Let’s first talk about some things from our Sunday before jumping into marathon talk.
1. Brooke and Knox are our usual alarm clocks on Sunday but with both gone we considered it a major accomplishment that we still woke up and got ready and were early for church. It’s a miracle.
2. He was in the mood for cereal for breakfast and I had a Kodiak Cake cooked with bananas and topped with raspberries and super fruit syrup.
3. I tried on the Hyperion for the first time ever (don’t they look great with a dress;) and I think they are going to be the thing that gets me running fast again. “Our lightest and fastest road-running shoes, the women’s Hyperion racing flats are made for chasing down personal bests- no matter what speed that is. Engineered for maximum efficiency and energy return, they’re light years ahead of the competition.” That sounds fun.
4. After church it was back to painting…
5. The wall that was once the same color as the sun is now finished:
6. BROOKIE THEN CAME HOME TO US!!!
7. We were all pretty happy about it.
8. The best bbq chicken sandwiches over at my sister’s house!
9. And of course trampoline time! PS we are going to get one of these (with the nets) in our backyard…
10. I randomly came across this picture yesterday and it made me happy… instead of decorating my car with crazy stuff they left two boxes of donuts and cute balloons on them after my wedding. Perfect.
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We sure do a whole lot of work as far as our physical strength goes when it comes to marathon or race training but what about all of the mental work? Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the different emotions that come during the marathon and learning how to cope with them when they come during the race. I was talking about it on the long run with my friends the other day. There are so many different emotions that come race day:
Anxiety, excited, angry, happy, joyful, gratitude, exhaustion, worry, pain, confidence, defeat, boredom etc. etc. etc.
Can you ever think of any other time in life when you feel that many different emotions in just a few hours? I can’t.
I think the thing I really want to learn to do during the marathon is to RIDE THE WAVE. I really want to try to figure out how to embrace whatever emotion/feeling is going to come my way because most of the time… that exact emotion only lasts a mile or two until the next one comes. We can do anything for just a mile or two, right? (Although that last 10k is pretty much the same emotion the whole time)
Isn’t part of the battle with the hard emotions being prepared for them and doing the things that help YOU to get past them. I think that part of the reason I love doing my long runs with friends is that I can tell them exactly how I’m feeling/thinking at that moment and they can cheer me on and help me out… I think a big part of succeeding in a race/running is learning how to be our own biggest cheerleader too as we ride each wave that comes along during the race.
Some of the things that give me an extra BOOST during those extra hard waves:
*Seeing my people along the course or focusing in on the signs, cute kiddos out there cheering and people clapping us all on to keep going.
*Water, gatorade, calories.
*That goto mantra that fits perfectly in with your life at the time.
*Talking to any of the runners/racers around me for a minute or too…. even if it is just a few words.
*Thinking about my family (there have been many miles in races in the past where I repeated Brooke’s name).
*Practicing enduring well.
*Turning on my favorite song, zoning out, remembering that it is supposed to hurt along the way or counting my steps.
*Preparing for the next wave that is coming my way or staying in the mile that I am in and not thinking of anything else.
I kind of think that all of those waves is what hooks us to the marathon too. We might have had one marathon (for me it was the St. George Marathon two years ago) where it felt like everything aligned—> I stayed positive through the race, no injuries/pain at all, perfect weather, perfect course, a faster time than I predicted and the way I fueled/hydrated worked out perfectly for me even though those same waves/emotions that are beyond hard came along. The marathons between then and now have not been anywhere close to that great for me but don’t we all keep chasing these races until we feel that way again?
I can think of different marathons where I felt awesome at mile 14 and 17 but in between those miles I questioned how in the world I was going to finish. There are times where .1 mile feels like eternity yet 5 miles flies by at a different time. I’ve had races where I started feeling like a million bucks and others were I started feeling awful and ended feeling WAY better. You never really know what you are going to get but as long as you are enjoying the training cycle to get you to that race, then it’s all good right?!
So, if you’ve figured out how to ride the different waves of emotions during a marathon please share… we will all love you forever;)
Brooke was SO tiny back then:) And we went to Disneyland afterwards… Andrew, I think we should do that this year too;)
PS while talking about marathons—> I loved this from Dorothy because this literally just happened (but after an 18 miler, not a 22 miler) and it made me laugh at myself for being ridiculous.
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Three HIGHLIGHTS from your weekend?
What are the most common emotions for you during a race?
How do you cope with the hard waves that come along during a race?
What do you eat during a race?
from The Hungry Runner Girl http://ift.tt/2a7wTUG
via IFTTT
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