LAR24

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or just know me in real life than you are familiar with one of my favorite acronyms
L A R 
which stands for Long Ass Run or Long Ass Ride
typically, LAR(ide) is my favorite of the LAR's but cramming for a marathon has brought several LAR(un) into my life the past several weeks. These LAR's for the most part have been successful and I have learned something on each one.

Today was my last LAR before the marathon in (less than) two weeks and my training plan called for 24 miles. This would be my longest run ever completed to date and to say I was not a little nervous about it would be a lie. I mean really, 24 miles is just shy of a marathon...just another 2.2 miles and I could claim the distance! But I am happy to wait until the big day...

Today's run was a good one, it gave me a chance to train in some cold weather gear. Last week's 21 miler was done in warm weather gear since it was soo nice out! Today...not so much. It was a cold morning-in the 40's-which is totally typical for this time of year in Maine. The weather report has been spewing "sunny and sixty" for the last several days and I was pretty pumped that the weather was going to cooperate with my planned run. Well, it WAS sunny when I hit the road, until about mile 4 when the black clouds moved in, the wind picked up-especially on the coastline-and then the rain showers started. Oh well! There are never any guarantees on race day so roll with it.

A majority of my running is done at low heart rate, so it's slow and easy miles and today's run was basically the same but I was given a little HR leeway for the final 12 miles. The wind ate some of my heart rate as well as some of the gentle rollers on the run route, but all went very well and I felt pretty dang good that last mile! I even had gas in the tank to kick it up a bit! WIN!! There were a couple moments of "uggh, am I done yet" but for the most part I felt great!

There has been none of this on training runs but we can chat post race! lol

Now, I have been getting a lot of comments from all kinds of folks about the miles I am running.
You only ran 19 as your biggest run pre-marathon? That's great!!
You don't think I should run more than 20 miles because those last 6.2 miles are sacred? Ok, that's a pretty cool thought.
Your cousin's uncle's friend's neighbor runs marathons and HE says that anything over 21 miles is not necessary? Good for him.
Paul Ryan ran a sub-3:00 with no runs longer than 15 miles. Suuuure he did ;)

Here's the thing, I have a Coach that I trust and she knows my goals and my fitness level better than anyone (including myself! lol) so I just do what she says. If I have questions or don't understand something, I ask her but a majority of the time, she explains it so I understand the point of the workout in the first place. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

I am injury free and have been for a LONG time, I enjoy training and things are going well. I am learning to be patient and look at the bigger picture. Trust me when I tell you that the bigger picture is HUGE and there are many things down the line...

Will I try to qualify for Boston as this marathon? HELL NO
This is not the race for me to do that but trust me, that is on the "short list" of things to get done in the near future. This race is to finish and get the distance completed.

Today's run was the last of the big ones before the race. I have some shorter runs to still get done and some cross training but it's time to start chillin'.

Speaking of chillin'

Guess what I did yesterday??

OPEN WATER SWIM at the pond.





The water was amazing. I can't wait to sneak back this weekend!! The weather man says it's going to be nice...but we all know what a liar he is!

Happy Training!!