Marathon Monday- you are your best critic

When it comes to running and training for a marathon, you are your best critic! You know yourself, your body, and your running better than anyone else. So many people will gladly give you advice and support. But at the end of the day you are the one that knows you the best so go with your gut! 

I had a horrible long run this week. My time was fine and I finished my 20 miles but I felt horrible and was miserable the whole run because I switched things up listening to advice given by others. I then became angry at myself because I knew better and should have gone with my gut which just made the run that much worse. 

During my training, I have been given criticism about how I am training and why I am training. I have been given advice and recommendations from people who have never run anything close to a marathon before. I have searched blogs and articles seeking my own advice from experts. 

Up until last week, I have done it my way. I ignored advice and just did what felt right for me. Then the thought crossed my mind that maybe if I took the advice from others I would be that much better and my training would step it up a bit. There really wasn't any reason to pick it up a notch because it was going quite well but the idea of it even being better crossed my mind. So last week I started listening and acting on recommendations. I started researching. I made big changes to my long run. Guess what happened? It sucked and I regretted all of those decisions and changes I made. 

I changed my diet up the day before. I haven't eaten grains of any sort in 2 months. Well marathon runners are supposed to carb load so the night before I ate grains. Well that was pretty stupid of me. My last 20 mile run was fine without the grains and carbs. The diet change gave me such a bloated feeling my entire run and the worst cramps. I have never run with water. I did this time and I couldn't get over the swishing sound or the rubbing of the water. I dropped it after mile 2. I have never taken gel or refueled during my run. I brought gel this time around. I didn't feel a difference one way or another from that. 

When I bought my new shoes, I asked the man at the store what the most popular running shoes were? He said it doesn't matter. Doing what everyone else does isn't necessarily best for you. The whole time I was running, that echoed through my head. I know me. I know what is best for me and my training. From here on out, I will do what I know is best for me!