Almost Race Time

[seventhe]

The Akron Marathon (Relay) is only 2 days away! I am starting to get excited/nervous about it -- last week I was ready to just have it over and done with, but now, I'm preoccupied with how I am going to do and whether the 200 miles of training I've put in are going to show up or not.

Jeff and I both got free shirts from Bridgestone, though - Bridgestone's a sponsor of this race, and because we're employees, we get Bridgestone running shirts. I will, of course, be running in my J-Squad shirt, but I will never say no to a free tech shirt. They're really nice. (That means that for this one race, I'll have gotten 3 shirts: the official Akron one, the Bridgestone one, and our Team J-Squad one. Sweet!)

I can't decide how confident I am about the race. I did my half marathon (13.1 miles) at a 10:00/mile, so I should be faster than that for a leg that's only 7.9 miles, plus I have trained a lot since then. However, the training has been a lot of long slow miles, and when I do faster tempo runs, I feel like I'm going to die - and they're only 4 miles long. So I have absolutely no idea how to predict my performance. My 'goals' are, in order:

• Beat last year's time of 81 minutes
• 75 minutes (~9:30/mile)
• 73 minutes (minus one minute per mile from last year)
• 71 minutes (~9:00/mile)

It may sound dumb to have this many goals, but I am pretty sensitive to "how I am doing" when I'm running. If I feel like I'm doing well, I get motivated to go harder. If I feel like I'm going poorly, I get upset, and that interferes with my breathing and makes me run worse. So, I try to have levels of goals that include things I am pretty sure I can do, so that I don't get too upset. Running is just as much about the mental as it is about the physical, you know.

I've been trying to go to bed early-ish this week, and tonight and tomorrow I'll be in bed very early. #loser Then again, I have to be up at balls-o-clock on Saturday. #yuck

Anyway, wish me luck! Soon you'll all be free from my talk about training, ha ha ha.

Comments

[whitemage]

GOOD LUCK, YOU BADASS, SEXY MOTHERFUCKING RUNNER!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[who_shot_kr]

Totally using "balls o'clock" now and forever amen. XDD

[novel_machinist]

Good luck!

[darcenciel]

GOOD LUCK SEV!!

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

yay go you! i am excited to hear about how it goes! you'll have to let me know when you want me to show up at your place to ride to the lithium show. :3 and good luck with the marathon, i hope all that training is going to show. i have been not running for about a week now due to pushing myself too hard, too fast and getting HORRIBLE shin splints from it. obviously, running that much faster and that much longer after a summer of not really running at all was kind of a bad plan. oops. so, we're taking it easy and going to eeeeeaaaase back into things again once the pain dies down. lol

♥ miss you!!! xoxo

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

ughhhhhh I hate shin splints. :( Hope you get better soon!!

I don't know exactly when I'll be going because it will depend on (a) when we finish (b) traffic (c) how fast I shower the disgusting sweat off of me lol, but uh I'd plan to be at my place any time between 12:00 and 1:00, and I will stay in touch via text message that morning to let you know (our PLANNED finishing time is ~11:00 which means I should be back to my phone by 11:30). I guess you can come over at 12 if you want and if I'm not ready yet you can chill with kitties XD

[jennyclarinet.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're both coming to Lithium! My mom's coming too.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

RACE TIME.