it is 5 fahrenheit outside with the windchill?
but i AM going to go running anyway! right? RIGHT?
the wind is comically tossing powdery snow around on my balcony. it's ridiculous. it's like there is a stage hand just beyond my viewpoint tossing bucket fulls of it into a wind stream. it isn't even snowing. it's just blowing. STOP THAT.
i am going to put on everything i own until i get too hot, and then strap a garmin over top and be brave.
DO NOT WISH TO BE BRAVE. but must. ugh.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
december running updates
since i'm in the mood to write this stuff down: here's a little running brain-dump of miscellaneous reports.
1. speedwork at the track! ... sorta. i discovered the day after thanksgiving that the local highschool track is not locking their gates anymore, at least during holiday daylight. so i did 2 miles worth of 800 metre and 400 metre sprints, with 1 min in between each (yes, i choose to use every possible numerical system at once; next time i will measure my intervals in farthings, cubits and Kelvin). and it felt AWESOME! and it felt HARD! and the track is 2 miles from my house so i still had to run HOME! ... yeah, that's a mixed-up solid workout. will try it again next weekend.
2. the return of muscles! or something like. since the marathon i have returned to actually taking other people's strength/cardio/plyo/kickbox/barre/whatever classes, at least 3 times a week, instead of putting myself through (some of) the paces at home. and re-entry was at first PAINFUL -- like, oh god don't ask me to remove a sweater over my head without 15 minutes spare time and a crane -- but i'm getting it back. this actually feels like a really good reason to NOT run a marathon again -- i just couldn't keep up my non-running-specific strength during actual training, or at least i didn't have the mental focus to do it all, and i think i like the long-term feeling of overall conditioning better than the (of course still excellent) accomplishment of holy shit i ran a marathon. is that weird? who cares. ... so, i feel this should inform my 2014 running plans, still in the planning stages. and, i should keep at it.
3. next on the agenda: a 10 miler on boxing day in hamilton ontario, about 40 mins drive from the family home at which i will have had a cozy little family christmas the night before. i ran this race once, two or three years ago, and what i remember is 1. i was freakin cold; 2. just when i was feeling a runner's high at mile 7 or 8 there was like a 70-degree incline cliff to run up and i wanted to die; 3. i finished it in about 90 minutes (i looked it up the other week, but don't quite remember the number.) it will probably be cold, hard and awesome again. this race always has exciting swag, and this year i will apparently receive 'lounge pants' for my troubles? i am highly unclear on the concept, but excited to lounge in them on boxing day eve.
4. the rest of the month is going to be very busy, and increasingly cold, and i will work and bundle up and run and gym and dream of sugar plum fairies bearing more technical fleece (anybody listening???) and bake cookies with healthy fats and bla bla bla.
stay warm! stay limber! and back to it. more soon.
1. speedwork at the track! ... sorta. i discovered the day after thanksgiving that the local highschool track is not locking their gates anymore, at least during holiday daylight. so i did 2 miles worth of 800 metre and 400 metre sprints, with 1 min in between each (yes, i choose to use every possible numerical system at once; next time i will measure my intervals in farthings, cubits and Kelvin). and it felt AWESOME! and it felt HARD! and the track is 2 miles from my house so i still had to run HOME! ... yeah, that's a mixed-up solid workout. will try it again next weekend.
2. the return of muscles! or something like. since the marathon i have returned to actually taking other people's strength/cardio/plyo/kickbox/barre/whatever classes, at least 3 times a week, instead of putting myself through (some of) the paces at home. and re-entry was at first PAINFUL -- like, oh god don't ask me to remove a sweater over my head without 15 minutes spare time and a crane -- but i'm getting it back. this actually feels like a really good reason to NOT run a marathon again -- i just couldn't keep up my non-running-specific strength during actual training, or at least i didn't have the mental focus to do it all, and i think i like the long-term feeling of overall conditioning better than the (of course still excellent) accomplishment of holy shit i ran a marathon. is that weird? who cares. ... so, i feel this should inform my 2014 running plans, still in the planning stages. and, i should keep at it.
3. next on the agenda: a 10 miler on boxing day in hamilton ontario, about 40 mins drive from the family home at which i will have had a cozy little family christmas the night before. i ran this race once, two or three years ago, and what i remember is 1. i was freakin cold; 2. just when i was feeling a runner's high at mile 7 or 8 there was like a 70-degree incline cliff to run up and i wanted to die; 3. i finished it in about 90 minutes (i looked it up the other week, but don't quite remember the number.) it will probably be cold, hard and awesome again. this race always has exciting swag, and this year i will apparently receive 'lounge pants' for my troubles? i am highly unclear on the concept, but excited to lounge in them on boxing day eve.
4. the rest of the month is going to be very busy, and increasingly cold, and i will work and bundle up and run and gym and dream of sugar plum fairies bearing more technical fleece (anybody listening???) and bake cookies with healthy fats and bla bla bla.
stay warm! stay limber! and back to it. more soon.
the little xmas miracle of a 5k race
thursday i spent the day at home working on something hard. and it got harder and harder as the afternoon progressed, and i got more and more frustrated. and then at like 7pm i thought... oh. wait. i see what is happening here. i am getting SICK. fuck.
that caused me a lot of oh, fuck: because, 1. i have all the work to do. and 2. i had a 5k race to run saturday morning.
on thursday night, i slept 13 slightly-feverish hours.
on friday, i didn't do a lot. i put up the christmas tree, did some sloooow (hard?) pilates, and had a couple medicinal beverages with a friend. however, i also spent the evening chilling with my other half, who keeps later hours than i do, so i went to bed at 2am.
and so 6 hours later on saturday morning, i had a cup of coffee and thought: ok, i feel good enough to run. not totally fine, but certainly alive enough. i don't have a cold, so my airways were clear, but i had less energy than your typical me. also it was -14C with the windchill, which is colder than it has been -- and it was that kind of deceptive cold where it's sunny and bright and the sky is bright blue with those white wispy clouds, but turns out that air is brittle and the wind is like an ice-whip? yes, that. great.
but! i put on many things. (I REMEMBERED NOT TO EAT OATMEAL FOR BREAKFAST). and i headed out to the one little pretty street of old town lansing. then, i got a bib and a thick red-and-grey santa toque as swag (not bad!), appreciated the dedication of the other 250 people stomping and freezing wearing absurd christmas decorations and snow-witch costumes (seriously, silver pants, calm down), ran a few warm up blocks to be sure i wasn't kidding myself that i could run, ditched my Garmin to run on feel (excellent idea, am pretty sure), experienced the world's wobbliest port-o-potty (think: trying to pee on a surfboard; ok stop thinking that) and lined up in a rather ragged but cheerful pack on the river trail. and then -- let's go!
it was an out and back, and i felt about the same the whole time: uncomfortable, but not going to quit. it wasn't easy, it wasn't deathly, but i mostly held on. the mile markers were hilarious: although i was watchless, i think the 1 mile marker was about right; the 2 mile marker was honestly 100 yard later, and there were no others. um, what. about a kilometer in, after passing a fair number of people who clearly did not take the 'line-up-according-to-pace' message to heart, i was passed by two women, who were moving slightly faster than me but making it look easy. ... in contrast, i'm pretty sure i was not making it look easy.
so! i decided to not lose them. and i spent the next four kilometres between 5 and 10 paces behind them. when i finished about 10 seconds behind them, i felt fairly triumphant about that! i also kind of wanted to puke, but we've been there before. and now the internet results tell me that they were 23 and 22! also, they probably were going for a jog, but nevermind.
i finished in 25:17, which was 18 seconds slower than i wanted. not bad for a slightly sick and tired me! and i feel like the return to a sub-25 minute 5k is definitely within reach. it's crazy how racing helps -- the last time i was out running and tried to pick up the pace for 5k i ran it in like 27:10, and thought -- man, am i filled with concrete? but having those 23 year olds to chase, i guess... and really, it's a pretty excellent toque. so wins all round.
that caused me a lot of oh, fuck: because, 1. i have all the work to do. and 2. i had a 5k race to run saturday morning.
on thursday night, i slept 13 slightly-feverish hours.
on friday, i didn't do a lot. i put up the christmas tree, did some sloooow (hard?) pilates, and had a couple medicinal beverages with a friend. however, i also spent the evening chilling with my other half, who keeps later hours than i do, so i went to bed at 2am.
and so 6 hours later on saturday morning, i had a cup of coffee and thought: ok, i feel good enough to run. not totally fine, but certainly alive enough. i don't have a cold, so my airways were clear, but i had less energy than your typical me. also it was -14C with the windchill, which is colder than it has been -- and it was that kind of deceptive cold where it's sunny and bright and the sky is bright blue with those white wispy clouds, but turns out that air is brittle and the wind is like an ice-whip? yes, that. great.
but! i put on many things. (I REMEMBERED NOT TO EAT OATMEAL FOR BREAKFAST). and i headed out to the one little pretty street of old town lansing. then, i got a bib and a thick red-and-grey santa toque as swag (not bad!), appreciated the dedication of the other 250 people stomping and freezing wearing absurd christmas decorations and snow-witch costumes (seriously, silver pants, calm down), ran a few warm up blocks to be sure i wasn't kidding myself that i could run, ditched my Garmin to run on feel (excellent idea, am pretty sure), experienced the world's wobbliest port-o-potty (think: trying to pee on a surfboard; ok stop thinking that) and lined up in a rather ragged but cheerful pack on the river trail. and then -- let's go!
it was an out and back, and i felt about the same the whole time: uncomfortable, but not going to quit. it wasn't easy, it wasn't deathly, but i mostly held on. the mile markers were hilarious: although i was watchless, i think the 1 mile marker was about right; the 2 mile marker was honestly 100 yard later, and there were no others. um, what. about a kilometer in, after passing a fair number of people who clearly did not take the 'line-up-according-to-pace' message to heart, i was passed by two women, who were moving slightly faster than me but making it look easy. ... in contrast, i'm pretty sure i was not making it look easy.
so! i decided to not lose them. and i spent the next four kilometres between 5 and 10 paces behind them. when i finished about 10 seconds behind them, i felt fairly triumphant about that! i also kind of wanted to puke, but we've been there before. and now the internet results tell me that they were 23 and 22! also, they probably were going for a jog, but nevermind.
i finished in 25:17, which was 18 seconds slower than i wanted. not bad for a slightly sick and tired me! and i feel like the return to a sub-25 minute 5k is definitely within reach. it's crazy how racing helps -- the last time i was out running and tried to pick up the pace for 5k i ran it in like 27:10, and thought -- man, am i filled with concrete? but having those 23 year olds to chase, i guess... and really, it's a pretty excellent toque. so wins all round.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
still here, still running, and also speedwork?
so, hello.
in the month since the marathon, i have in fact returned to running. for two and a half weeks i was traveling, so running was really my only good way to exercise, so i ran a lot. boston has a river, so i ran along the river (Boston Marathon Citgo sign in the background). western massachusetts has a lot of hills and bike paths, so i ran them too. and new york has many long bridges and huge parks, so i ran for miles at dusk back and forth between manhattan and brooklyn, and around prospect park (like central park, but smaller, and more brooklyn.)
and so now: what am i doing? yeah, i'm running. that's still a thing. i'm enjoying it, often a lot. i often bring my garmin but often i don't. i confess i've been using my marathon playlist most of the time, which means i get these bursts of emotion and energy and lethargy depending on the songs; as the playlist is on random shuffle it can be kind of a rollercoaster. ... i'm not feeling at my healthiest, but i'm trying to get in a good mind space about that and eat better to combat the ughness, and overall i'm pretty happy to be running.
yesterday while running i realized i'm excited again about the prospect of running goals for 2014. ... at new years 2012, i was focused on running 30k in march. at new years 2013, i was already committed to running the marathon in october. so by new years 2014, i want a new plan; i think the right option will be to pick two goal races, one in the spring and one later. i am pretty sure neither should be a marathon; probably they will be chosen for interesting locations and features? suggestions welcome? i have already received some compelling arguments for running Bay State next fall (compelling as in I was offered a place to stay and substantial amounts of post-race homemade pie.)
so: goals. coming soon.
i'm also running 5k in two weekends, and i think i may try running kind of speedily there, see how that goes. ... speaking of which! a speedy runner of my acquaintance commented on my last post-marathon post, reporting that she has gotten into speedwork (again, but for the first time since either college or highschool?), and asking about my own speed attempts?
so, let's pretend this is the kind of running blog where i know things, and i'll pretend along with you.
my usual approach to speed work is intervals. i am happiest doing something like 800 x 4 with 400m recovery. which is not a normal way to do intervals i realize, in that why is the recovery so long? i guess i probably shouldn't even call them intervals -- but you see i'm in the woods on trails, not on a track, so 400m makes more sense there. when i drop down to something shorter than 600 or 400m per interval, i find i'm no good at regulating my speed for the entire interval -- i go out too fast or too slow. whereas i know what pace i can sustain for half a mile. odd?
meanwhile, when i am on a treadmill, i actually really enjoy ladders! especially when training for the 30k two years ago, which had to include a lot of treadmills due to ice on the roads of michigan, i was doing some thing i either read somewhere or made up, where i pick a fairly easy speed, and a somewhat fast one, and i run slow-fast-slow-fast, in a pyramid like this (in minutes) 1-1-2-1-3-1-4-1-3-1-2-1... and then other times i will stick to 1 minute of each, but on the slow minute, i increase the incline a bit, returning to (near) flat each time i go fast, and making it steeper and steeper on the successive slows... basically when i'm on the treadmill i try to make myself collapse within half an hour. usually effective.
