If any of you lovely readers have been wondering why I've been neglecting this blog lately, well the answer is simple: I was training/planning for and freaking out about the Reading Half Marathon. I signed up for it in November when it was still sufficiently far away to seem like a good idea. However, the day finally came and I was feeling unprepared despite my training and generally extremely nervous since I've never run any kind of race before. I was also running on my own, which made me extra nervous when I saw how many groups there were who would be on hand to offer support to each other. However, I actually found that I liked running alone since I could take water breaks when I wanted to and just generally run my own race.
I'm very pleased to report that I not only finished but actually managed a quicker time than I had anticipated. Going in, I thought I would be lucky to finish close to three hours but actually thought I might go over that. Instead, I managed to stick to my goal mile time of 12 minutes per mile up until the 11th when I switched to 15 minutes per mile. I almost made it expect that the final mile includes a poorly placed uphill climb that I really struggled with since my legs weren't speaking to me by that point. I'm still not sure if they'll ever forgive me although they are getting their revenge currently as I'm too sore to move!
While this is primarily a food blog, I have been toying with the idea of including new and noteworthy happenings from time to time... as a different sort of "caper" if you like. I think this counts! And, not to disappoint, I also have a mini food post to include. Although I don't have any pictures of the food options, I thought it might be useful for other runners to hear what I had pre- and post-race in case they were curious (I know I was!). I doubt it was particularly wise or ascribed to any of the available advice out there but it worked for me since I had lots of energy, didn't cramp up and was generally pleased with my day.
Thursday:
Thursday night I started thinking about trying to "carbo-load" for the race. I didn't really want to go about making spaghetti or something at all complicated. Plus, I wanted to try and use up as many of my groceries as possible since we were going out of town for the race. Therefore, I made a quick macaroni and cheese with some bacon lardons and green onions. (Recipe coming soon!)
Friday:
I had a meeting on campus which lasted a few hours so I had to sort of make things up on the fly. For breakfast, I had coffee. This is pretty normal in my life since I'm ALWAYS running late. So by early afternoon, I was starving. I popped into Sainsburys on my way home and grabbed some bagels, mini packets of cream cheese, bananas, and salami. The salami was for my lunch (bagel with salami, cheese and dijon mustard) while the remaining bagels and the bananas were for the trip to Reading. Since we were staying in a hotel, I didn't want to have to rely on restaurant fare in case it made me feel a bit ill so I decided to take along some carb friendly options. For dinner on Friday, I was a bit naughty and had a curry since Sam was keen to have one. I regret nothing! It was delicious (chicken tikka masala, muttar paneer, and peshwari naan) and helped to take my mind off the impending race.
Saturday:
On Saturday, I was a naughty runner again by skipping both breakfast and lunch (unintentionally!) and then having a late afternoon snack of party treats (including cheeses, crackers, veggie and duck spring rolls, and other tasty treats) at our friends Katie and Dave's housewarming. While this was not a brilliant day-before-race meal choice, the party helped to keep my anxiety in check by distracting me so I think it was a good decision overall. After the party, Sam and I headed down to Reading and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton and would definitely recommend it for anyone running this race next year since it's a five minute walk to both the start and finish lines. If you're visiting Reading for any other reason, it might be a bit far from the city center though. Anyway, for dinner I had half a bagel and half a cheeseburger (again, naughty but it was they only thing on their menu that I felt like having). I also had lots and lots of water both with dinner and throughout the evening to try and hydrate for the race.
Sunday:
Finally, race day dawned and I was up bright and early to get ready. I usually don't eat breakfast so eating at 7:45 was a major struggle. I managed to have half a plain bagel (I was so nervous the cream cheese was making me feel ill) and a banana. I also had a cup of coffee and two glasses of water. We left for the race about 25 minutes ahead of the start time and of course, that's when the heavens opened up and we got our first drenching of the day (it would continue to rain for the duration of the race). While running, I grabbed water at every stand since it was part of my race plan to break the race into four 3 mile races and to use the water stands (located at every 3 miles or so) as my break points so that I wasn't spilling it everywhere. This worked out really well and I'll definitely do this in the future!
Post-race, I had a lucozade that some nice military men where handing out at the finish, a bag of chips and a mars bar from my goody bag. Since we were one the train home, it was a little limited in terms of food choices but these were exactly what I needed: sugar to perk me up and salt to help after exercising. Upon getting back to my flat, I made probably the biggest mistake in my food choices in that I had another bagel with salami and cheese for dinner and called it a day. Upon reflection, I should have had something higher in protein to help my muscles repair themselves. Oh well, live and learn! (And be very sore...)
I hope this will be interesting or helpful to anyone reading this! I had a great time and am already thinking about signing up for another race... although that might require some serious negotiation with some very angry muscles...
