Friday, April 11, 2008

20 Mile Loop, Passover Carb Loading and Good Luck Rick!

Yesterday evening I did some "homework" to come up with a 20 mile loop course for tomorrow's run. This will be my longest training run of the program - and the last really long run before the marathon. After that I start to taper (some notes on tapering from Sara's blog are here...I'm not looking forward to this!).

I tried a bunch of different routes - adding on to, or trying to combine some of my previous courses - but they all came in too short or too long. In previous weeks, I didn't care if my 16 mile run was 16.8, but for 20 miles (and in a bit of a time crunch as I'll be going to synagogue afterwards), I need it to be 20 miles.

I finally got one to measure 20.05 miles! I'll be running through Olde Town Gaithersburg, down Rt 355 and picking up the Rockville Millennium Trail going the opposite way that I'm used to.

The last thing I may want to do is figure out if there is a place I can stow a water bottle tonight (or figure if someone I know lives near the course and have them put a water bottle somewhere???). We'll see....
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During the tapering period, you're supposed to keep your carb intake at the same level during your training (for me it's been about 60-70% of my calories from carbs...take that Atkins folks!). However, Passover starts in a week - so carb intake will be a bit difficult. I have nothing against matzah and potatoes, but I don't think I'll be able to get such a high percentage of calories from carbs on matzah and potatoes for a week.

I remembered seeing a recipe for home made granola in Runner's World about a year ago, and I was thinking perhaps I can substitute broken up matzah for the oats and make Passover "matzah-nola". So I tried this out last night - substituting broken up matzah for the rolled oats and bran flake cereal, and substituting matzah meal for wheat germ. It actually came out pretty good. It still has that matzah aftertaste, but the honey and cinnamon and raisins makes it bearable. I'll definitely be making this stuff during Passover!
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Lastly, I want to give a shout out to one of my running "dot-comrades" Rick who will be running his first marathon this Sunday in Toledo. Rick has endured a really horrible winter up in Michigan, and a pretty bad lower leg injury in the later part of his training - but he's getting it done and will be at the starting line Sunday morning (and no doubt at the finish line later that morning!!!). I decided to check the weather in Toledo to see if at least he'll have nice conditions to run in:
  • Sunday: Rain and snow showers likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, with a high near 43. North wind between 13 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%
Sounds yucky to me :-( Hopefully the wind will not be that strong come race time...

GOOD LUCK RICK!!!!!!

2 comments:

tootie said...

Good luck with the 20-miler!

Rick said...

Hope you have a good 20 and get to synagogue on time. This, "perhaps I can substitute broken up matzah for the oats and make Passover "matzah-nola".", cracked me up. What's that about necessity being the mother of invention? Apparently this applies in the kitchen as well, eh? Well done. So, I'm not the only one that thinks matzah has an icky aftertaste? My mom loved it so, we had it several times a year when I was growing up.

Thanks for the shout out. The forecast is actually improving a wee-bit. How fitting though that snow showers are forecast. It's just been one of them winters! Remembering trudging through them to class in AA? I do in East Lansing... winter's stunk!

Have a good weekend my Wolverine friend. ;-)