... and does this all make me faster? well. my fastest 10k, which was just some weird damn miracle, came 6 weeks after my 30k race. which makes me think that training for distance makes me much faster on the short stretches. does this make any sense? i feel like the internet told me this is a known phenomenon. we will see what happens at my 5k? i would like to run 5 minute kilometres; this is something i have done in the past but i don't think i've been pulling that off recently. we will see. i think i will try a treadmill run tomorrow.
oooh! one more thing? in a pre-marathon fit of online running shopping, i bought these things that are supposed to be compression tights for winter? but i bought them a size too big, so they aren't really compression, just comfy running tights... BUT with *technical fleece on the inside*. and i ran in them yesterday when it was damp and windy and near freezing and they are GOLDEN. it's like running with pillows of love around both your legs! warm pillows of love. so, that's the best thing ever. ... they are only three quarter length, though, because i think you're supposed to wear them under, like, snowboarding pants, so i need to wear kneehigh socks with them to run, so i was wearing my marathon flaming pink argyle compression socks as well, and my other half suggested i looked really badass from head to knee, and then like a deranged scottish flamingo from there to my shoes, but the fashion will have to suffer in favour of comfort, because i felt AWESOME. they might even make running on the tundra more bearable come the new year.
so. back to running.
in the month since the marathon, i have in fact returned to running. for two and a half weeks i was traveling, so running was really my only good way to exercise, so i ran a lot. boston has a river, so i ran along the river (Boston Marathon Citgo sign in the background). western massachusetts has a lot of hills and bike paths, so i ran them too. and new york has many long bridges and huge parks, so i ran for miles at dusk back and forth between manhattan and brooklyn, and around prospect park (like central park, but smaller, and more brooklyn.)
and so now: what am i doing? yeah, i'm running. that's still a thing. i'm enjoying it, often a lot. i often bring my garmin but often i don't. i confess i've been using my marathon playlist most of the time, which means i get these bursts of emotion and energy and lethargy depending on the songs; as the playlist is on random shuffle it can be kind of a rollercoaster. ... i'm not feeling at my healthiest, but i'm trying to get in a good mind space about that and eat better to combat the ughness, and overall i'm pretty happy to be running.
yesterday while running i realized i'm excited again about the prospect of running goals for 2014. ... at new years 2012, i was focused on running 30k in march. at new years 2013, i was already committed to running the marathon in october. so by new years 2014, i want a new plan; i think the right option will be to pick two goal races, one in the spring and one later. i am pretty sure neither should be a marathon; probably they will be chosen for interesting locations and features? suggestions welcome? i have already received some compelling arguments for running Bay State next fall (compelling as in I was offered a place to stay and substantial amounts of post-race homemade pie.)
so: goals. coming soon.
i'm also running 5k in two weekends, and i think i may try running kind of speedily there, see how that goes. ... speaking of which! a speedy runner of my acquaintance commented on my last post-marathon post, reporting that she has gotten into speedwork (again, but for the first time since either college or highschool?), and asking about my own speed attempts?
so, let's pretend this is the kind of running blog where i know things, and i'll pretend along with you.
my usual approach to speed work is intervals. i am happiest doing something like 800 x 4 with 400m recovery. which is not a normal way to do intervals i realize, in that why is the recovery so long? i guess i probably shouldn't even call them intervals -- but you see i'm in the woods on trails, not on a track, so 400m makes more sense there. when i drop down to something shorter than 600 or 400m per interval, i find i'm no good at regulating my speed for the entire interval -- i go out too fast or too slow. whereas i know what pace i can sustain for half a mile. odd?
meanwhile, when i am on a treadmill, i actually really enjoy ladders! especially when training for the 30k two years ago, which had to include a lot of treadmills due to ice on the roads of michigan, i was doing some thing i either read somewhere or made up, where i pick a fairly easy speed, and a somewhat fast one, and i run slow-fast-slow-fast, in a pyramid like this (in minutes) 1-1-2-1-3-1-4-1-3-1-2-1... and then other times i will stick to 1 minute of each, but on the slow minute, i increase the incline a bit, returning to (near) flat each time i go fast, and making it steeper and steeper on the successive slows... basically when i'm on the treadmill i try to make myself collapse within half an hour. usually effective.
... and does this all make me faster? well. my fastest 10k, which was just some weird damn miracle, came 6 weeks after my 30k race. which makes me think that training for distance makes me much faster on the short stretches. does this make any sense? i feel like the internet told me this is a known phenomenon. we will see what happens at my 5k? i would like to run 5 minute kilometres; this is something i have done in the past but i don't think i've been pulling that off recently. we will see. i think i will try a treadmill run tomorrow.
oooh! one more thing? in a pre-marathon fit of online running shopping, i bought these things that are supposed to be compression tights for winter? but i bought them a size too big, so they aren't really compression, just comfy running tights... BUT with *technical fleece on the inside*. and i ran in them yesterday when it was damp and windy and near freezing and they are GOLDEN. it's like running with pillows of love around both your legs! warm pillows of love. so, that's the best thing ever. ... they are only three quarter length, though, because i think you're supposed to wear them under, like, snowboarding pants, so i need to wear kneehigh socks with them to run, so i was wearing my marathon flaming pink argyle compression socks as well, and my other half suggested i looked really badass from head to knee, and then like a deranged scottish flamingo from there to my shoes, but the fashion will have to suffer in favour of comfort, because i felt AWESOME. they might even make running on the tundra more bearable come the new year.
so. back to running.
Monday, October 28, 2013
and then a week later...
i went for another run.
i did a moderate amount of exercise last week, nothing big but not too shabby, tired myself out a few times -- but no running. the night after the marathon, my legs ached enough to bother me in my sleep, and the day after i was obviously not a creature fit for stairwells, but by tuesday i was just 'pretty sore', and so on. my right knee has stayed cranky, and i've iced it a few times, and i laid fairly low. it felt pretty good! ... i have started being moderately less hungry too, which is kind of a relief; i thought i might just be hungry forever.
anyway: this morning, i got up and went for a run.
and do you know what? it really sucked.
... jesus crap, it was unpleasant! i ran for 30 minutes, and i ran about 9 minute miles, and i felt like DEATH. nevermind my right knee, which felt iffy in the first 3 or 4 minutes but warmed up quite nicely -- meanwhile, though, my lungs were angry, my arms were crampy, my hamstrings and calves took turns pretending they were broken, my stomach churned. i wanted to puke, pass out, stop running, fall over, and generally go back to bed.
guys, um, i ran 26.2 miles last weekend. i feel like this should not have been a big deal.
... so what happened? hmmph, well.
the stomach thing was due to predictable oatmeal malfunction. where is my brain on this one? i CANNOT EAT OATMEAL BEFORE MORNING RUNS. you see, i say it in all caps like maybe i'll hear it next time, from across the room in the kitchen. honestly, i bet i thought (in my pre-coffee stupor) that it was safe because i was going to the post office between eating and running. yeah, that twelve minute errand fooled no one, least of all my gut, which felt like it was punching me in the rib cage with those oats as soon as i went faster than a jog. please, PLEASE can i remember this next time.
apart from that, i'm not too sure on what the deal was. maybe i'm still in marathon recovery, although really that doesn't feel the case. i went to zuuuuuuuumba last night (shut up, it's a dance party, i need me some dance party sometimes, so i add a lot of extra uuuuuuuuuus for good measure), and i pushed myself to jump around a lot, and i never felt any of that heavylegs-stopjumping-dammitwoman feeling, when you're really tired from previous exertion or not enough sleep. i felt strong! and this morning i felt DOOM.
meh. you know, sometimes you just have a bad run. it's cool. weirdly, it made me feel kind of pumped to sign up for a race; introspection has actually not yet revealed to me what that's about. well: it made me feel kind of pumped to go run again and have it not suck as much, for starters.
so i signed up for an early december 5k. for participating in this race, i am promised a 'Scrooge Santa knit hat', which doesn't make sense in a variety of ways -- for starters Scrooge hats and Santa hats are mutually exclusive, but then it sounds like they actually mean a toque, which is in fact a third kind of hat... but they can mess up the hats all they want because the race starts at 10am! luxury! pinnacle of civilization! true christmas miracle! i will leave the house after sunrise! ... so, yeah, i'm looking forward to it.
i guess this means i will try doing some speedwork in the next month and a bit. and despite today's atrocity of a short tempo run, that also sounds fun. ... my usual non-marathon-training run schedule is 2 times a week, sometimes 3, so i will make sure i do at least 2 runs a week, plus 4 other days of exercise (it's supposed to be something like 2X cardio, 2X strength, and 3X core, plus stretching all the time.) and also i will continue to try not to eat *all* the things, which is going alright in the last several days.
this also means i'll keep blogging here, sometimes? i think i'll keep it up for two kinds of posts:
1. when i want to write a blog post on my talking to friends blog, but then i realize it's all about running and only the people who would read here would conceivably care, and
2. race reports, of whatever sort. before marathon training began, i was vaguely in the habit of running about 10 races a year: a few halfs and the rest 5 or 10ks in the darker months, and some trail stuff over the summer. november is i think going to be race free, but after that i'll try to get back into that cycle.
and you can continue to read or not read, and that's cool. i think i'm fairly happy talking here into the mostly-void, and just knowing that the writing will take some knots of emotion and info in my brain and knead them out into semi-orderly thoughts on the screen is good enough reason to keep talking. and to keep running. good times, folks. till soon!
i did a moderate amount of exercise last week, nothing big but not too shabby, tired myself out a few times -- but no running. the night after the marathon, my legs ached enough to bother me in my sleep, and the day after i was obviously not a creature fit for stairwells, but by tuesday i was just 'pretty sore', and so on. my right knee has stayed cranky, and i've iced it a few times, and i laid fairly low. it felt pretty good! ... i have started being moderately less hungry too, which is kind of a relief; i thought i might just be hungry forever.
anyway: this morning, i got up and went for a run.
and do you know what? it really sucked.
... jesus crap, it was unpleasant! i ran for 30 minutes, and i ran about 9 minute miles, and i felt like DEATH. nevermind my right knee, which felt iffy in the first 3 or 4 minutes but warmed up quite nicely -- meanwhile, though, my lungs were angry, my arms were crampy, my hamstrings and calves took turns pretending they were broken, my stomach churned. i wanted to puke, pass out, stop running, fall over, and generally go back to bed.
guys, um, i ran 26.2 miles last weekend. i feel like this should not have been a big deal.
... so what happened? hmmph, well.
the stomach thing was due to predictable oatmeal malfunction. where is my brain on this one? i CANNOT EAT OATMEAL BEFORE MORNING RUNS. you see, i say it in all caps like maybe i'll hear it next time, from across the room in the kitchen. honestly, i bet i thought (in my pre-coffee stupor) that it was safe because i was going to the post office between eating and running. yeah, that twelve minute errand fooled no one, least of all my gut, which felt like it was punching me in the rib cage with those oats as soon as i went faster than a jog. please, PLEASE can i remember this next time.
apart from that, i'm not too sure on what the deal was. maybe i'm still in marathon recovery, although really that doesn't feel the case. i went to zuuuuuuuumba last night (shut up, it's a dance party, i need me some dance party sometimes, so i add a lot of extra uuuuuuuuuus for good measure), and i pushed myself to jump around a lot, and i never felt any of that heavylegs-stopjumping-dammitwoman feeling, when you're really tired from previous exertion or not enough sleep. i felt strong! and this morning i felt DOOM.
meh. you know, sometimes you just have a bad run. it's cool. weirdly, it made me feel kind of pumped to sign up for a race; introspection has actually not yet revealed to me what that's about. well: it made me feel kind of pumped to go run again and have it not suck as much, for starters.
so i signed up for an early december 5k. for participating in this race, i am promised a 'Scrooge Santa knit hat', which doesn't make sense in a variety of ways -- for starters Scrooge hats and Santa hats are mutually exclusive, but then it sounds like they actually mean a toque, which is in fact a third kind of hat... but they can mess up the hats all they want because the race starts at 10am! luxury! pinnacle of civilization! true christmas miracle! i will leave the house after sunrise! ... so, yeah, i'm looking forward to it.
i guess this means i will try doing some speedwork in the next month and a bit. and despite today's atrocity of a short tempo run, that also sounds fun. ... my usual non-marathon-training run schedule is 2 times a week, sometimes 3, so i will make sure i do at least 2 runs a week, plus 4 other days of exercise (it's supposed to be something like 2X cardio, 2X strength, and 3X core, plus stretching all the time.) and also i will continue to try not to eat *all* the things, which is going alright in the last several days.
this also means i'll keep blogging here, sometimes? i think i'll keep it up for two kinds of posts:
1. when i want to write a blog post on my talking to friends blog, but then i realize it's all about running and only the people who would read here would conceivably care, and
2. race reports, of whatever sort. before marathon training began, i was vaguely in the habit of running about 10 races a year: a few halfs and the rest 5 or 10ks in the darker months, and some trail stuff over the summer. november is i think going to be race free, but after that i'll try to get back into that cycle.
and you can continue to read or not read, and that's cool. i think i'm fairly happy talking here into the mostly-void, and just knowing that the writing will take some knots of emotion and info in my brain and knead them out into semi-orderly thoughts on the screen is good enough reason to keep talking. and to keep running. good times, folks. till soon!
