Knoxville Marathon Week 7

Monday: REST
Work stressin me the eff out.

Tuesday: REST
Work stressin me the eff out again.

Wednesday: 5 mile Tempo @ 7:18. (7 miles total)
Felt overheated and rusty like a tin man that's been left out in the rain. Strength + Core stuffs too.

Thursday: Recovery 5 miles.
Flushing the gunk out.

Friday: 18 miles, 2:27
Another pre-work long run in the books. Didn't experiment with real foodz because I didn't plan ahead. DERP. Felt a little hot, but otherwise an uneventful slightly progressive run with the final 5 miles around GMP.

Saturday: Easy 5
Felt like shit. Ate a ton of food for brunch and struggled through this one 4 hours later.

Sunday: Easy 7 + 2 sets strength stuffs
Mildly progressive + filled with rage because of our elderly neighbor and her barking "Rats" which never STFU. One or all 3 (barking rats, not elderly neighbor) shit in the hallway and she didn't clean up until after they went for a walk.

Wore my new Lulu skirt to test out and it was AH-MAZING. It didnt take a chunk out of my thighs, so I believe it will be part of my race day outfit. And... IT HAS 4 POCKETS!!! No need for a janky spi-belt or fanny pack now. YAY! My NEWtons also are feeling great after the 18 miler and the 7 miler. finally broken in after 50 miles and my feet are very happy. :)
With Knoxville fast approaching 3 weeks from today, I've been feeling every type of emotion towards this race. One moment i'll feel super confident in my abilities, and the next wonder why the eff am I doing another marathon. I'm doing another because I have unfinished business. I won't settle until I reach my goal, ok that's a lie. I'll never settle. The awful memories of Fox Valley 2013 creep into my head more than I would like, and I wonder if the same bonk-fest will happen at Knox. Answer: Probably not since I know what caused it and have figured out a solution to avoid the great bonk in the future.
Some of the thingz I've realized this time around...

• I cannot take 2 days off in a row and expect to run a hard tempo with "ease." 
• Looking back at past training cycles helps build confidence. Especially since i'm much stronger now than back in September 2013 as evidenced by my training logs.
• Figuring out why I bonked at FVM was important, and the changes I've made to my nutrition since have made a huge difference in my runs.
• Acknowledging I have some sort of pre-run anxiety happening before speed work and long runs. Once I get running, all those feelings fade.
• I want to run more than 5 days a week but won't change this until post marathon. 

Stuff to remember going into my final high mileage week:

• I have all the confidence in Coach and her plan to get me to the start line ready to smash my goal for this race.
• I've been putting in all the work and need to trust in my training and myself.
• The bonk-fest of FVM won't happen in a future race due to tweaking my nutrition & knowing the cause of the issue.
• I love running and chasing better times for as long as my body allows. 
• In the words of Macklemore "This is F*CKING AWESOME."

3 weeks. Time is flying by and I'm getting more and more excited for this race. It will be so nice to run outside in a new area and even tackle some hills.AND HAVE FUN!

- xaar