Revel Rockies Race Expo & Pre-Race day Necessities!

Race day is done and gone, I can't believe it! I'll have a race recap up soon, but today I am recapping the day before my race and the expo.

I started my day with a nice shake-out run with Stella out on the trails around the lake. We did an easy 2 miles with some pick-ups towards the end. After packing everything up in the car, we were off to Denver!

Sorry for the blurry photo. I think I was rushing and trying to be "stealth like"

The Expo was held at the Colorado School of mines and they have you park about .25 miles away from the expo! It was mid-90s by the time we arrived (early afternoon) and HOT! The expo doesn't have anything too crazy there, but I really enjoy that. I grabbed my bib, a REVEL hat that I had been eyeing, walked by some of the vendors (maybe a total of 7 there), and I was out of there! I love the big race expos (like Disney or Rock 'n Roll), but also really love a small one that is simple and doesn't have any of the extra stuff.

My REVEL hat!

We then drove the race course and stopped by a local park to let Stella cool-off in Bear Creek for a bit! It was off to the hotel to relax and unwind for the evening. We stayed at the Sheraton-West (one of the official race hotels) and it was in a really good location. We had food from the downstairs restaurant for dinner (just pasta and butter for me), so it was super easy and convient! It was only about 15 minutes until the start line, but they actually provided transportation directly from the hotel TO the start line! This was perfect because Alex was not looking forward to getting up at 3 AM to drive me to where the buses would pick me up and bring me to the start line. 

Flat Stacy ready to run her 4th 26.2 !

Stella was even happy, but that's until she learned she couldn't run 26.2 miles with me in the morning and got a little upset! Luckily, a bone distracted her :)

Any necessary things you do the day before a race?

Race expo- do you like the big or smaller ones?

Any favorite pre-race day dinners that you HAVE to have or do you just go with the flow?

Top 10 of my Favorite Songs that Pump Up my Marathon

Hi Friends! Well, it's a good thing that I have scheduled this post because it wouldn't be wise to be racing and posting at the same time! Hopefully by this point, I'm almost halfway through the race and going strong! I'll post about my race as soon as I can today, but for NOW I thought I'd share with you my top 10 must-have songs on my marathon playlist. So get ready to look these up and download them (and maybe start a dance party too?).

1. Rise- Katy Perry

2. Just Like Fire (From "Alice Through the Looking Glass") - P!nk

3. Too Close- Next

4. Stop- Spice Girls

5. Return of the Mack- Mark Morisson

6. Ready to Run- Dixie Chicks

7. Come Together- The Beatles

8. 24k Magic- Bruno Mars

9. You Be Killin Em- Fabolous

10. Sweet Child O' Mine- Guns & Roses

There ya go! Top 10 of my favorite songs that no matter what state of mind I'm in, I'm able to push through it with the help of these pump-up songs! 

Do you have any good songs that are your favorite to run to?

Keep the same playlist for each race or make a new one?

Do you time your playlist out for the race course or have it on shuffle? --> I just did my first 'timed-out' playlist (with the super pump-up jams to come either on the harder sections/ later on in the race) & will let you know how it goes!

Tapering.

I always block how terrible the last few days of tapering for a marathon really are. I think I get so caught up in the excitement of the expo, the race, traveling, sightseeing, etc. that they become so miniscule compared to the race and finish itself; BUT DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU! The taper-crazies are real and they suck. 

Accurate.

I'm cranky for no reason at all (well besides the fact that I'm not running very much and I'm *twitchy bitchy* to want to run). I'm really hungry all the time. I honestly feel like I could chow down on a steak dinner for LUNCH, but these feelings will just make my post-race meal that much better. Weird parts of my body just ache and 3 miles seems like it took forever to finish. Did I mention that I'm cranky and hungry? Ugh. 2 more days!

I slept in again yesterday morning and opted to do my run later in the day. So, I runched instead. What is runching? Running on your lunch break! I don't get to do this very often, so when I'm able to enjoy the bright sunshine and see other runners out it's truly something special. 

Did an easy 3 miles followed by some foam rolling/ stretching/ 30 second plank/ 2 x 10 dips. I wanted to do a few light strength exercises to help keep my body feeling strong going into the race, but definitely didn't want to do my usual full-body 30 minute strength session. I figured a few dips and plank were a good compromise.

I still am not feeling super nervous about the race, but mainly excited! I've basically got my race-day strategy done, but don't want to set it in stone (since you never know exactly how you will feel the day of the race). It looks like the high could get up into the mid-90s! Luckily the race starts at 6AM and I should be done by 10ish, although I definitely remember the race being super hot in the sun by the time I finished last year! Already prepping myself for the hot sun and the rolling hills in miles 12-17!

The first 12 miles are super downhill, so I don't have a time specific in mind (ultimately under 9:00 min/mi would be great), but will go by feel (not straining myself and keeping in touch with my form and easy breathing more than anything else). In the rolling hills miles 12-17, I ideally just want to push through them and know that this will be my slowest section. I know I have a few mantras that I'd like to repeat to myself during this time. 

If I stay right around goal pace (9:10ish min/mi), I'll be happy. The next section, miles 17-22 are pretty flat and fast (with some shade), so I'll try to stay at goal pace or slightly below (depending on how I feel). From miles 22-26, it is another steep downhill so I'll try to utilize this to power through near 9:00 min/mi or slightly faster if I can muster it. There is no shade in this section, so it'll be tough. But you're already feeling exhausted in a marathon after somewhere between miles 18+, so just propelling yourself forwards is all you can really do (and knowing that the faster you go, the quicker you'll be done).