Sunday, October 20, 2013
The Detroit Free Press Full Marathon. Is A Thing I Ran.
today was one of the more surreal experiences of my life. i suppose i haven't done that many surreal things, so.
the first thing to say is that if you decide you have to run a marathon, i highly encourage you to find a crew member: someone supportive, unquestioning and easygoing who will drive you to detroit, come to dinner with you in ypsilanti (yes! maria! see below why), stay overnight, get up at the insane hour necessary, walk you to the start, hang out on the course for 4+ hours, give you your water bottle at mile 10 when you need it, take it away for you at kilometre 40 when you don't want any other things in your hands ever, and collect you afterwards with a bag of warm socks and many celebratory noises... well, or someone who will provide analogous services. anyway: i chose my dad, and he performed all tasks with aplomb. he also did not make me listen to a single bad country music song on our drive from toronto! so, really i had won before i even began.
right now i feel like i recall the event in great detail, but i suspect they aren't all going to be important details in even a week. so i will try to be brief. and fail.
- i thought it'd be nice to have dinner in ann arbor with my dad the night before, because i lived there for a year and was going to show him around a bit, but just before we left detroit i happened to realize from the internet that there was a University of Michigan football game happening in Ann Arbor? and if you don't know about such things, which would be reasonable, let's just say you don't want to be leaving Ann Arbor on the highway at the same time as the 110,000 other people leaving the stadium do so. (THAT IS NOT AN EXAGGERATED NUMBER. LOOK IT UP.) so instead we drove past some stuff, and then i said... let's ... leave. and so we ate in nearby ypsilanti and it was just great.
- you will recall that every other morning i have run first thing, it's been pretty icky, right? like even friday morning, my very last pre-race run, i got up at the totally not-early-time of 8:30, and i did my 3 miles, and it wasn't till the end that i felt like i was maybe running normally. and i secretly thought: this 7am start time is actually going to be worse than i even advertised. and yet! ... today, i got up at 5:15 (i know), and i ate and coffeed (yes i brought my own kettle and aeropress coffee making system to this event, shut up) and so on, and we walked the 20 minutes to the start, and when we got moving at 7am (i got across the starting line at like 7:12), i had no trouble running at all. it felt totally easy, like i was running at 6pm. i guess adrenaline is a thing? but i didn't feel pumped up. i just felt ... pretty calm and ready, actually.
- as for mental state: i felt really quite shockingly under control for the first 11 miles. mile 11 i thought 'oh my god 15 more miles, surely this will kill me' and then i stuffed that down with ONE MILE AT A TIME, LADY and kept going. mile 13, the half marathoners left us, i had a twinge of WTF AM I DOING, and then got on board again. miles 14-16 i knew would be lonely, and they were (the only part of the course where you feel like you're just running down a street that demonstrates detroit's disaster of a post-apocalypse economy), and i turned on my music which definitely helped, and then miles 16-19 were good again. miles 20-22 felt sloggy, but doable; started wanting to walk but didn't (judicious application of more motivational music.) mile 23 started to feel like i was playing a sick joke on myself, but i knew my dad was waiting at the 40k mark so i told myself i just had to make it to 40k, somewhere between mile 24 and 25, and then it would only be 2k. seeing him my brain said YES DO THE THING, and then i turned the corner where you see the hilariously steep mile up to mile 25, and i told myself BY DO THE THING I MEAN WALK UP THIS HILL and so i walked, and that felt wise but not a defeat, and so when i got the mile 25 sign the hill was not quite over but i started running again, and though my brain really really wanted to, i never walked again. my legs were tired, but honestly they were no more tired at mile 25 then they were at mile 16, so i knew it was my head that wanted to stop and i suggested we just wait a bit. the last half mile, i turned off my music and i ran up this last goddamn hill SERIOUSLY? COULD WE NOT HAVE THIS HILL NOW PLEASE? I WAS LYING ABOUT THE LEGS FROM MILE 16 and i turned left and the finish line was two blocks away and i sped up, just a very little but i did it, and i passed a few people and i WON. ... no, wait, i mean i finished.
about 20 steps from the the finish i thought: huh. wow. i did this. i kind of don't feel anything, but i did it. ... and that felt just fine.
- this marathon seems to me a good compromise: between excited spectators and chill spectators (i kind of like a mix of both, and i liked the sign that said 'hurry! the kenyans are drinking all the beer'; between urban grit, art deco buildings, sunrise from high above the river on the Ambassador Bridge, Belle Island park in the middle of the detroit river, the actually pretty urban detroit waterfront (?!) -- and also the craziness of running through two border crossings meant only for cars, complete with underwater tunnel mile (pro tip: it's humid down there), and the novelty of border guards with megapho nes yelling out support and encouragement to thousands of sweaty people who haven't declared anything. the scenery was really quite varied, and actually i really liked almost all of it. even Windsor! i really liked Windsor! ... it's not a pretty town, i'm sorry to say. but the course was well thought out and the spectators were pretty cool, considering it was like not yet 8am on a sunday morning, and they were out offering orange slices and playing rock and roll on their lawns. meanwhile at miles 16-18, i counted four different houses with people offering us shots of beer, from kegs or bottles. party in the D, they know what they're doing.
- one additionally terrific thing this race does: before every water/gatorade stop, of which there are TONS, they have a sign telling you it's coming up, and on each sign they tell you how far the next one is. i want to hug whoever came up with and followed through with that plan.
- as for my physical state? you know: really, not bad at all . i'm fairly shocked, to tell you the truth. at about mile 23.5 or so, i felt my right knee say: hey, you know, you sometimes have IT band problems, remember? yeah, so, you can't go any faster than this and you might want to actually go slower. i was more careful with form after that, and it mostly stopped hurting in the last two miles due presumably to adrenaline, and now it's definitely sore. there has been ice. but when i crossed the finish line, i didn't cramp, i didn't sob, i just smiled at people and got a medal and a space cape and stuff. and then i walked for ages to get out of the shute crazy area, and then more ages to meet up with my dad (because we were on opposite sides of the runners at this point) and then additional ages back to the hotel ... and i was really ok. eventually we met up with my other half, and i drove us 90 minutes home (other half is coming off a doom migraine) and it was only when we got here that i really wanted to ice my knee. i know i'll be creaky as shit tomorrow, and i would not advise you to look at my right pinky toe if you don't like blisters, but the general effect is not tragic in any way. considering i ran 10k farther than i ever have, this seems faintly absurd.
- oh, i should tell you how i did! you maybe remember my goal was 4:20 or 4:30? nailed it! chip time: 4:25:24. i spent most of the race just ahead or behind of the 10:07/mile pacer, and indeed my overall pace was 10:07 exactly. the internet tells me i came in 99th out of the 310 women aged 30-34, and 1862nd in a field of 6100 or so.
... does that strike you as really quite high in the standings? who are all these 5+hour marathoners? like, more power to them, but i would not have thought i was above average at that pace! at any rate, i feel like i was totally right to be as conservative as i was -- presumably i could have run faster, and hated it way more, instead of only hating some bits of it briefly. also i might have hurt myself in the middle, the worst, or hurt myself but run through it so as to create long lasting injury, the double worst, or i might have made it to the end in one piece and then collapsed, vomited, or experienced whatever other horrible things happen to those people who say they 'leave it all out on the course'. ... i left some of it for myself, which i like because now i can still use it.
- in conclusion. ... are you going to ask me if i'm running another marathon? here's a good idea: don't do that.
it went so well that i can imagine thinking it's a good idea to run another one. BUT I DOUBT IT IS. ... i know myself, and i could easily imagine thinking i should do another one, train better, run it faster... yeah, no, buttercup, bring it down a notch. enough of this for a while. i'm running 15k of a 30k relay in march, and i'll probably run a half in february and/or a hilly 10 miler on boxing day, but right now i am going to focus on eating like a person who doesn't run 16 miles on the weekend, and get back some arm muscles, and stuff like that. i like the idea of running a trail half marathon at the end of next summer (there's a September one in Edmonton where I'll be living again), which i was once signed up for but then had double retinal surgery instead (a surprise lateral move, i think you'll agree).
so! i did it. i have a whacking huge medal, which i could see using as a brass knuckles substitute sometime if ever i'm in a dark alley with my race medals, and a pretty cool shirt, and a bottle of Detroit Mercy Hospital hand sanitizer. and a sore right knee. and a pretty big smile.
it was a pretty good day.
the first thing to say is that if you decide you have to run a marathon, i highly encourage you to find a crew member: someone supportive, unquestioning and easygoing who will drive you to detroit, come to dinner with you in ypsilanti (yes! maria! see below why), stay overnight, get up at the insane hour necessary, walk you to the start, hang out on the course for 4+ hours, give you your water bottle at mile 10 when you need it, take it away for you at kilometre 40 when you don't want any other things in your hands ever, and collect you afterwards with a bag of warm socks and many celebratory noises... well, or someone who will provide analogous services. anyway: i chose my dad, and he performed all tasks with aplomb. he also did not make me listen to a single bad country music song on our drive from toronto! so, really i had won before i even began.
right now i feel like i recall the event in great detail, but i suspect they aren't all going to be important details in even a week. so i will try to be brief. and fail.
- i thought it'd be nice to have dinner in ann arbor with my dad the night before, because i lived there for a year and was going to show him around a bit, but just before we left detroit i happened to realize from the internet that there was a University of Michigan football game happening in Ann Arbor? and if you don't know about such things, which would be reasonable, let's just say you don't want to be leaving Ann Arbor on the highway at the same time as the 110,000 other people leaving the stadium do so. (THAT IS NOT AN EXAGGERATED NUMBER. LOOK IT UP.) so instead we drove past some stuff, and then i said... let's ... leave. and so we ate in nearby ypsilanti and it was just great.
- you will recall that every other morning i have run first thing, it's been pretty icky, right? like even friday morning, my very last pre-race run, i got up at the totally not-early-time of 8:30, and i did my 3 miles, and it wasn't till the end that i felt like i was maybe running normally. and i secretly thought: this 7am start time is actually going to be worse than i even advertised. and yet! ... today, i got up at 5:15 (i know), and i ate and coffeed (yes i brought my own kettle and aeropress coffee making system to this event, shut up) and so on, and we walked the 20 minutes to the start, and when we got moving at 7am (i got across the starting line at like 7:12), i had no trouble running at all. it felt totally easy, like i was running at 6pm. i guess adrenaline is a thing? but i didn't feel pumped up. i just felt ... pretty calm and ready, actually.
- as for mental state: i felt really quite shockingly under control for the first 11 miles. mile 11 i thought 'oh my god 15 more miles, surely this will kill me' and then i stuffed that down with ONE MILE AT A TIME, LADY and kept going. mile 13, the half marathoners left us, i had a twinge of WTF AM I DOING, and then got on board again. miles 14-16 i knew would be lonely, and they were (the only part of the course where you feel like you're just running down a street that demonstrates detroit's disaster of a post-apocalypse economy), and i turned on my music which definitely helped, and then miles 16-19 were good again. miles 20-22 felt sloggy, but doable; started wanting to walk but didn't (judicious application of more motivational music.) mile 23 started to feel like i was playing a sick joke on myself, but i knew my dad was waiting at the 40k mark so i told myself i just had to make it to 40k, somewhere between mile 24 and 25, and then it would only be 2k. seeing him my brain said YES DO THE THING, and then i turned the corner where you see the hilariously steep mile up to mile 25, and i told myself BY DO THE THING I MEAN WALK UP THIS HILL and so i walked, and that felt wise but not a defeat, and so when i got the mile 25 sign the hill was not quite over but i started running again, and though my brain really really wanted to, i never walked again. my legs were tired, but honestly they were no more tired at mile 25 then they were at mile 16, so i knew it was my head that wanted to stop and i suggested we just wait a bit. the last half mile, i turned off my music and i ran up this last goddamn hill SERIOUSLY? COULD WE NOT HAVE THIS HILL NOW PLEASE? I WAS LYING ABOUT THE LEGS FROM MILE 16 and i turned left and the finish line was two blocks away and i sped up, just a very little but i did it, and i passed a few people and i WON. ... no, wait, i mean i finished.
about 20 steps from the the finish i thought: huh. wow. i did this. i kind of don't feel anything, but i did it. ... and that felt just fine.
