20 miler from 12am-5am, Oh, and on a work night

           I completed 20 miles before 5:30am today.... on a work night, no less. Yup, that is what you do if you are a full-time working mom and are attempting to train for a 50-miler, but don't want to miss out on time with kids and hubby on the weekend. I did rest a lot this weekend in anticipation of the little sleep I would get due to this long run, and it's Monday and I have slept a total of zero hours and I am so far feeling okay, thanks to coffee. I don't think I could do an 8 miler tonight, as originally planned, but I will certainly do an 8 tomorrow, maybe even tomorrow morning, to simulate running on "tired legs". I was proud to have very little chafing this time. I got waterproof KT tape, which costs a mint, and had my hubby help me tape up my back bra line, it was easy for him to find where to place the tape for only a week ago I go bad chafing there and it was just scabbing over. Next week, I will attempt a 30-miler and no mater how that goes I will walk away feeling prepared having run a respectable peak distance for my race. 

Just getting it done, period

              This past weekend was a holiday weekend and I had 16 miles planned for yesterday, Sunday but my body said, "NO way". Now being 3 weeks away from marathon #9 I could not just NOT run! So I slept in, had a nice morning making myself new earrings, sipping coffee with my hubby and listening to him respond to every cool article he came across in the paper. The morning was glorious. After my kids sent off to bed I left the house and drove 5 minutes to the 24-hour gym I am a member of and ran for 4 hours until 1am. While running, I watched 3 or 4 episodes of Project Runway season 9 and then the newest episode of Walking Dead, which was heartbreaking and thank God it was hreathbreaking, cause it kept me awake and kept me from thinking how tired I was. I ran out of Gu  at home except for one yucky flavor and lost all my salt pills for some odd reason but had enough salt pills in a pill box I used for the last marathon, so I used those. So yes, I ran 4 hours and had 3 bottles of water, 4 salt pills total and only 1 yucky Gu. The gym has unlimited 10-minute hydro massage which I took full advantage of right after finishing and boy was it pure heaven....one can adjust the settings so I basically got a 10 minute bum massage, heaven!! 

                 I got home at 1:30am and made myself a quick and COLD burrito roll with cheese, chicken, and cream cheese, I know, disgusting. But it hit the spot. I took a hot, hot shower and was happy to learn that I had minimal chafing thanks to the KT take I had my 10-year old apply earlier in the night, she's a pro at applying this stuff, you'd think she's a PT. I put on a huge sweatshirt and placed a towel over my pillow and went to bed and slept with a huge smile on my face. I did it. By not making it such a huge thing in my head I managed to do something that if thought over too much would certainly seem crazy. By the end of the night I had burned 1,240 calories and I did not quite know how to put that into my MyFitnessPal app, a calorie/nutrition app I use to monitor what I eat. I chose to just give Sunday 3 hours and Monday 1 hour. The way MyFitnessPal works is that it gives back to you the calories you burned as allowance for more food. I felt this was a good solution for it only gave me 310 calories extra for the next day and the allowance for the Sunday I could not really use up seeing as all I wanted to do was go to bed. 

6th week done!! 10 weeks to go!

      Yes! 6th week of marathon training done!! I chose to do my long run outdoors today and took a route I very much enjoyed. It had lots of long, endless hills of which I ended up walking and I was not very happy with my time at all considering the Marine Corps Marathon that I'm training for has a requirement of 14 minute miles; but for now let's focus on  the fact that I got 11 miles done. 

           I found my road ID this week. With three killings in 9 days of women runners, and in pure daylight, I needed to take precautions. The road ID was a gift from my sister a few years back when I first started running. Still has my old address on it, but all phone numbers on it are still relevant. I ended up taking off the reflective bracelet, the sun was coming up as I was leaving...

My newest addition to my 'safety arsenal' is this cute little knife I got from Dicks Sporting Goods for $20. It easily clips to your clothes or a pocket. I actually carry it everywhere now, even when I am not running. The man who sold it to me old me because it's a short blade, it's legal; as if I was fretting about the legality of carrying a 2 and a half inch blade!Nevertheless, he must have thought it was a piece of shit because he says, "don't be afraid to use it now, stick it in and twist."He explains this right in front of my 9 year-old and we both stood there soaking in the visual he so clearly described. 

I have run indoors so much I just realized how much I missed two very important things,  both my running shadow and spitting!!! yes, you read right...spitting. Oh it was glorious. I think of my shadow as my running partner. So many nights while living and running in DC I knew that the shadows would surely help me if a perpetrator were to chase me, I knew I'd surely catch that change on my shadow. 

         When I first moved to this area South Run park just seemed so far from home. It always took more time to go there than a closer rec center by our house, so we always chose the closer one instead. Today I ran there! The one glitch to this route is that it required me to run 1/4 mile on a fast road that neither had a trail nor a road and it was a bit scary running as far to the left as possible towards facing oncoming traffic, especially on the way way back when it was later and more cars were on that road. 

           Ran into a very sweet and super friendly female runner who belongs to the MRTT (Mothers Run This Town) group. She asked if I was a member. I explained that yes I was am a member but that I prefer to run alone. It was really nice chatting with her for the short stretch in which we overlapped and for a short minute made me wish I could run with others. But at my pace, most women want to either do intervals or walk and intervals is just too disruptive for me to achieve my running calm and walking the whole time is just not fast enough for a busy mom. 

Sitting in my screened-in porch wearing only my running bra and basking in the glow! Next week, 12 miles....

Needless to say I was a bit stiff all day and a bit tired. I finally left the house at 5pm to go buy some veggies to make my juice. Below are two drinks I made. I am trying to have less sugar and so I tried my juice with less sweet veggies and more greens. The drink for my hubby has 4 carrots, 2 small beets, 4 celery stalks and 4 bundles of bok choy. My juice (the one in the big pitcher) has all of the above plus 2 zucchinis, 2 green peppers. The color on mine is not very pretty but it was quite tasty. 

     I save all my lettuce and celery bases and place them in water for a week or until green leaves sprout out of them. I then plant them in my garden. In my garden now I have one successful celery plant growing fast, as well as a pineapple plant....I know it's not much but for a woman who was born and raised in the city, in apartments, this is HUGE!!! The part of my garden where the celery is growing so well is somewhat shady. Unfortunately, the tomato plants and the zucchini plants are NOT doing so well. Looked up some info on them online only to find out that celery grows well in the shade, hence it's success there. I need to move my tomato plants someplace sunny before they die. 

            One of the realities of most runners is chafing. From past experience I know exactly where to apply huge amounts of vaseline before an long run. I place liberal amounts of vaseline on the space where my legs meet my private area, over my c-section scar, and under the strap of my bra on both the front and the back. If wearing a tank top I will also place a ton of vaseline under my arms, about 2 inches down from my armpit. Below is the chafing I got from my bra, in fact, which I ALWAYS get from my bra. I gave the same marking in the back as well. Normally, the sensitive skin heals pretty fast after a few days. Not much care needed, just time. I hope the new bra I ordered from Brooks for a whopping $50 does not do this. It could be caused by the fact that my bra is now tighter due to muscles. I HAVE been at the gym doing weights for about 3 months now.