The "Haves" and "Have Nots"

As the days wind down and the time gets closer to leave for NYC, I have been thinking about everything I have and have not done in order to make this marathon the best thus far in my career. If you watch the reality show Big Brother, I stole the title from it, hahaha

Let's see...I HAVE:

*Trained harder and longer than ever before in my life
*Hit all time highs in my mileage
*Done workouts I didn't think were possible
*Stayed dedicated to my training even when tempted to "go easier"
*Pushed through the negative-mindset days
*Stayed tough while training alone 99% of the time


I HAVE NOT:
*Had much of a social life (past 8 pm) due to being up at 5 or 5:30 every day :)
*Had any alcoholic drink since my last night in Cabo (July 25th!)
*Had any sweet treats, desserts, candy, etc...(as of today it's been 69 days!!)
*Given up on myself when I thought there was no possible way I could continue to suffer....

I am sure there are a lot of things I could add to these lists but this is good for now. Next up will be my lists of what I'm getting SUPER excited for pre and post race in NYC!! :):)

This past week seemed to drag on forever and the when the weekend started at 2:42 pm on Friday afternoon, I bolted from school for fresh air and no stress! My workouts the rest of the week went well after I had to take a couple days of running easy to recover from the 15x 1 mile workout. My run the next morning after that workout was the SLOWest run I've done in years, LOL...but my upper hamstrings and hips needed it :) My mileage hit about 74 which left me feeling fine. This week will be about 55, which I'm hoping isn't too little. I never thought I'd say this, but running higher mileage does make the taper seem so much more drastic! However I know I need to wind down, let my muscles heal and store up the glycogen so I can run faaaaast in TWO WEEKS!!

I ran a 15 mile long run this morning and I couldn't believe how well I did with gradually dropping my pace every single mile. My splits: 6:58, 53, 46, 41, 37, 32, 30, 26, 24, 22, 17, 14, 14, 09, and 5:58...avg of 6:28 :):) I felt pretty darn happy with that. I took an ice bath, biked to the grocery store, took a nap, etc. and enjoying a nice relaxing Sunday.

I'm starting to pack for NYC and I'll be there for a total of 16 days...well, trying to fit everything in a carry on size roller bag is interesting but I'm determined to make it work. When we get there we have to rush to get our rental car in time to drive to upstate NY to see my sister for dinner before her Big East Champs the next morning! woo hoo baby :) Ok that gave away one thing I'm excited for...better stop now or I'll keep rambling things off :)

I did a "Brief Chat" for Runner's World so when the link is up I'll post it on here...I hope it's good! :)

Pic: The beautiful desert I live in....

Quote for today: "We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face … we must do that which we think we cannot."- Roosevelt, Eleanor