Ready to Race

It has been a little over three months since I began blogging about my up-coming race.  I have not only tried to relay to you an understanding of the emotions one goes through when training, but also what it takes to prepare physically for a long distance race.  I have discussed the difficulty of staying motivated and staying clear of injury.  I have also mentioned my goals and fears related to the upcoming race.

I am now ready to see if all the battles that have been fought, both mentally and physically, were actually won or not.  I am counting down the days until I will be standing in a crowd of people wondering if I will be able to complete this goal I have set for myself.  As I have mentioned previously, my ultimate goal is to finish the race.  However, I very much hope to set a new personal record (PR) for myself. 

Caption Provided by: I <3 to Run

My current PR is 2:09:07 (2 hours, 9 minutes, and 7 seconds), which I ran last September at the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach.  I expect this race, the St. Jude’s Country Music Half Marathon, to be a much more difficult race.  I have been doing quite a bit of research on the layout of the race course, and there is a considerable difference in elevation changes in this race as compared to the Virginia Beach race.  The good news is, I have been working a lot more with the elliptical training machine, which can be adjusted to fit individual/specific training needs.  I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens on race day. 

I have to admit, that during my last race, I was more worried about whether or not I would be able to finish the race.  Now, I am confident that I can finish the race, barring any injuries of course.  I just keep worrying about having a good finishing time.  That is not necessarily a bad thing as I’ve been using it as motivation to train.  Also, I have been training with a new pair of shoes which I got after my last race.  I have had plenty of time to break them in, or should I say they have broken me in.  I have suffered with several blisters covering large portions of my feet since I started training with the new shoes, but that is all part of training with new shoes.  So I will just suck it up, and move on.

Although this is the end to one chapter in this so called “book of life”, I plan to post race day results in a couple of weeks.  After that, I plan to start training for my next event.  I know I want to run the Virginia Beach race again in September, but I have been thinking a lot about taking it to the next level, and training for the Marine Corp Marathon coming up this October.  Still as of yet undecided, so please look for new posts in the near future.

Feeling the Butterflies

As race day rapidly approaches, I am starting to feel the butterflies in my stomach, wondering if I have done all I can do to get ready for this race.  I struggled a few months ago finding the motivation to get out and put in the miles, and when I finally found the motivation, I was amazed at how I had increased my pace.  Now, over the past few days, I have not been feeling very well.  To be honest, I’m sick as a dog! So once again I am unable to get out and put in the miles needed to prepare properly for the big day.  I am hoping that I do not lose all of the forward progress I have made during the past few months of training.

Focusing on these worries can really distract me as I continue to prepare for my race.  They seem to go through my head more often as race day gets closer.  I know that I have done so much, but is it really enough?  I really want to do better at this race than I did at my last race, which is always one of my goals when I am preparing for my next race.  I am obviously not the only one that has experienced such anxiety issues.

Almost every runner experiences pre-race jitters or performance anxiety at some point. And it usually doesn't go away as you become a more experienced runner. In fact, some runners put even more pressure on themselves as their race performances improve. 

There are a few things that we can do as runners to ease the pre-race worries, the thing that I have found to work best for me is to write a pre-race checklist.  I write down little things that are on my mind that I feel are distracting me and my performance.  This is an easy way to relieve a lot of stress, and just let it go.  If you write it down, you won’t have to think about it anymore.

Caption provided by: I <3 to run

                                                               

Works Cited:

101 Kicks in the Butt

By Calvin Hennick

Published 03/22/2007

http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/nashville

 How to stay calm and deal with performance anxiety

By Christine Luff, About.com Guide

Updated February 02, 2011

    

Technology and Running

Today, I am singing the praises of modern technology more so than ever before.  I am within a month of my big day, St. Jude’s Country Music Marathon and Half, and needed to log some miles.  I had a very busy weekend with my kids and have not had time to get in the training I need.  With such a short time to finish getting ready for the big race, I am really focused on finding a way to get in the hours.  Also, I have an exam in my Anatomy and Physiology class tomorrow.  I have been recording the lectures with my new iPhone 4s, and so this evening, I took complete advantage of the technology I have available at my fingertips, literally. I set the elliptical to performance mode for a one hour session, and started listening to my recorded lectures from class. Before I knew it, I had already run through the entire hour program, and started a fifteen minute aerobic run.  After an hour and fifteen minutes of elliptical training, I feel that I accomplished killing two birds with one stone. I was able to put in the time I needed training for the day and was also able to accomplish studying for my exam tomorrow morning.

I think the best part of it all, is that while running on the elliptical, I was actually able to focus more on what was being said during the lecture, than I have ever actually been able to in the classroom setting.  I think I am actually ready to take the exam tomorrow, and that makes me very happy.  I have to admit, I think this is going to bring on an entirely new way of studying for me.  I think if I keep this up, over the next couple of years, I will be able to run a whole marathon.  LOL!!!

Caption Provided by: I <3 to Run