Miles 18+ is where I have always struggled, so I am going to try to change my music at this point (possibly put in an uplifting podcast or music) to get my mind off the pain since it's inevitable anyways. 

I've been super focused on my nutrition this entire week and will focus on it even more today and tomorrow! More light meals, less fiber-rich foods, more iron-rich foods, and light carb meals & electrolytes/water throughout the day. 

Had this as my lunch yesterday (Spicy Sausage and Beans Minestrone Soup):

I'll also continue to have light snacks throughout the day like this one!

The race has a few pacers (one at 3:55 and one at 4:00). I kind of want to try to stick with the 3:55 and see how long I can hold onto it with them. I've never stuck with a pace group (since time-goals are still pretty new to me), so I guess I'll leave that up to the morning of! It would be kind of nice not to worry about my watch time so much, but that's also how I trained....hmmm.. decisions! decisions!

Still have plenty of time to decide and will be working on my race day playlist tonight and tomorrow!

Have any good race day songs?

Pace groups? yay or nay?

How do you deal with tapering? Do you love it or not a fan?

How I Built Up Enough Running Confidence to Tackle the Track

This marathon training cycle is the first one where I've actually tackled speed workouts on my own. For Goofy training I did some interval work on the treadmill through the CoreRunning class offered at Steamboat Pilates & Fitness, but this was honestly the first time I had ANY interval work at all. Well, I guess I did some mile repeats last year for the Revel Rockies Marathon, but I never seriously committed myself to them and never had any concept of time for them. I also had never heard of the concept of "easy" run days prior to this training cycle. My, how far I've come! 

For this training cycle, I've either resorted to doing my speed interval workouts in my 'safety net' AKA the treadmill, through a CoreRunning class, or I've taken the last few outside on the road, but never on a track. The track always intimated me (although no one else was there at 6am)-

I have always associated tracks with fast runners and I have never even been close to being fast. I was always that girl in gym class that would get picked last and would struggle through running a mile. 

Even now as an adult, I still thought of myself as a 'kind-of runner' and absolutely never FAST! But you know what I've always thought of recently, I am a 3-time marathoner and have finished a half-marathon under 2 hours. Maybe I'm not 'fast' in some peoples eyes, but my accomplishments are something that I once thought was impossible! 

So, I put on my 'big girl pants' armed with my running accomplishments and decided to tackle my last double-digit Yasso 800 workout not on the treadmill, in class, or on a road, but ON THE TRACK. 

Yasso 800s (which were once a completely foreign workout to me) are an extremely important workout in any training cycle and also helps for you to predict your race-readiness. So, before setting out on my workout this morning I decided to do a bit more research behind Yasso 800s. According to Runners World, the overall times are accurate depictions to what you can expect as a finish time for a marathon (Bart Yasso found that the 800s he did for several years leading up to marathons were a very close prediction to what his race time was). 

My training plan called for 8 x Yasso 800s in 4:00 minutes (with 400 recovery jog in-between), along with a 2 mile warm-up and 2 mile cool-down (800 is two-laps around a standard track; 10 miles total) . While the traditional predictor is for 10 x Yasso 800s, I'm confident that my overall fitness could easily have taken me over the last two 800s (I honestly didn't even feel THAT exhausted after the workout). 

My splits were:

3:57, 4:06, 3:56, 3:54, 3:51, 4:00, 3:53, 3:52 - averaged race time predictor: 3:55:30

SO, was the track as 'scary' as I made it out to be? Absolutely not. Did I have any reason to be 'ashamed' of my pace? Nope. I rocked it and feel awesome. I got in 10 miles total and have never felt stronger. 

It was actually kind of fun. 

Like I've said in past posts, maybe we just need to embrace the scary to build our confidence. Maybe we should start building ourselves up rather than breaking ourselves down. Acknowledge what your body has accomplished and don't let anyone (including yourself) make them smaller than what they are. 

Be proud of how far you've come and go rock that track. xo

Beginning the taper

Alright. I am determined to not let the taper-crazies get to me this training cycle! I have officially begun tapering and have less than 3 weeks until race day. Today I slept in until 8:30- I can't remember the last time I slept that late, but it was definitely needed! We made breakfast (avocado smash on a sesame bagel & egg on top) then I went to work meal prepping for the week. Chicken & Rice Soup for lunches, roasted a whole chicken for use in both the soup & chicken tacos we'll have this week, baked sweet potatoes for breakfasts, and green egg frittatas for breakfast!

The chicken was possibly the best one I've ever done- melted 3-4 tablespoons in the pan & brushed it onto the chicken. Topped the chicken with thyme, garlic, oregano, rosemary, and fennel seeds. Recipe for the green egg fritata will be posted up on the recipe page shortly!

After cooking and had a small window where the rain let-up (it's been overcast and rainy all weekend), we headed down to the lake (about a mile from where we live) and did a 3 mile easy run! It was a great way to shake out my legs from yesterdays long run and recover. 

Stella was pretty angry (hangry maybe?) at us towards the end and we kinda had to drag her back (seen in the photo above). Sorry Stells....

After our run, I headed to the skating club's ice show- it was super cute and concluded the end of our season until summer! Then I saw this fantastic bald eagle on my drive home. It really is the little things in life you guys....

Just left Alex in charge of the feta spinach stuffed chicken and maple roasted brussel sprouts for dinner and it kinda smells like something may be burning...gotta go! Have a great Sunday eve!

Favorite recovery methods the day after a long run? 

Any good meal prep recipes you care to share?