- this marathon seems to me a good compromise: between excited spectators and chill spectators (i kind of like a mix of both, and i liked the sign that said 'hurry! the kenyans are drinking all the beer'; between urban grit, art deco buildings, sunrise from high above the river on the Ambassador Bridge, Belle Island park in the middle of the detroit river, the actually pretty urban detroit waterfront (?!) -- and also the craziness of running through two border crossings meant only for cars, complete with underwater tunnel mile (pro tip: it's humid down there), and the novelty of border guards with megapho nes yelling out support and encouragement to thousands of sweaty people who haven't declared anything. the scenery was really quite varied, and actually i really liked almost all of it. even Windsor! i really liked Windsor! ... it's not a pretty town, i'm sorry to say. but the course was well thought out and the spectators were pretty cool, considering it was like not yet 8am on a sunday morning, and they were out offering orange slices and playing rock and roll on their lawns. meanwhile at miles 16-18, i counted four different houses with people offering us shots of beer, from kegs or bottles. party in the D, they know what they're doing.
- one additionally terrific thing this race does: before every water/gatorade stop, of which there are TONS, they have a sign telling you it's coming up, and on each sign they tell you how far the next one is. i want to hug whoever came up with and followed through with that plan.
- as for my physical state? you know: really, not bad at all . i'm fairly shocked, to tell you the truth. at about mile 23.5 or so, i felt my right knee say: hey, you know, you sometimes have IT band problems, remember? yeah, so, you can't go any faster than this and you might want to actually go slower. i was more careful with form after that, and it mostly stopped hurting in the last two miles due presumably to adrenaline, and now it's definitely sore. there has been ice. but when i crossed the finish line, i didn't cramp, i didn't sob, i just smiled at people and got a medal and a space cape and stuff. and then i walked for ages to get out of the shute crazy area, and then more ages to meet up with my dad (because we were on opposite sides of the runners at this point) and then additional ages back to the hotel ... and i was really ok. eventually we met up with my other half, and i drove us 90 minutes home (other half is coming off a doom migraine) and it was only when we got here that i really wanted to ice my knee. i know i'll be creaky as shit tomorrow, and i would not advise you to look at my right pinky toe if you don't like blisters, but the general effect is not tragic in any way. considering i ran 10k farther than i ever have, this seems faintly absurd.
- oh, i should tell you how i did! you maybe remember my goal was 4:20 or 4:30? nailed it! chip time: 4:25:24. i spent most of the race just ahead or behind of the 10:07/mile pacer, and indeed my overall pace was 10:07 exactly. the internet tells me i came in 99th out of the 310 women aged 30-34, and 1862nd in a field of 6100 or so.
... does that strike you as really quite high in the standings? who are all these 5+hour marathoners? like, more power to them, but i would not have thought i was above average at that pace! at any rate, i feel like i was totally right to be as conservative as i was -- presumably i could have run faster, and hated it way more, instead of only hating some bits of it briefly. also i might have hurt myself in the middle, the worst, or hurt myself but run through it so as to create long lasting injury, the double worst, or i might have made it to the end in one piece and then collapsed, vomited, or experienced whatever other horrible things happen to those people who say they 'leave it all out on the course'. ... i left some of it for myself, which i like because now i can still use it.
- in conclusion. ... are you going to ask me if i'm running another marathon? here's a good idea: don't do that.
it went so well that i can imagine thinking it's a good idea to run another one. BUT I DOUBT IT IS. ... i know myself, and i could easily imagine thinking i should do another one, train better, run it faster... yeah, no, buttercup, bring it down a notch. enough of this for a while. i'm running 15k of a 30k relay in march, and i'll probably run a half in february and/or a hilly 10 miler on boxing day, but right now i am going to focus on eating like a person who doesn't run 16 miles on the weekend, and get back some arm muscles, and stuff like that. i like the idea of running a trail half marathon at the end of next summer (there's a September one in Edmonton where I'll be living again), which i was once signed up for but then had double retinal surgery instead (a surprise lateral move, i think you'll agree).
so! i did it. i have a whacking huge medal, which i could see using as a brass knuckles substitute sometime if ever i'm in a dark alley with my race medals, and a pretty cool shirt, and a bottle of Detroit Mercy Hospital hand sanitizer. and a sore right knee. and a pretty big smile.
it was a pretty good day.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
one run at a time
after saturday, i was done my last 'long' pre-marathon run.
after this morning, i'm done my second last pre-marathon run.
there are four real days left.
i have one short pre-marathon run on friday morning.
and then it's all a-happening.
so, my saturday morning run was... eventful! 8 miles. at mile 2.5, my hair elastic exploded. spppprong, sweatyhairtail now slicked to my neck. real cute. ... i had to find the elastic on the pavement and tie it back up, like a parcel, with badly behaved string. it wasn't optimal. whatever!
note: extra hair elastic in pocket on race day.
then at mile 6, i had this little 3 foot patch of brambley grass to cover, between sidewalk and street, and i thought: be careful. go slow, just in case you steeeeeee..... and, i fell in a big hole.
actually i fell into a pipe. my foot went straight down, into an open pipe flush with the ground and big enough around to let my whole foot in with minimal twisting, and i just sort of sat down, and my leg went into this pipe, up to my *knee*. seriously. i have a blue and swollen bruise on the inside of my knee, three days later, from the top of the pipe.
i sat there on the grass with slow-motion adrenaline waves washing over me, thinking ... ok, so my whole left lower leg is in a pipe. that was not the goal for today. but... i don't think i'm hurt? i got up, walked gingerly back to the sidewalk, onto the street, and was running before i got to the other side. i felt fine, just shaken. the bruise and swelling didn't really make themselves known to me till the day after -- but they don't affect my running at all.
note: watch for huge lurking open pipes on the marathon course?
also note: have used up ALL POSSIBLE LUCK before race. no tempting any of the gods now.
yesterday i cross-trained in my parents basement, nevermind how, and this morning i did my last 'speedwork'. and i basically did what i was supposed to do, even! i ran the intervals at just about the proscribed pace, six 1/4 miles at about 8 minute miles, and they might have been a little too fast, but no worries. when i was all done and feeling good, turned out i had miscalculated and i was too far from home after cool down, so the run was more like 5 miles than 4. and in that last mile, i was running nice and easy, but there's a bunch of inclines along the way (damn parents, living at the top of a hill in like every direction) and i really didn't feel like running them.
but obviously i did, because of the banking mentally hard miles project, and because i am apparently going to run a marathon on sunday.
kind of excited? i don't know. mostly i am just slightly alarmed at the prospect of getting across the border on saturday despite government shutdown nonsense, and getting to the starting line via a bit of a walk on the morning of, while 18,000 other people do the same thing. well, and also i just realized that my hotel is in between two parts of the course, and so we will have to get our car OUT of there before the race starts, no? because otherwise what happens at the end?! um, logistics are ridiculous.
anyway. i'm maybe ready. tomorrow and thursday are pilates, core, stretching, stuff like that. i'm probably not too freaked out.
just no more surprise foot-wide deathtrap pipes in the ground, please, universe.
after this morning, i'm done my second last pre-marathon run.
there are four real days left.
i have one short pre-marathon run on friday morning.
and then it's all a-happening.
so, my saturday morning run was... eventful! 8 miles. at mile 2.5, my hair elastic exploded. spppprong, sweatyhairtail now slicked to my neck. real cute. ... i had to find the elastic on the pavement and tie it back up, like a parcel, with badly behaved string. it wasn't optimal. whatever!
note: extra hair elastic in pocket on race day.
then at mile 6, i had this little 3 foot patch of brambley grass to cover, between sidewalk and street, and i thought: be careful. go slow, just in case you steeeeeee..... and, i fell in a big hole.
actually i fell into a pipe. my foot went straight down, into an open pipe flush with the ground and big enough around to let my whole foot in with minimal twisting, and i just sort of sat down, and my leg went into this pipe, up to my *knee*. seriously. i have a blue and swollen bruise on the inside of my knee, three days later, from the top of the pipe.
i sat there on the grass with slow-motion adrenaline waves washing over me, thinking ... ok, so my whole left lower leg is in a pipe. that was not the goal for today. but... i don't think i'm hurt? i got up, walked gingerly back to the sidewalk, onto the street, and was running before i got to the other side. i felt fine, just shaken. the bruise and swelling didn't really make themselves known to me till the day after -- but they don't affect my running at all.
note: watch for huge lurking open pipes on the marathon course?
also note: have used up ALL POSSIBLE LUCK before race. no tempting any of the gods now.
yesterday i cross-trained in my parents basement, nevermind how, and this morning i did my last 'speedwork'. and i basically did what i was supposed to do, even! i ran the intervals at just about the proscribed pace, six 1/4 miles at about 8 minute miles, and they might have been a little too fast, but no worries. when i was all done and feeling good, turned out i had miscalculated and i was too far from home after cool down, so the run was more like 5 miles than 4. and in that last mile, i was running nice and easy, but there's a bunch of inclines along the way (damn parents, living at the top of a hill in like every direction) and i really didn't feel like running them.
but obviously i did, because of the banking mentally hard miles project, and because i am apparently going to run a marathon on sunday.
kind of excited? i don't know. mostly i am just slightly alarmed at the prospect of getting across the border on saturday despite government shutdown nonsense, and getting to the starting line via a bit of a walk on the morning of, while 18,000 other people do the same thing. well, and also i just realized that my hotel is in between two parts of the course, and so we will have to get our car OUT of there before the race starts, no? because otherwise what happens at the end?! um, logistics are ridiculous.
anyway. i'm maybe ready. tomorrow and thursday are pilates, core, stretching, stuff like that. i'm probably not too freaked out.
just no more surprise foot-wide deathtrap pipes in the ground, please, universe.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
running before i fly
i woke up at 8am this saturday morning to eat breakfast and have coffee and have time to digest and wake up before my last 'long' run: 8 miles, starting in about 20 minutes.
really, who am i.
the timing is in part by necessity: when i get back, there will be just enough time for personal maintenance and dog reassuring, and then it will be time to drive to the airport and thence fly to toronto. there is canadian thanksgiving and such to be had, and i will be there a week.
and when i am home again, in a week and a day, i will have RUN A MARATHON.
(srsly. who. am i.)
i had this extensive packing list for last night, with all my gear and clothing options and passport and equipment and so on. i got everything packed and so on (lots of it is laundry, you're welcome mum.) and then i remembered -- oh, wait, i can't actually show up to thanksgiving in running clothes? so i had to do a little extra shoving into the bag.
it only now occurs to me that 8 miles is not that short a run. well, ha! apparently i now (nearly literally) eat such mileage for breakfast. thursday's tempo went pretty well: i stayed at or below the targeted pace the whole time, and it felt comfortably hard (it was also a minute per mile faster than i'll be running the marathon, so good.) and today i'll have a good time, i promise myself.
... a friend of mine just had a baby a few days ago, and it sounds like she kind of broke her tailbone as a result? that's a thing that can happen, apparently. (um and maybe happened the last time she gave birth too? so, it heals... eventually. ow.) anyway. i am trying to keep in mind that nothing i do this week is going to be painful like THAT, so it'll probably be ok.
k, gotta run.
really, who am i.
the timing is in part by necessity: when i get back, there will be just enough time for personal maintenance and dog reassuring, and then it will be time to drive to the airport and thence fly to toronto. there is canadian thanksgiving and such to be had, and i will be there a week.
and when i am home again, in a week and a day, i will have RUN A MARATHON.
(srsly. who. am i.)
i had this extensive packing list for last night, with all my gear and clothing options and passport and equipment and so on. i got everything packed and so on (lots of it is laundry, you're welcome mum.) and then i remembered -- oh, wait, i can't actually show up to thanksgiving in running clothes? so i had to do a little extra shoving into the bag.
it only now occurs to me that 8 miles is not that short a run. well, ha! apparently i now (nearly literally) eat such mileage for breakfast. thursday's tempo went pretty well: i stayed at or below the targeted pace the whole time, and it felt comfortably hard (it was also a minute per mile faster than i'll be running the marathon, so good.) and today i'll have a good time, i promise myself.