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| Caitie after the race |
I'm very pleased to report that I not only finished but actually managed a quicker time than I had anticipated. Going in, I thought I would be lucky to finish close to three hours but actually thought I might go over that. Instead, I managed to stick to my goal mile time of 12 minutes per mile up until the 11th when I switched to 15 minutes per mile. I almost made it expect that the final mile includes a poorly placed uphill climb that I really struggled with since my legs weren't speaking to me by that point. I'm still not sure if they'll ever forgive me although they are getting their revenge currently as I'm too sore to move!
 |
| Final time! (Although my chip registered 2:48:10) |
While this is primarily a food blog, I have been toying with the idea of including new and noteworthy happenings from time to time... as a different sort of "caper" if you like. I think this counts! And, not to disappoint, I also have a mini food post to include. Although I don't have any pictures of the food options, I thought it might be useful for other runners to hear what I had pre- and post-race in case they were curious (I know I was!). I doubt it was particularly wise or ascribed to any of the available advice out there but it worked for me since I had lots of energy, didn't cramp up and was generally pleased with my day.
Thursday:
Thursday night I started thinking about trying to "carbo-load" for the race. I didn't really want to go about making spaghetti or something at all complicated. Plus, I wanted to try and use up as many of my groceries as possible since we were going out of town for the race. Therefore, I made a quick macaroni and cheese with some bacon lardons and green onions. (Recipe coming soon!)
Friday:
I had a meeting on campus which lasted a few hours so I had to sort of make things up on the fly. For breakfast, I had coffee. This is pretty normal in my life since I'm ALWAYS running late. So by early afternoon, I was starving. I popped into Sainsburys on my way home and grabbed some bagels, mini packets of cream cheese, bananas, and salami. The salami was for my lunch (bagel with salami, cheese and dijon mustard) while the remaining bagels and the bananas were for the trip to Reading. Since we were staying in a hotel, I didn't want to have to rely on restaurant fare in case it made me feel a bit ill so I decided to take along some carb friendly options. For dinner on Friday, I was a bit naughty and had a curry since Sam was keen to have one. I regret nothing! It was delicious (chicken tikka masala, muttar paneer, and peshwari naan) and helped to take my mind off the impending race.
Saturday:
On Saturday, I was a naughty runner again by skipping both breakfast and lunch (unintentionally!) and then having a late afternoon snack of party treats (including cheeses, crackers, veggie and duck spring rolls, and other tasty treats) at our friends Katie and Dave's housewarming. While this was not a brilliant day-before-race meal choice, the party helped to keep my anxiety in check by distracting me so I think it was a good decision overall. After the party, Sam and I headed down to Reading and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton and would definitely recommend it for anyone running this race next year since it's a five minute walk to both the start and finish lines. If you're visiting Reading for any other reason, it might be a bit far from the city center though. Anyway, for dinner I had half a bagel and half a cheeseburger (again, naughty but it was they only thing on their menu that I felt like having). I also had lots and lots of water both with dinner and throughout the evening to try and hydrate for the race.
Sunday:
Finally, race day dawned and I was up bright and early to get ready. I usually don't eat breakfast so eating at 7:45 was a major struggle. I managed to have half a plain bagel (I was so nervous the cream cheese was making me feel ill) and a banana. I also had a cup of coffee and two glasses of water. We left for the race about 25 minutes ahead of the start time and of course, that's when the heavens opened up and we got our first drenching of the day (it would continue to rain for the duration of the race). While running, I grabbed water at every stand since it was part of my race plan to break the race into four 3 mile races and to use the water stands (located at every 3 miles or so) as my break points so that I wasn't spilling it everywhere. This worked out really well and I'll definitely do this in the future!
Post-race, I had a lucozade that some nice military men where handing out at the finish, a bag of chips and a mars bar from my goody bag. Since we were one the train home, it was a little limited in terms of food choices but these were exactly what I needed: sugar to perk me up and salt to help after exercising. Upon getting back to my flat, I made probably the biggest mistake in my food choices in that I had another bagel with salami and cheese for dinner and called it a day. Upon reflection, I should have had something higher in protein to help my muscles repair themselves. Oh well, live and learn! (And be very sore...)
I hope this will be interesting or helpful to anyone reading this! I had a great time and am already thinking about signing up for another race... although that might require some serious negotiation with some very angry muscles...
Yayayay! Congratulations, Caitie! I'm so happy that you had a good first race and want to do another one! You are awesome!
ReplyDeleteZOMG salami after a race. (Okay, really, salami anytime, but you know that I do not share your and Ashey's love of cured meats.) Try chocolate milk 30minutes after.
As for carbo loading, back when I ate meat, I did best on a light turkey sandwich the night before the race. I've also heard that stir-fry with brown rice and some chicken and veggies is a good one.
I'm super-into the idea of running a race in the UK, so Ima' try to get on that and make it happen sooner rather than later!
Congrats again! (Longest comment ever.)