My training paid off and, while it was difficult and my muscles were sore, I was able to run the whole course except for the seconds of walking to rehydrate. I had a hard time running and drinking at the same time! But the piece that helped me finish strong and not give up at the end was my wonderful husband meeting me at mile 21 and running the last 5 miles with me. He stayed by my side, encouraging me the whole way and chatting with me to take my mind off the pain in my legs. This was all AFTER he ran the 13.1 miles of the half marathon! He is truly my rock, keeping me accountable to my goals and motivating me to keep moving. I was able to reach my goal and finish the full marathon in 4 hours and 52 minutes! I felt great at the end, sprinting into the finish line, telling me that it was time to choose my next race so I can set a new PR!
This week has been a week of recovery for me and I have some exciting news: I haven’t gained a single pound – even with ZERO workouts this week! I knew that it was important for my body to recover from the 26.2 miles correctly to avoid injury and excessive fatigue, but I really was worried that I would feel like a fat piece of lard. However, this week has truly shown me that my nutrition is 80% of my success. Sticking to my balanced, clean nutrition plan this week has kept me feeling great.
This by no means that I am done with working out – far from it! Even though I haven’t gained any weight, I still have noticed a slight drop in my energy levels in the evenings and I’m certainly not making gains to achieve my abs. That means I am back to my running and I am SO pumped to be starting Insanity Max: 30 with a vengeance. With marathon training behind me, I’ll be sticking to the 5 day, 30 minute workouts each week for the next 2 months and can’t wait to see my results. But I can’t give up my running – I have big goals this year! In order to keep working towards our 2,015 miles in 2015, I’m going to be sticking to a running plan that will help me achieve at least 14 miles a week. You can check out my plan for this week in the meal plan below.