Marathon Checklist & Plans

Holy schnikes! Somebody stop the clock! I want to savor the moment. It's hard to imagine that it has been almost a year ago today that I was planning what to pack for the 2010 NYC Marathon, trying to imagine what it would be like to run with 45,000 friends and have no clue of what to expect in the biggest footrace of all. Now here I go again, one year older and one year wiser.

Just part of what I had a chance to pack...still not done...

This past week I’ve received daily emails from the NYRR club about racing tips and overall info about the marathon.  It is hard to contain myself from all the excitement.  Every time an email pops up, it stirs up the butterflies in my belly.  It’s less than 7 days away, I can hardly believe it is almost here.  To help contain my excitement, I’ve come up with a checklist I used from my past experiences and collected from my readings. I’ve never really shared this with anyone.  It may be too much info, but hey, this is my reality—so bear with me.

Aileen’s Marathon Race Day Checklist

• Shoes (w/orthotics)  & Socks
• Top if cold (under 50 degrees):  running bra + Marathon Maniac singlet + Under Armor long sleeves red shirt
• Bottom if cold: Skins Capri + Zoot shorties w/ pocket
• Top if warm (over 50 degrees): MM singlet over Sugoi Tank + arm warmers
• Bottom if warm: Zoot shorties + leg sleeves
• Fuel belt-2 bottles
• Bib w/ Timing Chip
• Pin on Fuel Belt 2 flasks if donning an LL shirt to tie around waist.
• Energy Gels  6:  45’ (mile 4.5), 1’30” (mile 10), 2’15” (mile 15), 3’ (mile 20), 3’45” (mile24)
• Advil
• Table Salt packets
• Garmin
• HR monitor
• Sunglasses
• Burt’s Bees Lip Balm
• Aveeno sunscreen
• Pre race clothes-charity garments
• Post race clothes-pants, jacket, long sleeve shirt, hat, undergarments, gaiter, mittens
• Baby wipes (to wipe off grimy salt after race)
• Skirt to use as a cover up while taking off wet clothes
• Money
• Lawn Bag – to keep warm & if raining​
• UPS check bag
• Cardboard or foam to sit on

2 Days Before – Friday
Go to the Expo at Javits Convention Center and pickup race packet.  Eat a light meal high in carbs.

Night before – Saturday
Start marathon ritual: Lay out clothing starting with socks orthotics, shoes, shorts, under garments, singlet, Heart rate monitor, watch, sunglasses, hat and then charity garments.
Get to bed early.  I already know it’s okay if I can't get much sleep.  This is normal excitement
before the race.  It won't affect my running. But I’ve taken Tylenol PM in my past 4 marathons (NY, Napa, Oakland, The Ave of Giants) to make sure I get my sleep. It’s just a matter of choice.

Morning of Race
Wake up 3 hours before (3 am.) Shower to wake up. Eat breakfast at least 2 hours before (5 am): coffee, oatmeal, banana, plain bagel.  Put on racing gear: bib, prerace charity clothes, socks, shoes, orthotics. Try to get a bowel movement out of the way before leaving for the bus. Keep drinking water to hydrate. Get to NY Public library to board bus at 5:30 am. Bring metro card emergency cash and stow away in the post race bag.

The Staging Area - Fort Wadsworth
Find porta-potties at the race venue and used them.
Find my corral and use cardboard to sit on. Try to relax.
Use lawn bag to keep warm. Keep drinking water. Eat 2nd Breakfast between 8:30-9:00
Find the location for the post marathon bag drop off.
Gentle stretching. Visualize the race. Review race execution list.
TP on Ziploc just in case they run out.

Post Race Bag should have the following: Metro card, money, w/driver’s license,
Subway map, baby wipes, beanie, mittens, flip flops


Moments before the Gun
Enjoy listening to Sinatra’s New York-New York—they’ll play it just before the gun.
Start casting off charity clothes.
Reminder:  Tell myself that it took me 18 weeks to get here and that I am “Higdon” trained.
Read my victory notes--all my training obstacles that I overcame to get here. Think about the early part of 2011 with the injury and how I overcame it and how I came out much stronger and wiser.
Run my race smartly.
Consult my split times. Think about hard areas and my strategy to overcome those obstacles.
Adjust watch and HRM.
Adjust shoe laces.
Last minute potty break? Always!
Mentally prepare for gun.
Have my Gu? My Gatorade? Clif Shot?


During the Race
Fuel belt w/ 2 bottles
Salt
Advil (if needed)
6 Gu
Cell Phone
Vaseline
Cap
Ipod
Garmin
Sunglasses
Sunscreen


Race Execution
Take Table salt after 1 mile
Gu every 45 minutes
@mile 5 or 45:00
@mile 10 or 1:30
@mile 15 or 2:15
@mile 20 or 3:00
@mile 23 or 3:30
Take water with Gu
Gatorade every other aide station
Take Table Salt after mile 13.1

There you have it, my race plans.  Even with the best intentions, I might miss a couple of things here and there because of the excitement and adrenaline.  It is very easy to forget once you are in the moment and racing. Your mind wanders to a thousand different directions that it is helpful to have a checklist in your mind to reign in and focus on your plan. It looks good on paper, we shall see if I can execute according to my plan.

