Aside from feeling down in the dumps, the Napa marathon is right away the corner - this weekend! Big plus, the weather should be lovely! Despite the way I've been feeling, I'm really looking forward to this weekend - the run, the little getaway, good food and good friends/family. If you were to ask me if I felt ready and I had too much time to think about my answer, I would probably say I didn't feel that ready. I've done the best I could with training as much as I could handle and I've tried to mentally prepare myself for what is to come, but really, I'm just trying not to think about it too much. I'm running the Napa marathon with my cousin and we are trying to remind ourselves, as well as each other that we're just doing this for fun. Right, 26.2 miles for fun?! Ok, that doesn't sound normal to most people I know.
I'm trying to get my mind right this week even though it's been a challenge. I'm trying my best not to stress out too much, but I'm not sure it's working. I've had a bad headache since last Friday that keeps creeping its way back and so much tension in my neck and shoulders that I simply haven't been able to stretch away. At this very moment, I'm sitting in front of my laptop with a heat pad around my neck and shoulders trying to warm away the tension. I did the 53 minutes of P90X's X stretch today which helped temporarily and now, at the end of the night the tension has come back. I'm trying to get more sleep, keep hydrated and rest as well. Tapering always seems to be the hardest on me mentally because I start to play mind games with myself. I find myself doubting whether I'm prepared enough - physically and mentally. I find myself wanting to do more, but then holding myself back because I'm also telling myself that I need to hold back and rest my legs. This will be my 3rd marathon, but the last marathon I ran was in 2006. It's been awhile. I hope my body doesn't fail me now.
One of the many things that I need to do to get ready for the Napa marathon/weekend is to pick out my race outfit. I truly believe that if you look look good, you feel good. And yes, they say that if you still look cute after your workout, well you just didn't workout hard enough, but to me, that doesn't mean that your outfit can't be cute. I think it's going to be shorts, one of my Nike sports bras and some long sleeve shirt. As you can tell, I'm not quite prepared yet, but I will be. What I would really like is to be able to run like I did in Honolulu back in 2006 (pre-baby) with just a sports bra. I feel more self concious (post-baby) about my stomach even though I've been working out like a fiend for the last year or so. I am my own worst critic.
Honolulu Marathon 2006
When the weather was warm, I was really into running skirts. I was looking through the Athleta catalog that I received in the mail yesterday and noticed there were some new, cute additions. Here are just a few notable mentions from browsing today:
I really want a cute patterned running skirt, but I haven't been able to find what I'm envisioning yet. Anyway, time to catch some zzz's and get ready for another day closer to race day.