... a friend of mine just had a baby a few days ago, and it sounds like she kind of broke her tailbone as a result? that's a thing that can happen, apparently. (um and maybe happened the last time she gave birth too? so, it heals... eventually. ow.) anyway. i am trying to keep in mind that nothing i do this week is going to be painful like THAT, so it'll probably be ok.
k, gotta run.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
why can't the marathon be at 6pm?
because that is my awesomest time to run.
today i had my last (always scare-quotes-worthy) 'speed work' run. the plan said i was supposed to run 1km at 8:03/mile pace 5 times, and run 400 metres in between each as 'rest' intervals.
can we talk about how speedwork *distances* are always listed in kilometres, even in the US, but then *speeds* are still all in miles? that doesn't help me and my watch work out what we're doing, ok? especially when thinking is hard due to running hard. this is not a time for math problems about trains leaving different stations headed for cleveland and what colour was the bear, etc.
so. you know i'm a little antsy about the speedwork after the racing injury incident near this blog's inception, right? ok, so i fudge. i almost always do one fewer interval than they say, but i always get the mileage about right. so today i thought: i'll do one mile to warm up. then i'll do .6 miles at something fast, and .3 miles to recover, 4 times. and then a mile to cooldown.
i left the house at 6pm, in a somewhat chilly but slightly humid sunshine. the sky was clear and the sun was dappling shit. anyway, i ran the first mile at 9:20 pace, and i thought: oooh, ok, that's not bad.
and then i started the intervals.
and I KILLED IT.
i didn't time each interval (i am not a garmin ninja) i just have the mile splits, but those miles with speed in them were all sub 8 minute miles. and for .3 of the miles i was not pushing! after the first one, i realized i was a little too close to sprinting, but the last three i was both pushing, and yet not going full-tilt. i talked to myself briefly to make sure i wasn't overestimating my lungs, and while i couldn't have held a conversation, i wasn't gasping. i finished my last interval at mile 4.3, then i backed off to about 9:30 miles, and ran home to make 6 miles total. when i looked at my watch at mile 5, i realized that had i been in a race, i could definitely have run a 50-minute 10k today; my PR is 49:30 on a course that i am SO SURE was short. as it was, i ran 6 miles in 52:30, and i would have happily run another 6 (though not at that speed, granted.)
anyway, the point is that i'm pretty much a champion... when i run at 6pm. now let's just explain to the good people of detroit that they need to move the marathon 11 hours later, and everything will be sweetness and sunshine.
today i had my last (always scare-quotes-worthy) 'speed work' run. the plan said i was supposed to run 1km at 8:03/mile pace 5 times, and run 400 metres in between each as 'rest' intervals.
can we talk about how speedwork *distances* are always listed in kilometres, even in the US, but then *speeds* are still all in miles? that doesn't help me and my watch work out what we're doing, ok? especially when thinking is hard due to running hard. this is not a time for math problems about trains leaving different stations headed for cleveland and what colour was the bear, etc.
so. you know i'm a little antsy about the speedwork after the racing injury incident near this blog's inception, right? ok, so i fudge. i almost always do one fewer interval than they say, but i always get the mileage about right. so today i thought: i'll do one mile to warm up. then i'll do .6 miles at something fast, and .3 miles to recover, 4 times. and then a mile to cooldown.
i left the house at 6pm, in a somewhat chilly but slightly humid sunshine. the sky was clear and the sun was dappling shit. anyway, i ran the first mile at 9:20 pace, and i thought: oooh, ok, that's not bad.
and then i started the intervals.
and I KILLED IT.
i didn't time each interval (i am not a garmin ninja) i just have the mile splits, but those miles with speed in them were all sub 8 minute miles. and for .3 of the miles i was not pushing! after the first one, i realized i was a little too close to sprinting, but the last three i was both pushing, and yet not going full-tilt. i talked to myself briefly to make sure i wasn't overestimating my lungs, and while i couldn't have held a conversation, i wasn't gasping. i finished my last interval at mile 4.3, then i backed off to about 9:30 miles, and ran home to make 6 miles total. when i looked at my watch at mile 5, i realized that had i been in a race, i could definitely have run a 50-minute 10k today; my PR is 49:30 on a course that i am SO SURE was short. as it was, i ran 6 miles in 52:30, and i would have happily run another 6 (though not at that speed, granted.)
anyway, the point is that i'm pretty much a champion... when i run at 6pm. now let's just explain to the good people of detroit that they need to move the marathon 11 hours later, and everything will be sweetness and sunshine.
i have a bib number!
this should not be exciting. but secretly i have been having random thoughts like 'maybe i imagined registering? maybe i'm not really going to be able to run the marathon. i will just have to go to detroit and run around in circles pretending.'
but now i got an email, and then i went to a website, and now i am bib number 6474, so it is REAL.
actually this makes me feel much better. at least if it all goes to hell, i will be there officially.
my last 'speedwork' run tonight.
12 days to go.
doin' it.
but now i got an email, and then i went to a website, and now i am bib number 6474, so it is REAL.
actually this makes me feel much better. at least if it all goes to hell, i will be there officially.
my last 'speedwork' run tonight.
12 days to go.
doin' it.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
two tough ones, but the kids are alright
this was my third-to-last week of training. last weekend i swapped the order of my long run with my speed work for this week's tuesday (somehow that reads as confusingly as possible, so see if you can do something with it then move on)
... and anyway the upshot was i ran long on monday (see previous post) and this meant that i had a 7 mile tempo run to do on thursday, and a 13 miler today. what i in fact ran was 5.5 miles on thursday, and 11.5 miles today.
a B, B- effort, it would seem? but keep reading.
according to my current pace calculation (which i am calculating with reference to my half-marathon 'race' time from a few weeks ago, but shaving two minutes off to account for how i ran it back to back with 7 miles the night before as part of training, so no taper, so let's say that's conservative...) ok, sorry that sentence's centre cannot hold.
according to my current pace calculation, i was supposed to do the tempo 7 miles at 9:15/miles and the 13 today at 9:45/miles. and my overall paces both days were spot on, but actually that's a bit misleading, for one good and one bad reason.
the good one was that both days i had a quite slow first mile, and i need that, that's cool, so the tempo mile splits are like 9:45/9:15/9:02/8:56/8:58... and then the last half mile cool-down, maybe 9:50. but the bad reason from today's run was that after the first really creaky mile, something like 10:20, i never really got into a rhythm, so my pace fluctuated a lot. most of the miles were somewhere around 9:30, and a couple were far too fast, and two were around 9:55-10:00. usually i'm pretty consistent with my pace, and today i was rather more surge-and-fade than usual. there was no consistent downward trend, and if anything i bet i negative split, but it was still weird for me.
so, still maybe now a B+ effort? but keep reading.
early october weather is supposed to be fall, right? leaves are falling off trees here. it's getting into the 40s fahrenheit at night. but no, thursday it was in the 80s with sun and high humidity when i ran mid in the morning, and today it was in the mid 70s but so humid i got back to the car looking like a swimmer. i *rang out* my ponytail from sweat. so this was nonsense, and SURELY detroit is not going to be 80F with 70% humidity at 7am in two weeks time. OKAY RIGHT???
next, there's wednesday crosstraining. i went to this plyometrics class wednesday night? it's pretty great. i didn't push myself really hard; i just got a good work out. yes, but, 14 miles on monday. and i've been training for weeks. and then miles on thursday morning. and so yesterday my legs were sore, sore, sore. not i can't walk sore, but definitely i think twice about sitting quickly sore. and there was stretching and rolling, but obviously this accounted for the creaky first mile today.
and finally, there is serious general fatigue. where did that come from? oh, let me tell you what else happens when there's heat and humidity in this part of the world. night-timethunderstorms. you know who really can't handle thunderstorms? our dog. you know what she does when something happens that she can't handle? she curls up desperately on your face and pants. long story short: i got far less sleep than i wanted or needed both thursday and friday (last) night. and to mitigate this, once the thunderstorms were over, i slept in somewhat, and so there i was at noon out in the humid soup on creaky legs, with 13 miles to run.
thus: i am giving myself A+ GOLD STAR for this week's training.
(thursday morning's 5.5 instead of 7 was partly heat, partly plyo, but also partly the failure to realize that i cannot run comfortably less than 2 hours after eating oatmeal. maybe it used to be different, but lotta things used to be different, sister. so there was an angry, angry stomach for a lot of that time. learned the lesson, for real this time.)
the most important thing about these two runs is that i don't think shortening each one by 1.5 miles reflects a lack of mental fortitude. i definitely wanted to quit at about mile 2 on thursday, and honestly at mile 3 today. if i had just been out running for the fun of it i would have thought eff this! fun is not to be had today! and done something else. but in both cases i reminded myself i'm almost done this training business, and i want a repository of memories wherein it *sucked* and i did it *anyway*. and i'm putting all of thursday and all of today's miles in that memory bank, and they will be there when i need them.
i did a fair amount of evaluating vital signs: i knew that if anything in my legs hurt in the twinge way not the ache-creak-overalltired way, or if i was dehydrating or overheating in a real way, that it would be time to back off, but that didn't happen. at mile 3 today i thought: this is hard, but it's really my head that's finding it hard. and at mile 10, it felt physically no harder. i didn't let myself turn on music until mile 6, which is hardly far into a marathon but felt like SO LONG today, and the beat helped but mostly i just talked to myself about how it's all mental, it's all mental, and i'm getting close now, and i've got it in me, and jesus christ how is it only .02 miles since the last time i looked at my watch? that is not even possible! that's like looking at your phone to check the time and not seeing it and realizing you didn't and then having to check again right away! dammit, i'm listening to Eminem again. ... so, yeah, the self-talk needs a little work. i have some mantras, too, but they are so embarrassing i'm not telling you them. they work, a little, so that's good enough.
two weeks left now. i think that means five more runs before marathon day. aspects of the plan include: being smart. stretching. pilates. easy, careful runs. (supposed to be 10 miles next weekend? we'll see. i won't mind if it's more like 8 or 9.) foam rolling. crosstraining on the elliptical and at home. getting sleep. lots of planks and back strength and other core stuff. a little yoga. not tripping over anything, seriously now. actually that's become hard recently, because after a bunch of running (and i did run 31 miles in the last 6 days, that's kind of a bunch) i apparently lose lateral-type balance? i'm not sure if it's the small ankle muscles or some bigger quad/ham/glute ones that are the culprit, but now is not the time for me to take up tightrope walking. if i start doing multiple things at once, like walking down the sidewalk and texting, i may get ticketed for appearing drunk and disorderly. it's a little ridiculous. anyway, no falling sideways awkwardly into something and spraining my whatever.
oh, and an amusement to end with? today before i had really resigned myself to a hard mental slog, i was running along this kind of pretty rural road at the bottom of campus, and there's big trees in the distance and farmland around me and this series of agricultural research facilities i mentioned before (the poultry research people? then the pork research people?)... and then i'm coming up this winding little bit of road, the sky is blue, the clouds are wispy, and then at the next big intersection with a sort of highway that leads back into campus i see... a gleaming building! it's green and sleek and mysteriously out of place, and it's surrounded by pristine parking lot and it's got this background of autumn trees and what the hell is it... oh, of course. it's the OTHER branch of the glimmering campus Credit Union! remember last time i ran through cornfields to the Credit Union, way on the other side of town? yeah, clearly same architects. the magic is everywhere. so bizarre.
back to life, folks. i have a couple more things to blog about here in the next little while, so i'll be around.
... i got this! probably!
but dinner first.
... and anyway the upshot was i ran long on monday (see previous post) and this meant that i had a 7 mile tempo run to do on thursday, and a 13 miler today. what i in fact ran was 5.5 miles on thursday, and 11.5 miles today.
a B, B- effort, it would seem? but keep reading.
according to my current pace calculation (which i am calculating with reference to my half-marathon 'race' time from a few weeks ago, but shaving two minutes off to account for how i ran it back to back with 7 miles the night before as part of training, so no taper, so let's say that's conservative...) ok, sorry that sentence's centre cannot hold.
according to my current pace calculation, i was supposed to do the tempo 7 miles at 9:15/miles and the 13 today at 9:45/miles. and my overall paces both days were spot on, but actually that's a bit misleading, for one good and one bad reason.
the good one was that both days i had a quite slow first mile, and i need that, that's cool, so the tempo mile splits are like 9:45/9:15/9:02/8:56/8:58... and then the last half mile cool-down, maybe 9:50. but the bad reason from today's run was that after the first really creaky mile, something like 10:20, i never really got into a rhythm, so my pace fluctuated a lot. most of the miles were somewhere around 9:30, and a couple were far too fast, and two were around 9:55-10:00. usually i'm pretty consistent with my pace, and today i was rather more surge-and-fade than usual. there was no consistent downward trend, and if anything i bet i negative split, but it was still weird for me.
so, still maybe now a B+ effort? but keep reading.
early october weather is supposed to be fall, right? leaves are falling off trees here. it's getting into the 40s fahrenheit at night. but no, thursday it was in the 80s with sun and high humidity when i ran mid in the morning, and today it was in the mid 70s but so humid i got back to the car looking like a swimmer. i *rang out* my ponytail from sweat. so this was nonsense, and SURELY detroit is not going to be 80F with 70% humidity at 7am in two weeks time. OKAY RIGHT???
next, there's wednesday crosstraining. i went to this plyometrics class wednesday night? it's pretty great. i didn't push myself really hard; i just got a good work out. yes, but, 14 miles on monday. and i've been training for weeks. and then miles on thursday morning. and so yesterday my legs were sore, sore, sore. not i can't walk sore, but definitely i think twice about sitting quickly sore. and there was stretching and rolling, but obviously this accounted for the creaky first mile today.
and finally, there is serious general fatigue. where did that come from? oh, let me tell you what else happens when there's heat and humidity in this part of the world. night-timethunderstorms. you know who really can't handle thunderstorms? our dog. you know what she does when something happens that she can't handle? she curls up desperately on your face and pants. long story short: i got far less sleep than i wanted or needed both thursday and friday (last) night. and to mitigate this, once the thunderstorms were over, i slept in somewhat, and so there i was at noon out in the humid soup on creaky legs, with 13 miles to run.
thus: i am giving myself A+ GOLD STAR for this week's training.
