March 1, 2010 - Ryan

I'm in serious recovery mode after the Rock n' Roll Mardi Gras Marathon this weekend. Leanna, Scott and I made the trip down on Saturday morning, got in some carb-loading and MSU basketball at French Quarter Pizzeria, and then called it a night in order to get some sleep for the race (I'm sure Leanna would dispute the "sleep" part seeing as she slept on the couch because she gave the 2 beds to the marathoners).

Race recap:

Weather: Absolutely perfect. The start was in the 40's and the finish was probably in the mid-high 50's. Sunny throughout

Course: Flat as a pancake, but the roads weren't the best. The only "hill" (and I use the word lightly because it was more of a short incline) was around mile 21.

My race: Well, we decided to walk to the start line, which took a little longer than expected; so long in fact that we missed the start of the race. I had to run to the first corral and ended up starting the race about 6-7 minutes after the gun went off. This forced me to dodge my way through people for the first few miles in order to find a decent spot to settle into a steady pace. I really think this hurt me as I had to spend extra energy running across the street to find open spaces in order to get decent mile splits.

Much like the Blues Marathon, I ran hard until around mile 22 when I started to fall off. Again, not sure how to fix this issue, but I'm going to start with lots of rest. I'm really looking forward to not training for a marathon for a few months and then after Chicago, I might take some time off from marathons and focus on half-marathons. To me, there's not much enjoyable about running a fast first half and knowing that you've got to do it all over again, and its going to take longer. I really can't describe the pain in my legs starting around mile 22. My mind tells my legs to move faster, but they physically can't. I think its part genetic in that the human body can only store enough glycogen to last about 2 hours of strenuous exercise, then the body starts burning fat, muscle, or any other source of energy. It makes sense that this would happen around mile 22 for me.

Also, I need to find a better shoe to race marathons in. The Lunaracer works for me in races that max out at half-marathon distance, but after that, the bottom of my feet start to really hurt.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for RNR Mardi Gras Marathon

I was very proud of Leanna for decided to do the half marathon. She had signed up for the full, but had a stress fracture in her shin that put training on hold. However, she's been running a little she thought she'd try the half. She hand't run longer than 14 miles since Thanksgiving, so needless to say, running a half without training would be challenging for anyone.

Scott ran a great race as well. He cut 23 minutes off his PR, which is very impressive.

Daily mileage: NA
Weekly mileage: 41.2
Miles on Lunartrainers: 59.0
Miles on Lunaracers: 125.0