Shoe Score at the Long Beach Marathon Expo

Hello! Happy weekend! What are you doing? Chicago and Boston and Brooklyn and so many other places have big races this weekend!! Did you do one? Are you training?

I’m running Long Beach so I ran 7 miles on Friday as my last run before the race. It was a really good one though! It was perfect running weather and I just felt good so it was faster than I probably should have went. But this isn’t a goal race so I’m fine with it.

I also did a strength workout from the 21 Day Fix streaming collection.

Vegas cheered me on…

And I made a huge green smoothie with granola and almonds. I think I should rename this blog – “Pictures of my cat in the background.com”

This is one of my favorite granolas! It disappears so fast though. Not sure how that happens every time…

I had a busy Friday so after breakfast I headed to the Long Beach Marathon expo to get my stuff and cross that off my list.

I was in and out super fast! I’ve been to this expo before so I know the drill, but more importantly I had to rush because I parked in a ‘24 minutes only’ zone. I set the time on my phone and went for it. Boom.

I got my bib and shirt and then made a quick stop at the BEST part of the Long Beach race expo = The Road Runner Sports booth that sells ‘lightly used running shoes’ for $60.

This is an amazing deal and I’ve been able to score my favorite running shoes so many times! (This is probably because I have super big feet and no one else can wear them.)

I grabbed some shoes, paid for them and then raced to my car… in perfect time!!

Then, I had a haircut appointment. I just got a trim. This lil salon visit was in partnership with JCPenny. They are donating $2 from every haircut this weekend to the American Cancer Society in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Before: Messy braided bangs because I didn’t know what else to do with them…

After: Monican looking like a (somewhat) normal person.

It was also super important that I focus on carb-loading so I made sure to make time for that…

(See Vegas in background again below)

I didn’t get to answer these questions on my last post. Here they are…

Instagram Questions…

unch_hNo race for me this weekend but I do have a marathon coming up in June (Rock ‘n Roll SAN Diego). I’m preparing for the worst as far as weather is concerned. Any advice for running in hot weather? TIA!!

I have run a lot of hot weather races – it definitely adds an extra layer of difficulty to the marathon. My suggestions… consider tweaking your goals if the weather is going to be very hot, focus on hydration leading up to the race so you show up on race day well hydrated and already know how much water/electrolytes your body needs, train in warm weather if possible, listen to your body and work on really getting to know how you respond to weather extremes during training.

26.2zzzzzI love in Chicago , doing my 17th marathon this Sunday , all your posts help and always offer something new to me , thx

Good luck!!

lmwilson0412What to eat before???

lmwilson0412What to eat the night before?

This is really different for everyone. It’s something to work on during training so you know what your body likes/doesn’t like. I personally do toast with banana and PB or oatmeal before. The night before I usually do a stir-fry with tons of rice. Rice is my favorite pre-race carb-loading. Before long runs I’m not as picky.

Question: What are you up to this weekend??