(thursday morning's 5.5 instead of 7 was partly heat, partly plyo, but also partly the failure to realize that i cannot run comfortably less than 2 hours after eating oatmeal. maybe it used to be different, but lotta things used to be different, sister. so there was an angry, angry stomach for a lot of that time. learned the lesson, for real this time.)
the most important thing about these two runs is that i don't think shortening each one by 1.5 miles reflects a lack of mental fortitude. i definitely wanted to quit at about mile 2 on thursday, and honestly at mile 3 today. if i had just been out running for the fun of it i would have thought eff this! fun is not to be had today! and done something else. but in both cases i reminded myself i'm almost done this training business, and i want a repository of memories wherein it *sucked* and i did it *anyway*. and i'm putting all of thursday and all of today's miles in that memory bank, and they will be there when i need them.
i did a fair amount of evaluating vital signs: i knew that if anything in my legs hurt in the twinge way not the ache-creak-overalltired way, or if i was dehydrating or overheating in a real way, that it would be time to back off, but that didn't happen. at mile 3 today i thought: this is hard, but it's really my head that's finding it hard. and at mile 10, it felt physically no harder. i didn't let myself turn on music until mile 6, which is hardly far into a marathon but felt like SO LONG today, and the beat helped but mostly i just talked to myself about how it's all mental, it's all mental, and i'm getting close now, and i've got it in me, and jesus christ how is it only .02 miles since the last time i looked at my watch? that is not even possible! that's like looking at your phone to check the time and not seeing it and realizing you didn't and then having to check again right away! dammit, i'm listening to Eminem again. ... so, yeah, the self-talk needs a little work. i have some mantras, too, but they are so embarrassing i'm not telling you them. they work, a little, so that's good enough.
two weeks left now. i think that means five more runs before marathon day. aspects of the plan include: being smart. stretching. pilates. easy, careful runs. (supposed to be 10 miles next weekend? we'll see. i won't mind if it's more like 8 or 9.) foam rolling. crosstraining on the elliptical and at home. getting sleep. lots of planks and back strength and other core stuff. a little yoga. not tripping over anything, seriously now. actually that's become hard recently, because after a bunch of running (and i did run 31 miles in the last 6 days, that's kind of a bunch) i apparently lose lateral-type balance? i'm not sure if it's the small ankle muscles or some bigger quad/ham/glute ones that are the culprit, but now is not the time for me to take up tightrope walking. if i start doing multiple things at once, like walking down the sidewalk and texting, i may get ticketed for appearing drunk and disorderly. it's a little ridiculous. anyway, no falling sideways awkwardly into something and spraining my whatever.
oh, and an amusement to end with? today before i had really resigned myself to a hard mental slog, i was running along this kind of pretty rural road at the bottom of campus, and there's big trees in the distance and farmland around me and this series of agricultural research facilities i mentioned before (the poultry research people? then the pork research people?)... and then i'm coming up this winding little bit of road, the sky is blue, the clouds are wispy, and then at the next big intersection with a sort of highway that leads back into campus i see... a gleaming building! it's green and sleek and mysteriously out of place, and it's surrounded by pristine parking lot and it's got this background of autumn trees and what the hell is it... oh, of course. it's the OTHER branch of the glimmering campus Credit Union! remember last time i ran through cornfields to the Credit Union, way on the other side of town? yeah, clearly same architects. the magic is everywhere. so bizarre.
back to life, folks. i have a couple more things to blog about here in the next little while, so i'll be around.
... i got this! probably!
but dinner first.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
last long one done
mm.
weekend running turned out to be very minimal: just 3 easy if hilly miles with a friend conquering her asthma out of town. relaxing! i didn't even think to bring my garmin until hours after we were done! very nice. sunday night i got home from my three days of gallivanting, and i was TIRED, but i crosstrained, and it felt fine, a few calf twinges but nothing worrying.
due to weekend re-arrangements, i decided monday morning would be my last long run -- by long, i meant over 13 miles. and even though i was tired sunday night i have decided my longest runs need to all be first thing in the morning from now on. because my biggest concern about race day is rapidly becoming the irrationally early hour at which i will need to start running, and the ramifications for when i will have to get up, and so on. the body needs practice.
so i went to bed sunday at 1:30, i got up at 7:30. i don't know if that sounds wimpy to you but it was pretty rough in the moment. but: i did it. i had laid everything out the night before, but there is no point in hurrying if your digestive system isn't settled, so, i left when i was ready, at 8:45. this still doesn't really tell me when i need to get up on race morning, because that day once i leave the hotel, i won't be starting to run, i'll be walking a mile to the starting line and presumably then standing around in my corral or a bathroom line for some time... right, so, everything is still unknown. stress is silly.
yesterday, then. i ran 14 miles. i meant to run 15, but i ran slower than i expected, and so i ran out of time (i had a deadline to get home before my other half left for the day.) in fact: i ran faster than my 'plan' pace time, i just forget that i'm running slower than normal. i'm not running half marathon *race pace*, brain -- the goal was to keep the miles at 10 minutes, and instead i ran at a 9:50/mile overall, and while a couple miles were at 10:09, they were in the middle, and the majority of the time i was telling myself to slow down and not screw up early. really the only big obstacles were overall fatigue, and mental boredom. it wasn't easy; i wished i was home many times. but no cramping, no bonking, and no feelings of 'i am a failure at this'. i DID think 'how am i going to do another 12 miles?!'... but that seems like a perfectly sensible question.
so i am counting this as a slow-burn solid success. i ran more than a half marathon when i didn't really feel like i had the energy for a run. good sign, right?
from now out, i'm getting REST. and i'm not going to be drinking much (dad, it's my turn to DD home from (canadian) thanksgiving dinner, and for once it will be no sacrifice.) and i need to just... *not trip on anything* for the next while.
20 days to go. countdown is starting for real.
weekend running turned out to be very minimal: just 3 easy if hilly miles with a friend conquering her asthma out of town. relaxing! i didn't even think to bring my garmin until hours after we were done! very nice. sunday night i got home from my three days of gallivanting, and i was TIRED, but i crosstrained, and it felt fine, a few calf twinges but nothing worrying.
due to weekend re-arrangements, i decided monday morning would be my last long run -- by long, i meant over 13 miles. and even though i was tired sunday night i have decided my longest runs need to all be first thing in the morning from now on. because my biggest concern about race day is rapidly becoming the irrationally early hour at which i will need to start running, and the ramifications for when i will have to get up, and so on. the body needs practice.
so i went to bed sunday at 1:30, i got up at 7:30. i don't know if that sounds wimpy to you but it was pretty rough in the moment. but: i did it. i had laid everything out the night before, but there is no point in hurrying if your digestive system isn't settled, so, i left when i was ready, at 8:45. this still doesn't really tell me when i need to get up on race morning, because that day once i leave the hotel, i won't be starting to run, i'll be walking a mile to the starting line and presumably then standing around in my corral or a bathroom line for some time... right, so, everything is still unknown. stress is silly.
yesterday, then. i ran 14 miles. i meant to run 15, but i ran slower than i expected, and so i ran out of time (i had a deadline to get home before my other half left for the day.) in fact: i ran faster than my 'plan' pace time, i just forget that i'm running slower than normal. i'm not running half marathon *race pace*, brain -- the goal was to keep the miles at 10 minutes, and instead i ran at a 9:50/mile overall, and while a couple miles were at 10:09, they were in the middle, and the majority of the time i was telling myself to slow down and not screw up early. really the only big obstacles were overall fatigue, and mental boredom. it wasn't easy; i wished i was home many times. but no cramping, no bonking, and no feelings of 'i am a failure at this'. i DID think 'how am i going to do another 12 miles?!'... but that seems like a perfectly sensible question.
so i am counting this as a slow-burn solid success. i ran more than a half marathon when i didn't really feel like i had the energy for a run. good sign, right?
from now out, i'm getting REST. and i'm not going to be drinking much (dad, it's my turn to DD home from (canadian) thanksgiving dinner, and for once it will be no sacrifice.) and i need to just... *not trip on anything* for the next while.
20 days to go. countdown is starting for real.
Friday, September 27, 2013
weekday running updates
la, la la, you guys. i ran 4.5 miles on tuesday evening, i ran 8 miles thursday morning. ain't no thing. ... wait, yes it is! it's helpful to have my other half's perspective on this. 8 miles is nothing to scoff at!
anyway, yesterday i wasn't scoffing, i was too busy choking and spluttering. i am practicing the art of drinking while in motion because i want to be able to sip my beverage without walking (leg cramp avoidance technique 1: don't ever stop running.) here's how it goes: every time i take my handheld with me, my first attempt begins with a slapstick-style electrolyte facespray, because the sloshing beverage has excited itself to high degrees of effervescence and i have the memory of a running goldfish. i feel this has been really effective, though, since never once have my eyebrows gotten thirsty while long-running. and then after that i remember to open it facing away from myself, and i've mostly got the order of breathes and swigs in order, so that's going well.
meanwhile in another part of the forest: tuesday's run was a Blair Witch event, since my beliefs about when the sun sets are currently stuck in August mode despite it almost being October (insert panicky noise here.) i got to the trail for my two speedwork (er, sort of) loops, and thought -- wait, the sun is going down, like: *now*. thus i booked it through the woods for 3 miles. and of course the woods are more dark than the open fields, which means you feel like you need to hurry faster, but you do NOT want to trip on a root 3.5 weeks before your bloody marathon, and you are trying to do intervals so you need to see your garmin, so your progress swings abruptly from semi-sprint up pineneedle hills to gingerly hopping about to squinting at your watch to bolting again. and when i'm on a trail i have acquired the habit of checking behind me every so often to check for bikers/runners faster than me -- so, i also looked like i was running *scared*. nice. i had to do some road running afterwards to get close to the correct mileage, and of course got confusingly lost in a neighbourhood i've never seen before, yet got back to the car half a mile short. by then it was of course pitch black and my sweat was freezing so i packed it in.
another observation: my 20 mile run (!! remember?) on sunday didn't trash my legs at all, and i worked out normally on monday, which felt both impressive and insane ... but it sure did slow me down. well, that's my interpretation anyway: tuesday, my perceived effort should have had me at 8:45 miles, and i was going like 10:30. i know we've talked about these trails before, but even so -- even the road part, i was speeding up for half-mile intervals, and seeing like 9:45 on my watch. that's not speeding up! but thursday morning, my first warm-up mile was 9:35, and everything else hovered around 9:10-9:15. i aimed for the last two miles to be 9:20, and they clocked in at 9:03 and 8:49, a little bit of effort but certainly less than tuesday. distinctly weird, how different two speeds can feel.
this weekend i am traveling so my schedule is a little wonky; won't run long again til monday, but there's some kind of running-hills-in-the-arboretum plan for tomorrow.
feeling good about this, people. keep fingers crossed.
anyway, yesterday i wasn't scoffing, i was too busy choking and spluttering. i am practicing the art of drinking while in motion because i want to be able to sip my beverage without walking (leg cramp avoidance technique 1: don't ever stop running.) here's how it goes: every time i take my handheld with me, my first attempt begins with a slapstick-style electrolyte facespray, because the sloshing beverage has excited itself to high degrees of effervescence and i have the memory of a running goldfish. i feel this has been really effective, though, since never once have my eyebrows gotten thirsty while long-running. and then after that i remember to open it facing away from myself, and i've mostly got the order of breathes and swigs in order, so that's going well.
