Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Am I Ready????

Just under 25 days until the Rocky Road 100 and the typical doubts start to come into my mind.
Have I trained enough? Have I prepared myself mentally. Do I have the right shoes? Will I have the drive to finish? What if I get sick?
These are questions that start to rattle around inside my head as I begin to think of the upcoming race day. With less than a month to go, there is no amount of  "extra" training that I can do to help. If I try to "cram" training in, I will only be going backwards. Over the last 6 weeks, I have done a double marathon (52 miles) and 4 marathons on 4 consecutive weekends. I certainly feel I have put in the long miles, however, my weekly mileage total is less than where I wanted it to be.
Last Saturday, I had plans to do another double marathon. I began on the Rocky Road 100 course and completed my first marathon at 4:17:15. My legs felt surprisingly good and I had none of the muscle aches I normally have after completing a marathon. I started the second marathon strong and was pacing to complete it in 4 hours. At about mile 12 I stepped wrong on a downhill and had a sharp pain zing from behind my kneecap and up my quad. I nearly hit the ground! I was able to keep running, but every little uneven ground or downhill made it zing again. I kept the pace up though and virtually walked the downhills. I came through the start/finish (half way point) area and decided to stop and evaluate. Things seemed fine after a minute, so I started back out, but my knee was really tight. I ran another mile and decided with the advice of Charlie, the race director, to call it a day. My fear in stopping was that I would mess myself up mentally by not finishing what I set out to do. The only thing that kept me from going on was the thought that I could seriously injure my knee by continuing. So after a total of 40 miles in 6 hours and 19 minutes, I felt ok about my decision. On the drive home, the normal leg cramping did not occur that usually does. Where my legs tired? Yes, but not like usual. I think this has helped me get through the mental doubt of being in shape.
So, as I ponder the questions rattling around in my brain:

Have I trained enough? I believe I have trained enough to finish, and that is my #1 goal.
Have I prepared myself mentally? Well, I have 24 days to work on that.
Do I have the right shoes? I am a little obsessed with this one so I have a couple that I will take with me.
Will I have the drive to finish? That will be determined on race day. Right now, I believe I do.
What happens if I get sick? DON'T!

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