Week in review, Monday, April 19th

I can't believe it's Monday again. The weekend always seems to fly by. The official two week countdown to our next half marathon started on Saturday, and I can't wait! We did our last long training walk/run on Saturday and will taper down to five miles this weekend. My group did 12.5 miles and Lara's group did 14 miles. The weather was beautiful but I have to admit the last few miles were a struggle, although we did manage to pick up the pace. If one of the people in my group hadn't kept mentioning yummy breakfast food to me, I may not have made it! I felt great after finishing the distance, though. No matter what, you can't help but feel better than before you started (even if it's just a mental thing)! Although I did stretch and drink my chocolate milk recovery drink, my hamstrings are still a little sore today. It seems like anything over 11 miles still causes pain the next day or two! I look forward to getting in a nice, easy walk tomorrow to maintain the fitness level I need to complete the race.

I am also sitting here waiting to see if my group won a spot in the Nike Women's marathon. For those of you not familiar with the process, the race is so popular they have to do a random online lottery. They take 20,000 people. We didn't get in last year, so I am crossing my fingers that the second time is the charm. It will be hard to resist checking my credit card every day this week to see if they charged me for the race entrance fee, a sure sign we got in. The race course itself sounds great and I know it will be a wonderful experience but I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't admit the prospect of receiving a Tiffany necklace at the finish line from a cute firefighter doesn't appeal to me as well!

I know lots of people are doing the Big Sur race this weekend and I wish you well. It sounds like a great event and definitely one I want to fit in sometime. For those of you doing a bunch of races this month and next, I send you good running thoughts!

I managed to solve the mystery of my sudden burst of energy last week from the Clif shot blocks and thus it will be this week's product of the week. Apparently, the tropical punch flavor has 1/2 shot of caffeine while the flavors I previously used didn't have caffeine. I guess there is a flavor or two with a full shot as well. I normally stay away from caffeine because of migraines but for a 10 mile distance or half marathon that extra boost really seemed to help when normally I don't notice a difference. The important thing is to find an energy product that works for you (whether blocks or beans or gel) that you can take 45 minutes into a workout and every 30-45 minutes thereafter. I made the mistake of not eating in my first half marathon, and boy was that a mistake!

On that note, it's time to go get a great night's sleep, another important part of training!

Have a great week!

-Lisa