It'll All Be Worth it at Week 18!

Boston Store Visitor Center on the Towpath.
Courtesy of NPS.GOV.

One word: WHEW! Did my 14-mile run this morning/afternoon... I decided it would be nice to sleep into 9:30 AM this morning, the most I've gotten to sleep in forever! Well, maybe that wasn't the greatest of ideas! HAHA I decided to take Blake out to the Towpath out by Boston Mills where I ran with the Grunt Girls last weekend. That was about a 20-minute drive or so, by the time we got out the door and to the towpath it was already close to 11 AM.... The first couple of miles felt good! We ran five miles one way and back and then another two miles out the other way for a total of 14 miles. I followed instructions from an Active.com article titled, "The Pre-Race Meal,"  I came across where it said to drink about eight ounces of a sports drink about 30 minutes before a long-distance run and to eat little something. So, I had half of a whole wheat bagel and about eight oz. of Gatorade G2. Now, my legs felt GREAT and I felt GREAT, however, my mouth was dry as heck! We filled up Blake's water backpack with Gatorade and sipped on that every 2-3 miles. I don't know if it was the sodium in the Gatorade, but no matter how much I drank I had the worse dry mouth ever! Another factor could be my medication, Celexa, which may cause dry mouth... Either way, it slowed me down because all I wanted to do was DRINK DRINK DRINK! Afterwards I felt a little queasy and could barely stand still... After about five minutes though I felt fine, just still thirsty since we drank all of the Gatorade.

All in all, it really wasn't that bad of a ran today. I wish we would have gone a lot earlier to beat some of the heat. But, there was LOTS of shade on the Towpath and a pretty nice breeze. The last four miles I stripped my top off, which isn't usual for me because I feel very self-conscious about my stomach... =-/ But, boy did it feel good to run in a sports bra! :) Minus the dry mouth, it was a good run! Towards mile 11, I was thinking, "Damn, I am barely half way to 26.2! How am I going to do this in a couple months?" But, I just tell myself that I need to gradually increase my mileage and 14 miles will be a breeze! Shoot, a couple years ago I thought I'd never even run a half marathon and that more than five miles was a lot! Sometimes I even ask myself, why the hell am I doing this? Well, because I LOVE it, the good and the bad. The pain and the victory. I may complain after a 14-mile run, may even be a little cranky (ask Blake haha), but to me it's the best thing I can do for my body and mind. :)

Mango, Pineapple and Banana Smoothie!!

OH! Blake and I made some pretty awesome smoothies last night! Maybe even the best ones we've made so far! We used some frozen pineapple and mangoes with bananas, honey and yogurt. AMAZING! Also, for dinner last night we loaded up on carbs with chicken, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower on top of pasta with cream of celery for the sauce. Not too bad.

After the run today I refueled on Diet Arizona Green Tea with a PB&J on whole wheat bread with low-fat Activia yogurt and a banana. :)

Now I'm just going to finish  up my laundry and RELAX. These past couple of days have been nothing but running and driving around. I'm just going to rest my legs and relax for the rest of the day. :)

Stay FIT my friends!