YAY! The holiday season is finally over. My secret wish was that life would slow down so I can catch my breath. But then I realized…I have a race coming up – in about 16 days.

The good news?

I think I may be a little more prepared than that horrible Long Beach half about three months ago. I have an idea of what I did wrong. This includes:

  • Over-thinking it:  I am all about researching way to get faster, or what kind of meal will make my tummy feel the best during my early morning long distance runs. But I learned that I need to try one thing at a time. Trying five different foods that are considered ‘running fuel’ and experimenting with too many interval sets is not productive. I need to learn how to pick something new to try…and give it time to get real results. In the mean time, I will still be snacking from this (on the comfort of my own desk) on a daily basis:

    Christmas gift via my aunt ❤

  • I didn’t push myself hard enough: YES- being able to run (and not stop) 13.1 miles takes some mental toughness and requires people who aren’t athletically blessed enough to be ‘good at everything’ to really really push themselves. I guess hoping that I would magically become a faster run over time doesn’t really work. After purchasing my first Garmin, now I can really know how fast/slow I go. It’s definitely a challenge to not be obsessed with watching my speed, but it has definitely helped!

I forgot to just have fun! I am by NO means a professional runner. And yes, it would be fan-freaking-tastic to PR every single race, but it’s not worth being too serious about. I don’t ever want running to lose its magic to me. At the end of the day, it’s what makes me a little more sane and a lot happier. I need to find that balance where I can push myself to improve over time, yet still keep it fun. It would be a sad day when running stopped being fun. So while I will attempt to stay away from boozing at least 7 days prior to the Carlsbad Half Marathon…why change who I am? I will continue to dabble in some fun from time to time….

I really like wine nights with my BFFs

 

What I will continue to do up until January 22nd…

  • Logging the miles and tracking my time – I’ve been doing 4-5 mile runs on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesdays are mellow with a quick 3 miler OR some sort of cross training. Saturdays are the dreaded slow long distance runs that I’m upping to 8-10 miles starting THIS saturday! And Sundays are rest days or yoga days.
  • NOT changing my diet – I haven’t changed my diet ONE BIT this time around. I don’t think too hard about what I eat – I’m just not completely stupid and eating nasty burritos from hole-in-the-wall places the before runs, or drinking tons of soda. Personally, I find that when I don’t think too hard about it, my runs are a lot of enjoyable and I’m lucky enough to have a pretty tolerable tummy.
  • HAVING FUN – I started to have a little less fun towards the end of my training for Long Beach. I need to not be bumming over a run just because it wasn’t awesome. It’s really about putting in the effort and allowing myself to really appreciate when it pays off!

Hopefully, this will all help me stay healthy because I’m aiming to run a lot more races this year!

Random hilariousness:

1. my ‘snack drawer’ is really getting out of control:peanut butter m&ms, peanut m&ms, swedish fish, nutella and 2 jars of PB.

2. My little cousin trying to figure out what my foam roller is for. Isn’t she the cutest?

3. Having a friend send me this because apparently, I’m a huge snorer (so sexy, I know).

What kind of tid bits did you learn from your last race?