Sunday, May 10, 2009

Rehearsed and Ready!

If May 31st turns out to be an instant replay of today then I would be the happiest girl ever and feel like I was on top of the world! My dress rehearsal went better than planned!

This is the tale of the tape:

Distance: 36.3 km Time: 4:01:47 Pace: 6:39 min/km

I had hoped for an average pace of 6:30 min/km but I will take what I got and run with it. I started my run at the Curling Club at 6:45 am. I wanted easy access to my car to drop a shirt if need be. I should be calling this a "skirt rehearsal" and not a "dress rehearsal" because I tried out my new skirt and absolutely love it. I love the shirt that goes with it too! They are keepers! It was +2 degrees C at start and I needed an extra layer over top, up top. I used the long sleeves to cover my hands for the first 45 minutes too. An hour into the run, I ditched the extra top and was perfect for the balance of the time. I have many pairs of shorts that are most comfortable but this skirt beats all those. It is so light weight, for the first while I kept checking to make sure it was still there!

I had a gel at every hour, that works best for me. At no time along the way did I feel I needed extra long walk breaks or feel like I needed to slow the pace. No aches or pains to show for the hard work done today. I actually enjoyed the whole run, that may sound sadistic to some. Although, I will admit, I was glad when it was over. Once back at my car, I walked around savouring my recovery drink, then drove home. I was tired once I got there, soaked my feet in cold cold water, then elevated them while I napped. I know it is important to eat but I didn't have much of an appetite right away. That came much later!

Today was my last long run and I was praying to walk away from it feeling confident and ready! Well, that's exactly what happened!

What more could I have asked for!

4 comments:

  1. When I read on facebook that you ran 36K as a training run I was sure you meant 32 but OMG 36!! That's amazing and fast for a LSD. Definitely a confidence builder, you're going to ROCK the Calgary marathon my friend! I am sure of that =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alexandra, very good to hear that your training is going so well! Looks like you are peaking at just the right time, so with 3 weeks to go, you can probably start to decrease the weekly mileage a bit, while keeping up the intensity. Or perhaps one more week going full out! Whichever way you do your taper, you are going to be well prepared!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations on your successful preparation. You've inspired me to get out and do more, though I've given up running to save my knees.

    There are several "hiking skirts" out there. One is Macabi Skirt, the original adventure travel skirt. People use them for hiking, trekking, traveling, river running.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Woo hoo Andra!! Nice job on your final long run. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that race day is even more successful. It sounds like you've figured out what works well for you. Now the hard work is done...time to taper and enjoy the race. Best of luck!!!

    ReplyDelete

I'm always curious to know what your comment might be!

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.