meanwhile in another part of the forest: tuesday's run was a Blair Witch event, since my beliefs about when the sun sets are currently stuck in August mode despite it almost being October (insert panicky noise here.) i got to the trail for my two speedwork (er, sort of) loops, and thought -- wait, the sun is going down, like: *now*. thus i booked it through the woods for 3 miles. and of course the woods are more dark than the open fields, which means you feel like you need to hurry faster, but you do NOT want to trip on a root 3.5 weeks before your bloody marathon, and you are trying to do intervals so you need to see your garmin, so your progress swings abruptly from semi-sprint up pineneedle hills to gingerly hopping about to squinting at your watch to bolting again. and when i'm on a trail i have acquired the habit of checking behind me every so often to check for bikers/runners faster than me -- so, i also looked like i was running *scared*. nice. i had to do some road running afterwards to get close to the correct mileage, and of course got confusingly lost in a neighbourhood i've never seen before, yet got back to the car half a mile short. by then it was of course pitch black and my sweat was freezing so i packed it in.
another observation: my 20 mile run (!! remember?) on sunday didn't trash my legs at all, and i worked out normally on monday, which felt both impressive and insane ... but it sure did slow me down. well, that's my interpretation anyway: tuesday, my perceived effort should have had me at 8:45 miles, and i was going like 10:30. i know we've talked about these trails before, but even so -- even the road part, i was speeding up for half-mile intervals, and seeing like 9:45 on my watch. that's not speeding up! but thursday morning, my first warm-up mile was 9:35, and everything else hovered around 9:10-9:15. i aimed for the last two miles to be 9:20, and they clocked in at 9:03 and 8:49, a little bit of effort but certainly less than tuesday. distinctly weird, how different two speeds can feel.
this weekend i am traveling so my schedule is a little wonky; won't run long again til monday, but there's some kind of running-hills-in-the-arboretum plan for tomorrow.
feeling good about this, people. keep fingers crossed.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
DID IT.
today i got up with A Plan. ... i was actually fairly chill (i mean, i got up at 10:45am), but definitely Plan on the horizon. (in my defense about the hour, i got back from collecting my other half from the airport at 2am).
i ate my new long-run non-oatmeal breakfast. i timed my coffee drinking for, uh, best results. i drank a big glass of water within 15 minutes of waking. i put on clothes. i checked the weather, i put on different clothes. i reminded myself of the route i'd planned last night. i put new songs on my ipod. (sidenote: this alone should tell you i was capital-f focused because i have a mental block against moving music on and off my ipod, leftover from when i was in a full-on war with iTunes not believing i was ever really totally in the US *or* Canada and so refusing to let me copy/buy/acquire/operate any music, the worst mess, so annoying, but today i had bigger (selfmade) problems so i reminded myself sternly this technohistory is no reason to listen to the same podcasts five times on repeat, when those are free in any event! ... right, ok, regroup. i downloaded several pretty great running songs, actually, and two pretty memorable Radiolab podcasts, and listened to them all later on. relatedly: never get rabies. but back to the story.)
then, i got suited up. the plan was to have with me everything i would need on actual race day. i told you i got this thing that acts like a belt/fanny pack without looking douchey/hitting you in the back every three steps? it's basically a bandeau of somewhat spandexy material you wear around your hips containing three pockets. except for a shockingly embarrassing sparkly logo on one side, which i make sure to always cover with my shirt, it's pretty rad. so in that thing, i had my phone, one GU (see below), and a small amount of mini pretzels in a ziplock bag. i have this other little pouch with velcro that attaches to your shoelaces, and in that i had my driver's license (see below), a credit card in case of god knows, and my house keys. i also had this handheld water bottle with a pretty remarkable strap that makes it nearly effortless to run with, which i am seriously starting to consider running with on marathon day (see below), filled with 16oz of doublestrength Nuun (electrolyte-y drink with less sugary than Gatorade), and it has a pocket that contained about 8 swedish fish. and i was wearing my ipod, and my garmin watch.
i put on my running shoes, and all of these things, and while i didn't feel burdened in any way, i also suspected it looked like i thought i was going on a NASA mission. even the dog -- who usually shows little understanding of human outfits, since when i leave the apartment wearing my pjs to put in a load of laundry she will come to the door and beg me not to go, apparently thinking that's an outfit i might wear on a long trip -- even the DOG gave me a confused look. the other half previously mentioned just looked a little incredulous. 'HOW long are you going to be gone?' i took a deep breath and said ... 'between three and a half and four hours'.
i left the house, took four steps, came back to pee. ever was it thus.
aaaand: then i went out and i ran twenty miles.
sorry, i should have put that different.
PEOPLE I RAN TWENTY MILES. 20!!! MILLLLESS!
THE NUMBER OF MILES I RAN HAS A TWO IN FRONT OF IT!
... even as i was running, i thought: 'there's no way i'm getting through this blog post without a little all-caps action.' but i think it's out of my system now.
the verdict on the whole thing is that i done good. i finished the first ten miles in 1:40 near-exactly, so that's 10 minute miles, and the whole thing in 3:23:30, so around 10:12 min/miles. meaning, i ran faster in the first half (not the goal) but not insanely faster. and my last miles were not the slowest.
the weather was just about perfect for running -- i mean, cloudy, 12-14C, no rain, some wind. actually i got too cold in the wind a few times. i spent a lot of brainpower on (again i hate this word but that's where i'm at apparently) 'fuel': drinking some liquid quite frequently, but in the small amounts that the squeezy bottle-top permits, so i never got the stomach-sloshing feeling. i ate all my swedish fish, and about half the pretzels (pro tip -- you want REALLY SMALL pretzels pieces when you've got no saliva left.) i also had my first GU-consumption experience. those things ... man, maybe i *was* preparing for a space voyage; i felt like a Jetson slithering that thing into my mouth. anyway it was a fascinating tactile experience, and next time the role of GU will be played by jelly beans.
as for route: i ran to all the places. seriously, 20 miles is a long way. i thought it might be helpful to not be on a typical routes, to make it feel more like a race where you're not doing your normal thing, and also include lots of different locations: campus, trail, city, suburb, forest, field. i got all of that. i found aNOTHER nature preserve i didn't know about! which was great because i got lost in it for two miles, allowing me to skip two miles which would have involved needless detour near the campus poulty research facility (not a particularly pretty or pleasant smelling area. did i mention it's right beside the pig research facility. i'm not kidding.) i hadn't really thought about the location of hills, because there are so few here relatively speaking... but i hit a couple, one familiar one at mile 4, some kind of notable ones at miles 9-11, and then there's this fairly rolling bit on the way home that i managed to schedule for miles 17-18 (smart move, yeah. but back to that in a minute.)
at mile 10 i thought: halfway! and out of nowhere these three college guys appeared, dressed in serious spandex, not runners by trade but clearly varsity something, running to crosstrain. they passed me, talking casually like they were lounging on a patio, moving at probably 7:45min/mile pace. whatever! i let 'em fly on, and i noticed that they slowed down on the hill ahead of us (a little) while i did not (mostly -- the point is i gained on them). as soon as the hill was over, they disappeared like rabbits but i felt pretty cool, to be honest.
at mile 13, i thought: ok, pretend like it was last weekend, and you're running a half. at this point, you were six miles in (counting the seven from the night before), and you had seven left. how do you feel? ... i felt about the same as last weekend. but i'd done them all contiguously. and then i knew, KNEW i would finish it today.
there were some hard miles, but nothing worse (or even maybe as bad?) as the puke-y miles from thursday. mind you, i was running more than a minute per mile slower; that sure matters. but it was really all mental. i stopped at a water fountain at mile 16, and i could tell that if i stopped moving my legs were gonna start stiffening, so i didn't stop long. and it was ok. i started getting runner's brain at mile 18 (like, i forget how to operate my ipod, or can't figure out what 26-18 is, meaning how many miles i will need to run after 18 during the marathon to get to the end), but again, i knew i would get over it.
the first half of mile 18 is pretty much uphill. yes, see again: small idiocy in planning. however, here's what was happening on the sidewalk for like half of that mile: rushing. by which i mean, standing completely still. ... um, i guess it's Rush Week? all i know for sure is that i was running past a lot of sorority houses, and the lawns and driveways outside each of them were filled with piles of women (maybe 30 per house) waiting for i have no idea what. they were loosely organized into lines, coming out of each house's door, and they all looked like they were at a slightly tense mixer. meanwhile, i was 18 miles into a run wearing pretty smelly apparel and a salt lick for a complexion. we were, in fact, in completely different worlds.
but i was by now on a mission to finish. so: ok, full disclosure, i flipped my ipod back to the part of the playlist with the highly questionable choices, and Katy Perry ('Roar', I know, I gotta get me a sorority pin) got me to the top of the hill, and Eminem got me to the last big long block before home (did you know that the song '8 mile' is exactly the right speed for a tired-legs running cadence? true story.)
and when my watch beeped distance 20:00... i *kept going*. well, i was about 3 mins run from home, and as i mentioned i was worried my legs would seize up if i stopped. i stopped my watch, and i walk/jogged back home. but the point is: i was uncomfortable, but i really could have kept going.
BOOM.
this will be my only without-stopping 20 mile run. i am going to juggle around a couple of the distances to split the difference between the original plan and the 'novice' plan, but my longest run left will i think be 15 miles, maybe 14. that sounds too short right now, but we'll see. there's a lot of 'don't fuck it up by thinking you need to make up for lost time in the weeks before the race', and i hear that.
so, now. thoughts for next time (meaning the REAL DEAL next time.)
1. the only thing i forgot to bring with me: kleenex. oh my god, why am i systematically unable to remember the existence of snot when getting ready for a run? may need to put a post-it note on my garmin that says YOU HAVE A NOSE.
2. why did i run with my driver's license? ... i think i've decided i'm not going to run with my passport. i know, they COULD ask me for it. it COULD be a nightmare. but really? ... they're not going to. and it is so unwieldy and i don't want a damp passport. i might rethink this, but i know it will be fine.
3. i am going to remove today's best running songs off my ipod, and not put them back until the day before the race. they will stay crisp and inspiring! actually at one point i got so inspired i almost ran into a railway crossing turnstile, so clearly i gotta save those big guns till it's really go time. (the relevant song is pretty fantastic even if you're not running -- 'Get Some' by Lykke Li, just don't really think about the words -- so if you like slightly dark swedish pop music with some kick-ass drums, check it out).
4. my only real worry now: what happens when i finish running? today when i stopped, i walked about 30 seconds, got inside, climbed the stairs, had a glass of water/gatorade mix, and i semi-immediately lay down to stretch. for about 10 minutes, my hamstrings, hip flexors and inner thigh muscles were NOT happy -- definitely better than two weeks ago after the 16 mile melodrama, but still crampy and achy in a way that really required i be lying on my back with my legs in the air, or contorted in some way or another. (interestingly, my calves and quads have never cramped or freaked out in that way. knock on compression socks?) ... once that got better, i stood up, wobbled to the kitchen, had some protein cuz i knew i needed it, and then got in a hot shower for about 15 minutes. (don't talk to me about ice baths, ok? i know, but just don't.) and then finally, i was fine again.
but my understanding is that when you finish a marathon -- you don't get to lie down semi-immediately. you have to keep walking. there's like a chute situation, they give you your medal and stuff... but then, there's 6000 people running this thing. you can't just stop right there, on the pavement, surrounded by thousands of people, and put your legs in the air. maybe the adrenaline will help? hopefully there will be screaming people? my legs might say 'ok, we get away from the all the screaming, THEN we cramp'. ... but i kind of doubt it; they seem pretty focused, the bastards. so: i don't think there's anything to be done about this, i just need to be ready for some distinct unpleasantness when i stop. and there's no way i'm getting a shower after this nonsense, because i doubt i'll be finished running much before noon, and hotel check out is 11am -- even if i could get us late check-out, it's not gonna be till like 2pm, is it? no matter what, we'll have to walk some, and there will be a 90 minute drive ahead of us. yeah, there's gonna be some kinks in that bit of the plan.
anyway. my dad will be there. i will provision him well. maybe he can bring me a portable shower. (note: not really.) mom, he WILL definitely have your magical 70s crosscountry skiing socks with him. i'm wearing them right now, as a matter of fact. they are like Chicken Soup for the Calves. (note: nobody write that.)
my final thoughts (finally) tonight are about time. from today's effort, i think that finishing in 4:20 is looking not too impossible. so i'm going to aim for sub-4:20 as my A-goal. more realistic is probably under 4:30. i did a pretty good job of not-garmin stalking today, and i definitely did not ever switch it over to pace mode -- sometimes i caught the mile marker paces and sometimes not. this felt wise. and i'm going to keep telling myself, every time i run, that the primary goal is to finish and not actually wreck myself in the process. i must get myself into the mind space where finishing five minutes faster is less important than not wanting to self-lobotomize at mile 23.
so, that one's in the books. even if the city of detroit is actually *cancelled tomorrow* (not entirely impossible, given current municipal politics), i will still have run twenty miles in one go.
that's a thing i did.
