This week’s stats:
38 Miles
9M with 6 x 800m in 2:50-3:00 with 90s jog
6 runs, 1 day off
1 lift day (Monday)
It’s officially race week! The focus for this week was to maintain a calm confidence in my race plan and to not look too much into what would likely be highly varied weather forecast. I had to ignore text messages from Tom, who kept whining about how terrible the weather inevitably would be. We still had over five days until race day, and I didn’t need to pack yet. I joked that I don’t check the weather because Terry usually just emails me to tell me what to do.
The workout on Wednesday went without any alarm bells, and I just checked the box for getting something in. My legs felt good and like they were ready to just roll, but I also felt a slight twinge in my left glute. The next day I decided to take the day off and I’m really glad I did that.
With a bunch of stuff coming together this week in other aspects of my life - such as beginning the testing phase for two of my main features at work, and also rushing to get all the documentation necessary to secure a pre-approval for a mortgage - it was easy to stay occupied but hard to de-compress.
Since our house is on the market, our landlord asked if he could host an open house while we were in Boston. This was totally fine, but it meant that we needed to make sure our house was super clean and that both Endy and Cicero had a place to stay for the weekend away. On Friday, I dropped Cicero off at a friend’s house and took Endy to Peter’s sister house before packing my bags and heading to SFO with Peter. Needless to say, there was a lot of administrative junk I had to handle before leaving and I was very glad to board the airplane to finally have a little escape from it all.
With a slightly delayed takeoff, we landed in Boston around 2AM. We took an uber to Lexington, MA, where Sam had offered to host us, even though he wouldn’t arrive until the next day from Frankfurt. On Saturday, we slept in forever, and I headed to Boston to do a shakeout with Shal along the Charles while Peter drove to Dartmouth to see his sister Tessa.
It was nice to be in Boston so I could see Shal, Rachel and Tom, but I was glad to head back to the burbs after Sam landed. The hustle and bustle in the elite host hotel is always a little overwhelming and I was grateful to see Sam, where everything seemed a bit more disconnected from the main event. We got dinner out and spent the evening catching up on his porch on a beautiful spring evening in Massachusetts. By 9PM, we were both in bed.
For as great as my night of sleep was on Friday night, Saturday was the exact opposite. I tossed and turned all night and eventually woke up in a pool of my own sweat on Sunday morning. I begrudgingly got out of bed, ate my bland meal of cornflakes and an english muffin and got ready to run.
For the entire weekend, I had been focusing on eating a high carb, low fiber diet so that I can hopefully avoid having a code brown situation occur on race day tomorrow. My sister, who is a dietician, sent me the types of foods that were “safe” for me to eat: carrots, peas, white rice, white bread, oatmeal, cornflake, eggs…I was so sick of these foods by Sunday, but I continued with purpose on this nutrition plan.
Sam and I headed out for my final shakeout run while Peter slept in. It was great to have Sam’s company on the bike as he distracted me and told me all sorts of stories. After some quick strides, I got ready to go and Sam drove me into the city to make it to the elite technical meeting on time.
While I spent the rest of the day hanging in the hotel, Peter and Sam went to go clay shooting. I was glad that Peter could have some fun instead of just be bored in a hotel room.
Dinner was potatoes, white rice, spinach and avocado / cucumber sushi at Whole Foods with Peter, Sean, Rachel and her parents. It was a great, low key way to get the foods I wanted without stressing about making a later reservation that Tom had booked.
By 930PM, Peter and I went to bed, and he passed out immediately while I tossed and turned, thinking about the day that was to come!
In the photos below, you can see what it was like while I was packing with the furchildren nearby, how adorable my mom looked when she ran Boston in 2000, my race bib, the elite technical meeting presentation and my friend Sam who drove me around Boston!
