There Ain't No Holidays in Marathon Training

Christmas Morning!  A time for a big greasy breakfast, opening gifts, time with family, oh yeah, and an 8 mile run.  Now, the schedule is supposed to be a guide designed to allow you to move things things around if they conflict with your schedule.  I decided to ignore this since I'm clearly a masochist  and I knew I would be eating probably about an extra 1000 calories for the rest of the day.

I fueled up with my favorite pre-run breakfast of french toast with bananas.  Carbs and protein all covered in syrup.  Is there anything better?  I donned my new Nike thermal pullover that I got from my brother (that's the plus side of having a brother who's also run a marathon, he knows warm running clothes).  My father snapped this pic right before I left although I ended up letting down Christmas fanatics everywhere and leaving the Santa hat behind for fear of overheating.

The route I took was a short 3/4 mile to a running trail that borders the Tarrytown Lakes Reservoir (running near water is my favorite as I'm sure you'll see in the months to come).  This trail is about a mile long and connects with the North County Trail which is about 20 miles long.  I went out and back on the trail which is pretty flat.  Unfortunately, my parents live in the Hudson River Valley which means that the roads are almost all hills so getting to and from the trail was a little more challenging and I could definitely feel pain creeping up my legs by the time I got back to my parents house, a clear recipe for a sore ass the next day.

The run took me about an hour and 25 minutes which equated to around a 10 minute mile pace taking into account that I probably went a little farther than 8 miles.  I made sure to keep at a conversational pace so I didn't overexert myself.  Having not been able to entice anyone in the immediate area to run the full 8 miles with me (surprising I know), I had to monitor my pace by myself.  I imagine if anyone had actually been out on the trail to see me, it would have been very entertaining to see me muttering nonsense to myself to make sure I could still say full sentences.

I finished the run strong and feeling good but I think because I rushed to get ready for Christmas dinner at my grandparents' house and therefore did not eat or drink  a while after after the run took it's toll on me.  I ended up feeling really light headed and exhausted all through dinner.  I finally recovered after rehydrating, eating, and taking a long nap under my new sheep blanket my Grandmother gave me for Christmas.  Though maybe not an endorsed recovery method, I felt some tea and sugar cookies were the perfect panacea at the end of the night.  Lesson learned though...make sure to eat and drink water within 30 minutes after a long run.

My Reward