Erie medal and race bib hung up with pride

Let's catch up, shall we? It's been three and a half weeks since the Erie marathon and I'm in a much different place (mentally). I've hung up my medal and bib as I always do, and I've hung the beautiful framed print that they gave me for 3rd place. I've had a chance to reflect on the race and take away a few lessons learned:

What went well:

The injury-free buildup. I think that sticking with the strength training and a similar running schedule that had worked for me in the past helped me get to the starting line injury-free. I'm so grateful for that.
Tempo runs this cycle. I'm shocked that these went as well as they did. I credit my friend Kevin to pulling me along on these and making me push a bit harder than I might have if I'd done them all on my own. Having him out in front of me at 5am in the morning helped wake me a up a bit and by "chasing" him I saw faster paces on my watch than I ever have for tempo runs.
Competing for placement. It's only been within this past year that I've been in races where I've suddenly been in contention for the top spots. This is a big mental shift for me and I'm still very new to the whole idea of racing against others - I've always just raced myself or the clock. I'm proud of myself that I didn't give up at Erie when I knew I wouldn't get my sub-3 - instead I refocused and worked on placing 3rd.

Lessons learned:

Carb loading. I think I overdid it a bit. I felt heavier (and WAS heavier - weight-wise) going into this race. I think a little less focus on carb loading (perhaps 1-2 days vs. 3) would have been a better idea.
Water & Fuel during the race. I am terrible at water stops. I have a hard time getting liquid from that cup into my mouth while running 6:50 pace. I need to practice that more often. I also need to adjust the gel intake, or be more diligent about it. Once I started feeling bad during the race and saw my pace slipping, I got lazy on taking my fuel. Which only led to more of a slowdown. Not the brightest idea.
My mental attitude during the last two weeks and on race day. After the half marathon didn't go as well as I'd have liked it to, I kind of got down on myself and started to doubt my ability to run the sub-3. And on race day when I saw my friend pick up the pace during the race, I thought immediately that it was too fast for me - that I couldn't hold that pace - and slowed down. I needed to kick myself in the pants and convince myself that YES, I COULD hold that pace, and put my head down to keep fighting for it.
Peaking for this race. I think I may have peaked about 4 weeks before the race. I'd been training since April and my awesome run in Gettysburg may have been my body telling me it was ready to go. I did seriously contemplate just tapering for two weeks right then and then trying to find a marathon to go run, but do to logistics and costs that wasn't feasible. But I felt READY. I hung on for the remaining 4 weeks until Erie, but I think I'll try a shorter marathon-specific buildup for my next one.

So that's the Erie Marathon post-mortem. Onward and upward, right?

Indulging in local spirits - had this in a cocktail out at dinner. Amazing! I love spice so this was the perfect way to make a cocktail with a kick!

After taking 11 days totally OFF (expect for teaching BodyPump), I was ready to get out there and enjoy a good two weeks of nice and easy running. My usual post-marathon routine is two weeks off, followed by two weeks easy. I didn't make it quite two weeks totally off, but the weather was so beautiful that I was eager to get out there and enjoy Richmond's limited run of Fall weather before it switches over to FREEZING. I ran with friends, ran some with my Dad, and enjoyed eating all of the delicious bad-for-you foods that one indulges in post-marathon. (Beer! Doughnuts! Ice cream! Yes I DO, in fact, want that second slice of cake!) Last week I decided to get back into a bit more easy running and aimed for 30-35 miles in the week. Things were going great until....

Ouch. I stepped out of bed one morning and....my heel hurt. "Huh. That's weird.", I thought to myself. I shrugged it off since it didn't hurt while running but the next morning...there it was again. That weird heel pain. At this point, the dreaded thought occurred to me: Plantar Fasciitis. My mom has had it. My running partner Kevin struggled with it for months. A visit to the podiatrist confirmed it: a mild case of Plantar Fasciitis in my right heel. ARGH.

So, this week has been filled with cross-training and lots of stretches, icing, and an appointment for Graston work on my foot. I'm hoping that I can nip it in the bud if I take the time now to rehab it. My hip is a bit tight (same side - right side - of my body as the heel) so I'm headed to the sports doc tomorrow to make sure that's just a tight muscle and nothing else. Thankfully I don't have a race looming on the horizon and I can focus on getting my body healthy and ready for the next round of training. So that's what I'm working on now. Getting healthy so that I can get back to doing what I love.

Thankfully, I'm able to live vicariously through several friends who are running fall races! (Hi Jessica, Shawn, Tia, Lesley and Kris!) I will be watching Chicago play out this weekend and cheering in spirit for my friends chasing PRs in the coming weeks.

I'd love to live vicariously through you guys too - who is racing in the next few weeks? :)