Day 3: Fish In Chips

Today's post has nothing to do with running and everything to do with fun snack food from Southeast Asia.

My brother-in-law just got back from a trip to Malaysia where he won an international student competition in materials science.  If seeing pictures of Malaysia sounds way more interesting than continuing on with my blog post, check them out here.

For those of you who are left, J sent us some Malaysian junk food.

Dried cuttlefish (with hot sauce).  We haven't tried this one yet.  Stay tuned.

But we did crack open these guys: soft shell crab, grilled shrimp, and seaweed Pringles.

I had high hopes for the soft-shell crab, thinking those would taste the most Pringle-like.  (J confirmed that the sign in the grocery store said they were the best selling flavor)  Daniel thought seaweed would be the best.

Here's a look at the actual shrimp and seaweed chips.  Yes, they were pink and green as advertised.

What was the verdict?  Fortunately all of them tasted 90% like regular Pringles.  Seaweed was the clear winner.  It was mostly Pringle-y with just a little sweetness.  Despite the color being a little weird, both of us agreed that we would eat a big handful of these with a sandwich.  If you changed name of the flavor to salsa or sour cream and chives you could sell them in the US for sure.

My second favorite flavor was crab.  Again it mostly tasted like Pringles with just a little bit of a sweet/seafood taste at the end.  I didn't dislike these, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat them.  Daniel liked shrimp more than crab.  The taste was similar, but I think the seafood overtone was stronger.  I really really really don't like dried shrimp so I was prejudiced against these chips from the beginning.  I didn't hate the shrimp chip, but I didn't like it either.

Final prediction for the chips: they will all get eaten by us.  I will help with seaweed and Daniel will make it through the rest with the help of some salsa.

Day 4: The day I talk about race goals

Sure, why not?  I've been thinking about your advice to my pacing questions and my experiences with racing and training this cycle, and, despite going back and forth about things for awhile, I think my decision making process has finally reached steady state.

Time is the time since I started thinking about this and system state is now fast I plan to try to run the marathon.

As of 9/29 that average state is an 8:48 min/mile, aiming for a 3:50 finish.  Which is to say that I've decided to run with the 3:50 pace group.  If I'm feeling great at the 1/2 way point then I'll try to speed up.

So may race goals are as follows:
1. Enjoy the race.  I've spent hours (days if you aggregate them) of my life working toward this one goal.  I want to do my best and enjoy the experience regardless of my finishing time.

2. Finish in less than 4 hours.  As much as I'd like to run 3:50, crossing the 4 hour barrier is what I care about most.  It's like being a 40-something minute 10k runner or getting into the 1:40's for the 1/2 marathon.  Sure there's a lot of variation in speed for all those times, but it represents a step up the amateur running ladder.

3. Run a 3:50.  The plan is to go out with the 3:50 group.  I'll speed up if I can and slow down if I have to, but I think this is smarter than going too fast at the beginning and trying to bank time (or pretending that I can actually run that fast for the entire race).

And there you have it.  Lakefront Marathon race plans and goals 2010.  I'm getting excited!

Day 5: The Heat is On

And I don't mean the song



Just wanted to see if I could figure out how to do that.

But yeah, the heating system for all the university apartments gets turned on when someone pulls a giant switch in late September or early October, and- after a couple nights that dipped into the low 40s or high 30s- it got turned on yesterday.  I kinda missed that crackly/poppy/xylophone sound of the radiator doing it's thing.

This will be my first run with mittens.  I've decided that I'm going to get a cheapo pair to wear and possibly discard during the race.  I've had the pair that I wear now since before Daniel and I got married, but- even though they're kind of falling apart- I have a bit of an emotional attachment to them, and I don't want to toss them out on the course.

I still haven't hit taper madness yet.  My long run on Saturday was great.  12 miles at a 9:07min/mile pace with a few miles right around race pace.  Sunday was an easy 5mi.  Yesterday I did yoga (super easy yoga that I do all the time so I *hopefully* won't do anything too strenuous or tweak anything).  And today is 6.5 with 3mi marathon pace.

Unfortunately my appetite hasn't figured out that I'm not running as much yet.  I'm trying not to worry *too* much about it and focus on eating healthy stuff.  Now's certainly not the time to cut back, but I don't want to feel icky on race day either.

So much to think about...

Day 6:Yoga! Yoga!

This is the first day I rest instead of doing strength training.  Based on the recommendations of all my wise advisers (you guys!), I'm taking this week off from strength training.  This is less because I really push myself when I do weights but more because I don't want to 1.Tweak some muscle I didn't even know I had or 2.Drop something on some part of my body that I need for the race on Sunday.

I'm up at normal time today and am planning to do 45 minutes of yoga before work.  I haven't done yoga since last Thursday so I know I need some stretching out, and I'm hoping that doing yoga first thing will trick my body into thinking that I've worked out today.  So far I haven't been feeling the icky taper feeling- actually it's been kind of nice to back off- but I'm sure it will come before the end of the week.  Isn't the icky taper feeling a sign that you've rested enough and are ready to go?  I hope so.

I've really enjoyed adding in more yoga this training cycle, and I want to try to ramp it up a bit during the boring winter months.

Definitely need a pair of these.  *Bling*

Day 7: 1 week to go

This time next week I'll bet sitting in the hotel lobby, finishing up some coffee, waiting to take my fourth trip to the bathroom before I get on the bus.  The race doesn't do athlete tracking on their website, but I've set up some kind of application on Facebook that will post my stats at mile 7, mile 13, mile ??? later in the race, and the finish.  If anyone wants to follow me online, that's how to do it.  If you aren't my friend on Facebook (and want to be), I'm probably not too hard to find from details you know about me from the blog.  I am not holding any kind of alcoholic beverage in my profile picture, which should eliminate any possible confusion with other young women who have the same name and location as me.

On an unrelated note, we bought a 30lb watermelon at the farmer's market yesterday for $3.

Have a great Sunday, all.

Day 8:Last long run

And the first one where I'll have to use my headlamp.  *Sad*.  It's 53 this morning and it's predicted to be 50 at the start of the race, so I should start getting a good idea of exactly what I want to wear.

Daniel's grandparents are passing through Madison on their vacation, and last night we had dinner downtown at The Old Fashioned.  I ate my allotment of fried food for the year (mmmm.... totally worth it) so that should keep things interesting on my run if being attacked by black walnuts on the bike bath wasn't enough.

They look so innocent, but if you've never seen black walnuts (and I hadn't before I moved to Madison), they are like green baseballs that fall out of the trees at random, smacking into cars and laying on the sidewalk waiting to break your ankle.  Squirrels will stick them in your shoes and bike spokes.

And I'm off... I need to get an early start because we have a full day of capitol touring and farmer's marketing and Babcock Dairy-store-ing to do today.  Last long run... woot!

Day 9: On weather watch

Nine days until the race and I can finally start obsessing over the weather.  Right now things are looking pretty good.

If you don't want to get out your magnifying glass, it says low of 52, high of 61 with 20% chance of showers.  Clouds in the AM.

This is about perfect for me because it won't be too cold at the start or too hot at the end.  I'm sure one of my countdown days will be dedicated to what I'm going to wear for the race.  I have one cool weather outfit in mind and one warm weather outfit.  I'll probably bring both to the race, but that won't stop me from checking this 10 day forecast at least once a day up until we leave for Milwaukee Saturday afternoon.