send-off party

Total Distance So Far: 300.0 miles

Tuesday this week, we had the "send-off" party for the Portland Marathon by the TNT group. It was a potluck where we picked up our race-day jerseys, tickets to the spaghetti feed before the marathon, and victory party tickets for after the marathon. Coach Joe went over a number of things here... around what to expect of race day.

Some of the items of interest he discussed:
* go to the marathon expo and peruse (where we'll be picking up our official marathon packets, numbers, and timing chips). You can find cheap layering-clothes there for like $5 that would be good to wear before, or atleast at the beginning of the race while you're still cold. It's a long wait before the race begins, just standing around. The idea is to shed these clothes either at the beginning, or at the first aid station. The Portland Marathon will be collecting discarded clothes and donating it all to a non-profit charity like goodwill or something, so it won't end up in a landfill.

* it was suggested to wake up 2 hours early and get a good breakfast in you on race day. A good 4 hours atleast before you step off.

* on the week leading up to event day, try to get more sleep and drink more water than normal. Pretty much no one can sleep well on the night-before the marathon, so if you have a lot of sleep prior to that, you should still be in good shape. And, preparing your body for good-race-day hydration starts several days prior. Your body will already be "storing" most of the water it'll want to use on race day, and you will only absorb a small amount from the stuff you drink during the race. Better to have stored-up water.

* at the finish line, resist the urge to look at your watch as you cross it. There is a professional photographer there waiting to capture your photo, and it's amazing the number of these photos are ruined because the runner is looking down checking his or her time, and you can't see their face. Keep your head up, enjoy crossing the finish line, and strike an inspirational pose for the camera!

* After the marathon, DO NOT CURL UP INTO A BALL AND GO TO SLEEP. The previous marathon runners were stressing this. It is very important to stay awake and stay active afterwards. Your muscles will hurt a lot less if you force yourself to stay semi-mobile doing things. They said your legs will hurt twice as much if you skip the victory party and just sleep after the race.

That was pretty much most of the advice I walked away with. The potluck was fabulous. I stuffed myself silly. Oh, and Coach Joe asked me about my foot. I told him about the trouble I had on the 12 mile run... and he suggested I skip the 8 miler this weekend. He said better to be healed than anything else. Oh! Really? Skip the 8 miler? huh. I'm still mulling over this option. I feel like I need to stay active... but I'm also (I'll admit) getting a little burned out from training, and I'm ready for the marathon to be over.

I went swimming on Wednesday.
I started out with a more solid plan of what I was going to do, but then I got bored most of the way through the workout, and stopped swimming seriously... and was just playing around on a lap (doing a flip mid-pool) when my calf cramped up on me violently. It took everything I had to straighten my leg out mid-lap, and will my muscles to relax enough to allow me to get to the side. I vowed to drink more water and eat more bananas after that happened prior to the race. I need my muscles to work!!!

Anyway, I think this was my workout... I stopped keeping track after a while...

Warm-up: 400m breaststroke
Laps:
* 100m kickboard (flutter kick)
* 100m wait-for-it
* 250m breaststroke
* 100m crawl
* 300m breaststroke

Total: 1250 meters