Austin Marathon Training: I'm out of excuses

On Saturday, I ran 22 miles, 18 of which came on the course that the Austin Marathon will be run on - basically, from Mopac and Lake Austin Blvd. until the finish line on Congress Ave. downtown, with about four more miles added on (two at the beginning of the run and two at the end).

I took the run as an opportunity to see where the worst hills were (Exposition Boulevard) and when and where to to conserve energy and when to expend it (the final stretch down Duval, of course!)

My goal was to run the first 11 easy and then try marathon goal pace the last 11 miles.

The numbers: 8:12 pace the first 11 miles and 7:28 pace the second 11 miles. And I still had enough in the tank where I could have gone the full marathon distance if I had to - and thank God I didn't - my hips were killing me!

I feel like after this run that I have basically run out of excuses to not have a solid marathon on Feb. 20. (Unless its 70 degrees of course).

I feel like my nutrition was solid. I ate a ton the week before the run. Drank only once the whole week (aren't you guys proud that I went wine-free six out of seven days of the week?). Ate a few bites of an oatmeal protein bar and some powerrade an hour before the run, then had a GU on the way to the run. During the run, I just drank the water/gatorade they had on the course. No GU. No salt. Nothing else.

I've determined that my body just WILL. NOT. PROCESS. FOOD. during a run. I've tried all kinds of GU and gels and most of the time, they make me feel worse. Or they do not add to my energy output. And they certainly have never "saved" me late in a long run/race. And even eating that close to the run Saturday was a little tricky. I felt very sluggish the first five or six miles. Heavy. Nothing like the energy I have for my 8 to 10 mile runs during the week - when I don't eat anything before or during my workout.

I still think I can do better about the nutrition issue. Eating two or even three hours before the run would be more ideal. (But when my iPhone alarm went off at 4 am Saturday, I decided I needed more sleep than calories.) I can also make sure I eat more during the week, carb up as much as possible. I bought two boxes of my favorite cereal to work with me Monday. Each box has 7 servings and 31 grams of carbs per serving. If I eat two boxes a week, that's 410 carbs on top of all the eating I do everyday anyway. (Getting kinda sick just thinking about it - but, hey, a marathoner has to do what a marathoner has to do).

The Big Day is still about six weeks away. That leaves plenty of time to fine tune a nutrition plan. A race plan.

And a head plan.