gearing up + a champagne celebration

T – 3 days!
oh my, race day seems to be sneaking up on me! chelsea asked whether i was feeling any ‘taper torture’, and the answer is: not really. i think this phenomenon happens more to runners who hit higher mileage and then are forced to really reign it in for a couple of weeks. oddly, i don’t feel like i’ve run that much THROUGHOUT this training cycle, so the past 2 weeks haven’t been a huge change!

i AM getting excited, however. and paranoid about the weather and all of the little details that go along with running a race. these include:

■ music. tonight’s goal is to get my marathon playlist all figured out. i need a mix of relaxing (yet motivating) songs for the first half, and then some POWER SONGS to get me through when i need the most help. i also need new headphones that will stay in my ears! an errand for today.

■ fuel. i never found a consistent fuel strategy during this training cycle. pre-race, i’ll likely have my normal breakfast (english muffin + peanut butter + banana!). but during? the jury is still out. i’m leaning towards eating an honest foods square in pieces (miles 5, 10, 15) and then switching to either honey stingers or a caffeine-containing gel at mile 20.

■ clothing. well, it looks like it is going to be cold. today’s forecast now says a high of 43 and cloudy (but no rain!). gear will include moving comfort compression tights, a short-sleeved technical tee, and my treasured sugoi jacket (the one i am wearing in basically every running picture ever). i’ll also sport gloves and a brooks hat — which will be handed off to josh at some point when i (inevitably) overheat.

■ race strategy. i really liked what aron wrote about even effort, and that is going to be my mantra for the race! i plan on treating the first 10 miles as a warmup, just going with a completely flowing and relaxed pace. then, i will consider the rest of the race in fours. after all, a 4-mile run is nothing, right? i’ll just do four of them!

■ race goals.
attainable goal: finish strong!
secondary goal: PR! time to beat: 3:53
dream goal: sub-3:50. that’s an 8:47/mi average
‘not this time’ goal: BQ. of course, i’d LOVE to (partly just to get a chance to hang out with aron, susan, and jess), but i’m just not there yet. which brings me to the next section of this post . . .

future race goals
D10 alerted me to a brand new race on the scene:

it’s local! it’s flat! it’s on one of my days off! it’s the tobacco road marathon!

yes, i am planning my next (possible) marathon before i even finish this one. i’m not 100% decided that i will do this race, but it will definitely be a consideration. if i’m anywhere approaching BQ time (3:40:59) and think i might be able to make an attempt, i think this race would be a good place to do it.

alternatively, i might just retire from marathons for a while. we’ll have to see!

my other goal is still the elusive sub-23-minute 5K (something like 18 seconds faster than my current PR). the early spring months are a perfect time to run fast races in NC, so that is another possibility. i find 5Ks really challenging (i am more of a slow-twitch runner!), so this is a good goal for me.

bday fun!
while we both love nice restaurants and hotels, josh and i are homebodies at heart. it is amazing how much fun we can have just cranking ridiculous tunes (miley cyrus, anyone?) in the kitchen while demolishing a bottle of champagne.*

i baked these delicious peanut butter brownies for the occasion, only to find out later from haya that yesterday was national brownie day!

and in case anyone was wondering, today is national pastry day. and my birthday (may 20) is national quiche lorraine day. awesome.

we enjoyed THE CUTEST MINI-CHAMPAGNES EVER while i finished cooking dinner.

if you want me to smile ‘for real’, just give me some champagne.

after the champagne, josh moved onto some of matt‘s handcrafted montana moose-drool-inspired ale!

he pours . . .

he likes!

it was a super-fun night.

* i know i said i wouldn’t drink until after the race, but i forgot about josh’s birthday! i’ll stay dry again until saturday 🙂

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12.8.09

workout: taper run! 4 miles on the TM while reading runner’s world, average 9:13/mi pace.

doin’ time, birthday edition: okay fine, i didn’t really plan this meal to coincide with josh’s bday (initially we had planned on going out anyway!), but it did happen to be something i knew he would love: essentially, FISH + CHIPS, martha-style.

po’ boy sandwich with cornmeal-crusted flounder, tomatoes, and homemade tartar sauce + sweet potato fries

work: okay, i now have some semblance of an introduction! at least that’s something . . .