generating a blog post.

Yesterday I completed my training for the Disney Princess Weekend, Glass Slipper Challenge. I logged 6 miles on Saturday and then went out for an easy 12 miles yesterday with my friend Sam. With the madness of the shoot last week, I was not able to log as many miles as I had hoped to during the work week but I was able to get a 5 mile run before work on Tuesday.

My run yesterday started with a 4:00AM alarm to help prepare me for the event weekend. The races, both of them, will start at 5:30AM and we are staying off property, which means this gal will be waking up super early. I also wanted to test out eating a little something before my run. Currently, I am looking to wake up between 3:15AM and 3:30AM on race days, with the actual race not kicking off till 5:30AM and with my corral not starting till closer to 6:00AM I know I will be hungry by then. Prior to the run I tested out half of a Thomas Bagel Thins with peanut butter about an hour before I hit the pavement. It was the perfect portion of carbs and protein for me. I think for the actual race weekend, I will eat the whole bagel.

As I mentioned earlier my friend Sam joined me for the run. She will also be running the Glass Slipper Challenge with me. Not going to lie, it was a little odd having someone running alongside me as I am not used to it but at the same time, having Sam there made the miles go by fast and it was actually fun. We chit-chatted, I showed her my running route and we witness a be-a-u-tiful sunrise.

I ran a much slower pace with Sam than I have been running lately. It was definitely a weird feeling to have my watch beep every mile and it not be in the 10:30ish bracket. We wanted to test out the run/walk intervals we plan to use on race days to keep up the endurance for both days. It amazed me how I was able to run an 11:30-12:00/mile pace and talk at the same time without any breathing issues. I remember when I was struggling just to master the breathing alone for an 11:30 pace. It was an exciting moment to see how far I’ve progressed.

Overall, I am feeling very good about this race. With two half marathons under my belt I know I will have no problem running either of these races, it’s just running them back to back within 24 hours. I’ve been running on both Saturdays and Sundays now for several months and am feeling pretty confident in my stamina. It was until after BDR Cape Coral that I began to increase my mileage on my Saturday runs to equate close to a 10K.

Taper time starts tomorrow. I’ll do about two short runs during the week as well as a day solely for yoga. Next weekend, I plan to go out for a 30 minute run on Saturday followed by an aerial yoga class then an hour run on Sunday. Next week Ill follow the same routine of two shots runs and a yoga session and then race weekend will be here!

What is one accomplishment you can reflect on that you’ve noticed about your progress over the years of training?