What is up with that?

I’m anxious about Sunday’s marathon.

I keep trying to convince myself to be confident about the race. Nashille’s 22.2 miler was a great “last” long run. I have the distance in my legs and I’ve been resting well so I am primed for a great race. I tell myself that over and over.

Still, I’ve got butterflies in my stomach when I think about running another marathon so soon after the aborted Nashville race. I’m not truly recovered from a 22 miler AT race pace (the longest I’ve seen in other plans in maybe 16 miles within a 20 miler). It’s been too long since I was able to run consistently (early April before I started the taper for Nashville) and not counting Nashville I haven’t run more than 8 miles since early April. I haven’t been eating or sleeping well (5 lb. gain since Nashville). Last week was a good week of running and I felt like my old self but this week has just been…strange, for lack of a better term.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I went out for a shorter “long” run and two easy runs in the 3 to 4 mile range, respectively. Although I was aiming for an easy, slow pace and I tried to hold my pace at a slow pace, each run was at a 10 minute average pace. That’s way faster than I was running easy runs before (10:30 to 11:00 minute pace).

Wednesday and Thursday I skipped running and allow myself to sleep in (9.5 hours of sleep both nights – fantastic!).

Today, Friday, I went out for super slow, super easy 3 miler just to shake out my legs and get them primed for Sunday. “Ugh” is the only appropriate word to describe how I feel during this run. I felt like I was running through knee-deep quicksand and yet, everytime my Garmin beeped off a mile, my pace was in the 10:00 to 10:15 range. In fact, I ended with an average pace of 10:06. What is up with that? I really was telling myself to slow down and take it easy. I thought I was.

On top of that, as I was walking back to the house I realized that I felt better after that dreadful run than I did the last few days with no run and tons of sleep. Seriously, what is up with that?

I’m really not sure how to feel about Sunday’s 26.2 miles. I hate going in to a race without confidence but I am really confused!

Daily Dozen:
3.32 miles run in early morning
XT (walking on treadmill and stretching) @ lunch hour