Yesterday I took a day off from running and a day off from blogging. I knew I would either take Monday or Tuesday off, and I decided Monday should be an off day. It was a great Monday. I recently applied for the Assistant Director for Housing & Residence Life at IUPUI (where I work) and I was offered and accepted the job yesterday. I'm very excited about that. I work in a great department with great people and students and it will be nice to serve in this position.
Had a nice run this morning and it gave me some time to answer a couple of good questions. One was about prerace meals and what to wear at a race from Shelly. The other about 10Ks from Julie.
Pre-race day rituals: For me, I think it's important in the week before the race to run very easy for most of your runs and cut your mileage back to about 70% of normal. In addition, I like to add one small speed workout before the race (just 2-3 one minute pick-ups on Wednesday during a normal run). A pick-up is just running at a "comfortably hard" pace and then backing it down for a few minutes after you recover.
Food: there are a lot of theories about what to eat before a race. In my opinion, unless you are running an marathon, ultramarathon, or you are an Olympic type runner, then it's best to keep it simple. For me, I keep it very simple and normal. I live on a diet of pasta, beans, rice, bread, carrots, and spinach salad almost every day. So...the night before a race I eat a normal meal (usually pasta) and don't change up too much. I like to drink a beer or two usually on a Friday, so before a race I'll even have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner (usually not more than that). I think when you change your diet up before a race, then you mentally can get thrown off. Honestly, the fastest four miler I've ever run came after a night of drinking 3 big beers and eating hamburgers and fries. The worst 10 miler I have ran came after eating pasta and light food for 3-4 days before a race. Like I said, unless you are an elite runner or running a very long distance, then I'd keep it to pasta or beans and rice. The key is filling your body with food. The day of the race, I usually have about a cup of dry honey nut Cheerios, about 1/3 of a cookie dough balance bar, and some water. That's enough to get me through the raice. During a half-marathon, make sure to drink the water and Gatorade on the course, but not too much of it. If it's hot, then you want some at every water stop.
What to wear: Go to a running store and get technical socks, shorts, sports bra (for women), a nice tech shirt. You want all clothes that are technical in nature: meaning that they move sweat from your body to the outside of your clothes. This helps with chaffing. Guys...wear band aids over your nipples----just trust me on that.
For 10K's, Julie...The only tweak I would make is on your long run. Run 8 miles instead of six and run 3-4 of the eight miles at race pace rather than 2-3. Make sense?
Have a great day. Happy running!
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