Finally this past weekend it was time to do another 20 miler. Last time I felt like I was really amped up the night before and the night before this 20 miler I just was pretty mellow and was hanging out at my house. I ate a lot of carbs and went to bed at 9:00. It felt amazing to say the least but when my alarm went off at 5:30 I was still wanted to stay snuggled in my bed. Sometimes the hardest part of the long run is getting up super early. I packed up my little backpack with my sharkies and fuel belt and headed down to Newport Beach to run along the beach path. I had to go really early in the morning because it’s been SO hot here lately. Once I parked I went right off to get in the miles.

I gave myself little things to look forward to throughout the run. I got to eat some sharkies at mile 6 and I drank water every mile as well. It was an out and back route. I find that if I run by myself and go 10 miles out, once I turn around I have a little pep in my step because I tell myself “I just have to get back to my car!” As I got to the 10 mile turn-around, it was already really hot and I made sure to drink a lot of water throughout my run. Though I was getting tired, I knew I just had to make it ‘back to the car!’ Finally I got to the upper mileage and kept telling myself 6 more miles, 5 more miles, 4 more miles, then I only had a 5k left!

Finally I made it back to the car, with more awkward tan lines and a rumbling stomach. On my way home I could literally feel my muscles tightening. It seemed that I couldn’t get into the icebath soon enough! I grabbed a bag of ice at the market and hopped in the icebath to freeze for ten minutes. Seriously, icebaths are a weird miracle thing that make you feel 100 times better. After the icebath I really thought about how I fueled and the miles that I put in. For the lack of miles I’ve been getting in during the week, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get in another 20 miler. With Camarillo quickly approaching, I know that these last miles in my training is important and I have to keep up my consistency.

It’s easy for me to get really tired and overwhelmed with training, and lose focus on what I’m training for, but right now I have about a month to go and I really have to keep up with training and finish strong.

41 days!

xoxo