Monster Cookie Marathoning: Three Weeks to a PR

 by Jodi

Satisfaction is a new PR, a BQ, and a cute outfit.  Thanks Portland Running Company for stocking cool gear.

In May I ran the Willamette Valley Marathon and by the grace of God, earned a new PR, Boston qualifying time, and was the first woman to cross the finish line.  Don't waste your time being impressed -  it was a SMALL race, but it still felt awesome to run well.  A few runners have emailed or texted asking if I would share my training plan.

The answer in two words is: monster cookies.

Every good race I've run has been front-loaded with monster cookies in large quantities.  They're practically nutritious since they are packed with peanut butter and oatmeal. I eat TONS of these before every big race.  It's like a magic potent.  Just ask Carissa, Tanya or Devon.  They know I'm serious about an upcoming race when I start texting them photos of monster cookies.



The day after my marathon, Carissa and Devon and I were texting about how ridiculous it was that I PR'd on a race I trained so minimally for.  They suggested I enlighten our running friends with my training plan.  So here it is in bullet points for easy reading.

Carissa and Devon joined me for half of my 20 mile training run, where I tried out my new marathon outfit.

MONSTER COOKIE MARATHONING: THREE WEEKS TO A PR

1. Eat as many monster cookies as possible in the week leading up to the race.
2. Spend the day before the race going back and forth to a minimum of five different kid sporting events.  A beer at 5 p.m. on an empty stomach between the last two sporting events will work wonders to prepare your body to race the next morning. 
3. Eat dinner at 9 p.m the night before the race so you can go to bed with indigestion.
4. All good PR's come with Trail Tapering.  Trail Tapering is defined as "a trail run or difficult hike completed prior to the race, preferably within 48-72 hours of the race."  Both times I've utilized this technique, I've gotten PR's.
5. Rely heavily on your mileage base, which may or may not be sufficient to race an entire marathon without ridiculous amounts of effort.
6. Tell yourself you can run a pace for 26.2 miles enough that you believe you can do it, even though you haven't logged the mileage for it not to hurt REALLY bad.
7. Get new Experia socks with Thorlo pads before every race. I am being serious here.  These socks saved my feet the last two marathons.  GET THEM!
8. Body Glide is your friend.  Get some.  
9. A cute race outfit is paramount to loving the post-race photos.
10. Instead of resting, stand A LOT in the days before the race.  I recommend chaperoning Outdoor School.  It has multiple 70 minute outdoor classes requiring participants to stand on various terrain that isn't flat.  
11. Make sure to add a post-marathon hike.  It's key to working out the lactic acid that piles up in your muscles when you work them really hard.  Just don't plan on squatting in the woods to go pee on this hike without having it hurt so bad you feel like you need to cuss.  Be forewarned: Your spouse may (or may not) laugh very hard at your peeing and not cussing efforts.  Oh and make sure the hike is SUPER muddy and you bring your dogs so they can thoroughly trash your Date Car for the ride home. (See photographic evidence below).
12. The training period should occur in your family's busiest season of life.  I recommend four different kid sports schedules and a spouse who works full-time and is a full-time doctoral student as the baseline for your schedule.  No time to train is definitely a key component to the Monster Cookie Marathoning PR program.

Some runners may read my training plan and come to the conclusion that it's full of holes.  And they would be right.  But the monster cookies are THE BOMB.  So just make them already.  And then go for a run.

Cape Falcon summit - post race hike.  Thug life with my Boo Thang.

Muddy doggies who trashed the Date Car for the ride home.

MONSTER COOKIES - SMALL BATCH 

reposting from Cooks.com

1 stick of butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. soda

1 3/4 cups flour

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups peanut butter (I use crunchy)

3 cups quick oatmeal

1/4 lb chocolate chips (I use about 3/4 cup)

1/4 lb. M&M's plan (I use about 3/4 cup)

Mix in bowl in order given.  Drop by large tablespoon or ice cream scoop and flat.*  Bake for 12 minutes at 350F.  Do not over bake.

*Rolling the balls for these cookies is a massive pain.  The chocolate chips and M&M's don't adhere to the dough so they are constantly falling out when I try to roll the balls.  And flattening them is a joke cause the chips and M&M's fall onto the cookie sheet.  So I practice my yoga deep breathing when I'm rolling the balls and I skip the flattening portion.  

Feeling spunky with my Saucony WHOA shirt and my PDX carpet headband from Little Lion Threads.

Happy eating and running!