It seems the last three weeks of my training came to such an abrupt end. It was as if somebody pushed the fast forward button and then here we are!  I’m not complaining at all. It just seems like it was yesterday when I first heard the news from my fellow blogger, RunSpittle@blogspot.com, that I was in! I made it into the NYC marathon a second time, two years in a row. Why don’t I get this kind of luck at Vegas! Oh wait, you do have to play to get lucky!

I’m on the cusp of the 2nd to the last week of the taper period. I only had to do 4 miles on Saturday (negative split with the 2nd half 27seconds faster for each mile) and an easy 8 on Sunday (another negative split with the last half 30 seconds faster per mile).  That gave me 22 miles for the week.  I’ve cut down 44% from last week’s mileage. I’ve been very good about sticking to the program and not adding anything that might cause a last minute injury. In fact, I’ve even taken an extra day off to rest this week. To be honest, I had a minor scare last weekend.  At the end of my long run I felt my right Achilles twinge. I was a little concerned.  Then my right psoas started to tweak on top of that. I thought, "This is it, the other shoe finally dropped!"  No, I didn’t panic. It was a good thing it happened at end of the run so I went straight home, iced and laid low for two days.  I don’t know whether it could have been just the taper madness playing tricks on me, where every muscle twinge is amplified, or what. Now thankfully, everything is back to normal. The right Achilles is fine and so is my psoas.   The name of the game at this point in time is to stay healthy and not do anything stupid. I’ve been carbo-loading, watching what I eat, staying away from sick folks and washing my hands. The final week of my training program from Hal Higdon (Advance 1) looks like:

Week  #18  – Final Taper Week

Mon—3 mi easy
Tues —4x400 repeats
Wed—2 mi easy
Thursday—no running—travel to marathon location—keep drinking—get good sleep
Friday — no running—EXPO, pasta load—keep drinking—get good sleep
Saturday—2 miles easy @ Central Park—pasta load—keep drinking all day and eating—get rest
Sunday—ING NY City Marathon 2011! (Forecast: lo 46-hi 68, partly sunny)

Here’s to staying healthy and injury free!   7 days to New York! (Actually I leave Thursday so I only have 5 days to go!)

P.S.
The biggest two marathon tips ever:
1. Don't try to do anything new this week.
2. No cramming for last minute speedwork.  Nothing you do in the last 3 weeks will make you anymore faster on Nov 6.

NYC Marathon Training Week #16 Wrapping 1st Week of Taper

Sorry for the late post. Life's been so busy...

Saturday 4 Mile Pace Run
I got out a little too late at 9:25 am. It was unusually hot and humid.  I thought it was going to be easy whipping out a 4 mile pace run--but not so much. It was a most humbling running experience today. I was reminded not to be so cocky readily thinking it will be easy to run this.  No matter how good I feel, weather plays a huge factor. It can be miserable or perfect. Today was such an example. Please Running Gods, shower us with good weather on Nov 6th. Please save the high humidity, wind and rain some other day. Even then, my final overall pace was a 9:02.  Was so glad I only had to do 4 miles today.  Anymore in this humidity, I probably would not have lasted.
 
Sunday 12 Miler-Last Long Run​
I was aiming to throw some MP somewhere along the end here.  Since my run Saturday was a little humbling I tried to get up earlier to take advantage of the cooler temperatures. I was bummed about the cancellation of the ½ marathon that I was going to use as a tune up race. However when this day finally rolled around, I was happy that I didn’t have this race. I realized it was much too close to the marathon. I may not have time to recover.  I’ll take that as divine intervention.
I was out of sort today maybe it was the pace run yesterday, I seemed to have lost a little bit of confidence about hitting my goal pace. I tried to run relaxed in the beginning telling myself that this is the final long run and nothing more.  I was a bit tentative, tense and worried about picking up the pace.  My breathing was erratic—started to suck air—not good. I was glad this was just a training run. This is what I do not want to do in NY. I have to learn to relax. The first mile was great. I slowed just enough but started picking it as the miles came by.  By the end of the run I was running an 8:17 pace for the last mile.  Overall, the first half was a 9:27 pace and the last half at 8:54 pace.  I dropped 33 seconds per mile in the second half.  My average pace was 9:11 for the 12 miles.  I missed my MP by 2 seconds, however I ran a negative spit—good enough for today.
 
I am so looking forward to a wonderful 2nd week of taper.  There is so much to do and so little time.
I still have to unpack.  Yes, I packed my suitcase back in May and now have to unpack to reassess what kind of stuff I really need.   I do have a marathon checklist that I am working on and will post soon.
 
Meanwhile, happy running and may you run healthy and injury-free!
 
