Mississauga Marathon training: Week 14

This pretty much sums it up:

Monday: Home from work with the kids, so spent the morning cleaning the house (and swiping their Easter candy). Then I wasn't feeling very well in the afternoon, which likely had to do with the Easter candy. Ugh. Lesson learned. Don't eat so much junk. Admittedly I should have learned that lesson about a million times by this point, but still, candy! It's so yummy!

Tuesday: #5amrunclub. Super sluggish 8k. Not a great feeling run, but it got done. Wore a t shirt! woo! It's almost time to start complaining about the heat!

Oh, and if anyone took the under on how long it would take me to lose my sunglasses, you win! Both they and my headphones have disappeared. Damn it.

Random aside: this recipe comes really close to replicating Old El Paso fajita mix. Close enough no one in my family noticed or commented, and much cheaper than the mix pouches. Winner!

Mmmmm, chorizo. There's vegetables buried under there somewhere, I swear.

Wednesday: 8k at lunch. Out and back on the rail trail. Nothing exciting, although it did kind of turn into a marathon pace run instead of an easy run. Not sure it really matters either way at this point.

My headphones returned! They'd gone home with my brother over the Easter weekend. I guess they wanted a little Scarborough vacation. Fortunately my brother works near my husband so it wasn't hard to get them back. Still no sign of my sunglasses, though. And thus ends the most boring paragraph I have ever written.

Thursday: Lunch hour run - first trip over to Brant St since the fall. Down the hill, weeeeeeeeeeeeee! Good times. 8k at a pace a little faster than I probably should have, but it was a beautiful day and I couldn't resist opening it up on the downhill.

Rockin' the super girl shirt my husband got me for our anniversary. Clearly we take these things very seriously (and are also huge nerds).

Friday: Rest day. About which I will say nothing because really, I am so bored of myself right now.

Saturday: 'Long' run with the girls. Our first time out in ages, between Sam's injury problems and Amy's ski weekends, I don't think we've run as a full group since the fall (and we were missing Nicole, too, who stubbornly insists on living in an entirely different city. What the hell, Nicole.). 16k in the rain. Felt pretty good.

Photo from Patty. Thank god we didn't all show up in the same colour shirts, I admit I almost put the pink top back in the drawer because I was afraid we'd all be in that colour (that's happened before...).

My new shoes have been causing me some issues with foot numbness, so I re-laced them using the high instep method and it made a huge difference. No problems at all over the 16k. I don't know what changes New Balance made to the v4 of this shoe, but it's definitely something because I never had that issue with the v2s or v3s. It may be time to look for a new shoe once my current pairs all start maxing out on mileage.

Looks weird, but feels better.

Sunday: Easy 5k. Finally warm enough to test my planned marathon outfit, and I think it will work. Now I just have to hope a tank top will be appropriate for race day, otherwise I'll need to do a complete outfit overhaul.

I am so happy to see these friendly faces in the front garden again. I think it's really 100% truly spring. Finally.

Weekly summary: 46.7 km run. Legs are feeling good; no nagging aches or pains. Just need to keep things that way all week! A couple of short and easy runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, maybe something very short on Thursday if I'm feeling antsy, then I'll be resting up for the big day.

It's artsy photo time!

So this is totally cheesy, but I've been wearing this bracelet since the taper started as a way of keeping my head on straight. I'm a firm believer that if your training is good, your brain will defeat you long before you body (and the late race mental game is something I've struggled with, many times, and definitely have yet to master - the only race I've done where I felt like it went totally right, mentally, was the Oakville 10k). This is a reminder to myself that I've done the training, and I can do this. I plan to also wear it during the race to use as a mental touchstone when things get tough. Will it work? One week until we find out...