Week #17 (Week #2 of Taper period) looks like this:
Monday --Rest
Tuesday —4 mi easy
Wednesday—30 tempo
Thursday —4
Friday —Rest
Saturday— 4 mi easy
Sunday —8 mi easy
 

NYC Marathon Training Week #16-First Week of Taper

Monday was thankfully a rest day. I woke up sore from Saturday and Sunday—quite the normal fatigue after two days of back-to-back long runs. I was prepared to scratch out the next day’s workout had it turned out that I was still sore. But I was glad that the soreness faded away by nightfall.  Recovery was fast this time.  Yippee!

Tuesday’s run was a midweek long run consisting of 8 miles. It was supposed to be an easy effort. I stuck to the comfortable pace from the first half and stepped on the pedal for the last half just a tad. Still fresh from the long run, the legs weren’t 100%, so it was a little slow going today. All in all, the pace was 9:48 (first half was 10:11, second half was 9:26) with a negative split, having shaved of 45 seconds per mile in the in second half. A good workout!

Wednesday’s run consisted of 6 x hills.  I went back to my usual hill approximately 6-7% grade and about a fifth of a mile long, near my neighborhood. I ran it after work to ensure cooler temperature. The recovery intervals were of the same distance. I walked a quarter of the way down and slow jogged the rest until I got to the bottom of the hill. The results of this workout surprised me again. My splits were as follows:

8:39 / 8:32 / 8:15 / 7:57 / 8:01.

I cut it short by one repeat because darkness came too soon. I thought I had more time and I didn’t want to risk my safety on the road.  I was two miles away from home and had no reflective gear on me. It’s starting to get darker much earlier.   Anyway, back to the repeats.  This was a great workout because this is the first time that I was able to start slower and crank it up as the repeats progressed.  My last hill repeat of 7 x hills, 3 weeks ago from week #13, was the total opposite: I started out fast and ended slow—because I was getting tired:

7:41/ 7:41/ 7:55/ 8:14/ 8:35/ 8:51/ 8:12

So far, in the last few weeks, I’ve been able to nail negative splits on almost all my runs. I was not expecting to do this on my hill repeats because it's just hard to do.  I still am on cloud nine. I don’t know how this happened. I can’t explain it. All I know is how good it felt to see my numbers. While I am running the hills, I didn’t feel any different. If you asked me how I was able to run the faster repeats, I can tell you I had no clue. One thing I did feel though.  At the end of the repeats, I felt I still had some gas left in the tank.  I felt good that I didn’t go all out.  Subconsciously, I must have the taper in the back of my mind. That was probably why the hesitancy to push through an all-out effort.  
My hill average in week #13 was 8:10 pace and tonight it was 8:15. I was much faster on the previous set but the execution this time was much better, even though I was slower. I wished I was able to do two more repeats last night to really make an equal comparison the ones 3 weeks ago with 7 x hills, as in apples to apples.  However, I am happy with the results.  I’ve never done repeats where I got faster in the end.  This was definitely a first!
 
Thursday-I ran with my running buddy at 6 am this morning.  It felt good to finally get into a routine of running in the morning at least once a week.  It’s hard to wake up at 4:45 and be out the door by 5:55. I’m glad I can do it once, maybe twice a week sometimes, but that’s all I am willing to give up.  I like sleeping in through 6:45 most weekday mornings and at the same time I do love the crisp morning air of the fall.  Our run today was 6 miles with a negative split: the first half was 9:29 and the second half was 9:11.  The overall pace was 9:20 min/mi, and I shaved off 18 seconds off in the second half per mile.  For a recovery run, this was excellent.

I was planning on running a ½ marathon as a tune up race on Saturday when it was canceled yesterday. At first I was a little disappointed for such late notice. The cancellation was due to some land issue. However, I got over it quickly when my best running buddy reminded me that my real race is in 16 days. I’ve been so focused on what’s in front of me that sometimes I tend to forget to stand back and look at the big picture.  I am so focused on what’s here right now, in this very moment that I tend to get sidetracked.  Glad she pulled me out of this funk. Maybe it’s a sign. I’m taking it as sign that I am not supposed to run a race two weeks out from my A race.  What I am going to do instead is to run my normal 12 miles and run it close to MP as much as possible.  I’ll try to run it as evenly as I can although I’ve yet to do that. I’ve been able to run it slow the first half and faster on the second half and do a negative split. We’ll see how it goes.

So far nothing hurts—my piriformis hasn’t barked since January. I am doing well with the training.  I haven’t gotten a cold or flu. I am a bit worried about that. What if I catch something on the plane?  I’ve been washing my hands, and hand sanitizer is within my reach.  Vitamin C is at my disposal. So far all systems go.
Tapering is going really well. I haven’t freaked out yet. I am surprisingly relaxed.  This will be my mantra this year: calm, poised and relaxed. Let the chips fall where they may.  The hay is in the barn. I am as ready as I will ever be.

Happy Running!