and i can still walk.
go team.
i ate my new long-run non-oatmeal breakfast. i timed my coffee drinking for, uh, best results. i drank a big glass of water within 15 minutes of waking. i put on clothes. i checked the weather, i put on different clothes. i reminded myself of the route i'd planned last night. i put new songs on my ipod. (sidenote: this alone should tell you i was capital-f focused because i have a mental block against moving music on and off my ipod, leftover from when i was in a full-on war with iTunes not believing i was ever really totally in the US *or* Canada and so refusing to let me copy/buy/acquire/operate any music, the worst mess, so annoying, but today i had bigger (selfmade) problems so i reminded myself sternly this technohistory is no reason to listen to the same podcasts five times on repeat, when those are free in any event! ... right, ok, regroup. i downloaded several pretty great running songs, actually, and two pretty memorable Radiolab podcasts, and listened to them all later on. relatedly: never get rabies. but back to the story.)
then, i got suited up. the plan was to have with me everything i would need on actual race day. i told you i got this thing that acts like a belt/fanny pack without looking douchey/hitting you in the back every three steps? it's basically a bandeau of somewhat spandexy material you wear around your hips containing three pockets. except for a shockingly embarrassing sparkly logo on one side, which i make sure to always cover with my shirt, it's pretty rad. so in that thing, i had my phone, one GU (see below), and a small amount of mini pretzels in a ziplock bag. i have this other little pouch with velcro that attaches to your shoelaces, and in that i had my driver's license (see below), a credit card in case of god knows, and my house keys. i also had this handheld water bottle with a pretty remarkable strap that makes it nearly effortless to run with, which i am seriously starting to consider running with on marathon day (see below), filled with 16oz of doublestrength Nuun (electrolyte-y drink with less sugary than Gatorade), and it has a pocket that contained about 8 swedish fish. and i was wearing my ipod, and my garmin watch.
i put on my running shoes, and all of these things, and while i didn't feel burdened in any way, i also suspected it looked like i thought i was going on a NASA mission. even the dog -- who usually shows little understanding of human outfits, since when i leave the apartment wearing my pjs to put in a load of laundry she will come to the door and beg me not to go, apparently thinking that's an outfit i might wear on a long trip -- even the DOG gave me a confused look. the other half previously mentioned just looked a little incredulous. 'HOW long are you going to be gone?' i took a deep breath and said ... 'between three and a half and four hours'.
i left the house, took four steps, came back to pee. ever was it thus.
aaaand: then i went out and i ran twenty miles.
sorry, i should have put that different.
PEOPLE I RAN TWENTY MILES. 20!!! MILLLLESS!
THE NUMBER OF MILES I RAN HAS A TWO IN FRONT OF IT!
... even as i was running, i thought: 'there's no way i'm getting through this blog post without a little all-caps action.' but i think it's out of my system now.
the verdict on the whole thing is that i done good. i finished the first ten miles in 1:40 near-exactly, so that's 10 minute miles, and the whole thing in 3:23:30, so around 10:12 min/miles. meaning, i ran faster in the first half (not the goal) but not insanely faster. and my last miles were not the slowest.
the weather was just about perfect for running -- i mean, cloudy, 12-14C, no rain, some wind. actually i got too cold in the wind a few times. i spent a lot of brainpower on (again i hate this word but that's where i'm at apparently) 'fuel': drinking some liquid quite frequently, but in the small amounts that the squeezy bottle-top permits, so i never got the stomach-sloshing feeling. i ate all my swedish fish, and about half the pretzels (pro tip -- you want REALLY SMALL pretzels pieces when you've got no saliva left.) i also had my first GU-consumption experience. those things ... man, maybe i *was* preparing for a space voyage; i felt like a Jetson slithering that thing into my mouth. anyway it was a fascinating tactile experience, and next time the role of GU will be played by jelly beans.
as for route: i ran to all the places. seriously, 20 miles is a long way. i thought it might be helpful to not be on a typical routes, to make it feel more like a race where you're not doing your normal thing, and also include lots of different locations: campus, trail, city, suburb, forest, field. i got all of that. i found aNOTHER nature preserve i didn't know about! which was great because i got lost in it for two miles, allowing me to skip two miles which would have involved needless detour near the campus poulty research facility (not a particularly pretty or pleasant smelling area. did i mention it's right beside the pig research facility. i'm not kidding.) i hadn't really thought about the location of hills, because there are so few here relatively speaking... but i hit a couple, one familiar one at mile 4, some kind of notable ones at miles 9-11, and then there's this fairly rolling bit on the way home that i managed to schedule for miles 17-18 (smart move, yeah. but back to that in a minute.)
at mile 10 i thought: halfway! and out of nowhere these three college guys appeared, dressed in serious spandex, not runners by trade but clearly varsity something, running to crosstrain. they passed me, talking casually like they were lounging on a patio, moving at probably 7:45min/mile pace. whatever! i let 'em fly on, and i noticed that they slowed down on the hill ahead of us (a little) while i did not (mostly -- the point is i gained on them). as soon as the hill was over, they disappeared like rabbits but i felt pretty cool, to be honest.
at mile 13, i thought: ok, pretend like it was last weekend, and you're running a half. at this point, you were six miles in (counting the seven from the night before), and you had seven left. how do you feel? ... i felt about the same as last weekend. but i'd done them all contiguously. and then i knew, KNEW i would finish it today.
there were some hard miles, but nothing worse (or even maybe as bad?) as the puke-y miles from thursday. mind you, i was running more than a minute per mile slower; that sure matters. but it was really all mental. i stopped at a water fountain at mile 16, and i could tell that if i stopped moving my legs were gonna start stiffening, so i didn't stop long. and it was ok. i started getting runner's brain at mile 18 (like, i forget how to operate my ipod, or can't figure out what 26-18 is, meaning how many miles i will need to run after 18 during the marathon to get to the end), but again, i knew i would get over it.
the first half of mile 18 is pretty much uphill. yes, see again: small idiocy in planning. however, here's what was happening on the sidewalk for like half of that mile: rushing. by which i mean, standing completely still. ... um, i guess it's Rush Week? all i know for sure is that i was running past a lot of sorority houses, and the lawns and driveways outside each of them were filled with piles of women (maybe 30 per house) waiting for i have no idea what. they were loosely organized into lines, coming out of each house's door, and they all looked like they were at a slightly tense mixer. meanwhile, i was 18 miles into a run wearing pretty smelly apparel and a salt lick for a complexion. we were, in fact, in completely different worlds.
but i was by now on a mission to finish. so: ok, full disclosure, i flipped my ipod back to the part of the playlist with the highly questionable choices, and Katy Perry ('Roar', I know, I gotta get me a sorority pin) got me to the top of the hill, and Eminem got me to the last big long block before home (did you know that the song '8 mile' is exactly the right speed for a tired-legs running cadence? true story.)
and when my watch beeped distance 20:00... i *kept going*. well, i was about 3 mins run from home, and as i mentioned i was worried my legs would seize up if i stopped. i stopped my watch, and i walk/jogged back home. but the point is: i was uncomfortable, but i really could have kept going.
BOOM.
this will be my only without-stopping 20 mile run. i am going to juggle around a couple of the distances to split the difference between the original plan and the 'novice' plan, but my longest run left will i think be 15 miles, maybe 14. that sounds too short right now, but we'll see. there's a lot of 'don't fuck it up by thinking you need to make up for lost time in the weeks before the race', and i hear that.
so, now. thoughts for next time (meaning the REAL DEAL next time.)
1. the only thing i forgot to bring with me: kleenex. oh my god, why am i systematically unable to remember the existence of snot when getting ready for a run? may need to put a post-it note on my garmin that says YOU HAVE A NOSE.
2. why did i run with my driver's license? ... i think i've decided i'm not going to run with my passport. i know, they COULD ask me for it. it COULD be a nightmare. but really? ... they're not going to. and it is so unwieldy and i don't want a damp passport. i might rethink this, but i know it will be fine.
3. i am going to remove today's best running songs off my ipod, and not put them back until the day before the race. they will stay crisp and inspiring! actually at one point i got so inspired i almost ran into a railway crossing turnstile, so clearly i gotta save those big guns till it's really go time. (the relevant song is pretty fantastic even if you're not running -- 'Get Some' by Lykke Li, just don't really think about the words -- so if you like slightly dark swedish pop music with some kick-ass drums, check it out).
4. my only real worry now: what happens when i finish running? today when i stopped, i walked about 30 seconds, got inside, climbed the stairs, had a glass of water/gatorade mix, and i semi-immediately lay down to stretch. for about 10 minutes, my hamstrings, hip flexors and inner thigh muscles were NOT happy -- definitely better than two weeks ago after the 16 mile melodrama, but still crampy and achy in a way that really required i be lying on my back with my legs in the air, or contorted in some way or another. (interestingly, my calves and quads have never cramped or freaked out in that way. knock on compression socks?) ... once that got better, i stood up, wobbled to the kitchen, had some protein cuz i knew i needed it, and then got in a hot shower for about 15 minutes. (don't talk to me about ice baths, ok? i know, but just don't.) and then finally, i was fine again.
but my understanding is that when you finish a marathon -- you don't get to lie down semi-immediately. you have to keep walking. there's like a chute situation, they give you your medal and stuff... but then, there's 6000 people running this thing. you can't just stop right there, on the pavement, surrounded by thousands of people, and put your legs in the air. maybe the adrenaline will help? hopefully there will be screaming people? my legs might say 'ok, we get away from the all the screaming, THEN we cramp'. ... but i kind of doubt it; they seem pretty focused, the bastards. so: i don't think there's anything to be done about this, i just need to be ready for some distinct unpleasantness when i stop. and there's no way i'm getting a shower after this nonsense, because i doubt i'll be finished running much before noon, and hotel check out is 11am -- even if i could get us late check-out, it's not gonna be till like 2pm, is it? no matter what, we'll have to walk some, and there will be a 90 minute drive ahead of us. yeah, there's gonna be some kinks in that bit of the plan.
anyway. my dad will be there. i will provision him well. maybe he can bring me a portable shower. (note: not really.) mom, he WILL definitely have your magical 70s crosscountry skiing socks with him. i'm wearing them right now, as a matter of fact. they are like Chicken Soup for the Calves. (note: nobody write that.)
my final thoughts (finally) tonight are about time. from today's effort, i think that finishing in 4:20 is looking not too impossible. so i'm going to aim for sub-4:20 as my A-goal. more realistic is probably under 4:30. i did a pretty good job of not-garmin stalking today, and i definitely did not ever switch it over to pace mode -- sometimes i caught the mile marker paces and sometimes not. this felt wise. and i'm going to keep telling myself, every time i run, that the primary goal is to finish and not actually wreck myself in the process. i must get myself into the mind space where finishing five minutes faster is less important than not wanting to self-lobotomize at mile 23.
so, that one's in the books. even if the city of detroit is actually *cancelled tomorrow* (not entirely impossible, given current municipal politics), i will still have run twenty miles in one go.
that's a thing i did.
and i can still walk.
go team.
Guest Post! Running Home from Versailles with Meg
hey hey! ok, tonight you get a doubleheader. first up is a guest post!
also, let me explain.
you will recall, since you're obviously reading from the beginning like you should, that this blog's purpose is to prevent me from going crazy while i attempt to run the detroit marathon, and more specifically prevent me from having to talk about running the detroit marathon every waking moment with everybody else. another thing, in addition to bloggery blathering, that helps with not-crazy-going, is the occasional check in and catch up with some of my many far flung friends who are also training for things at present. and the one i told you about last time, who said she was foolishly hoping i would post something inspirational? ... well SHE did something kind of inspirational today, and so i told her she had to guest blog about it.
it is helpful that most of my running friends have flung themselves to pretty places. like: Meg's living in Paris right now. so her guest post comes complete with the kind of beautiful in-run imagery that ... well, that makes you pretty happy i don't run with a camera. because University of Cornfield Credit Union is not e.g. by the Seine.
without further ado! read below. more from me later tonight.
***
[editor's note: because it's my blog and apparently i'm a control freak today, i decided that guest bloggery here is in Q&A format. so, AMT asked the questions and MG responded.]
AMT:'Running Home From Versailles' sounds like the name of a documentary about antiquarian ultrarunners. It becomes only marginally more reasonable when one knows you in fact live in Paris. So tell me: how far did you run, and what was the terrain like?
MG: I stopped running when the French lady in my iPhone said "Temps: deux heures quinze minutes, Distance: Treize virgule quarante cinq miles." [ no translations provided around here, folks. you gotta French up or get out -- ed.]That didn't get me quite all the way home - I walked from just before Bastille to my place in the 11th arrondissement (a mile and a half, I think).
In Versailles the terrain was a beautiful tree-lined street with a flower market - it's a pretty posh suburb. Then there was bike path over a big hill that went through the "Forêt Domaniale des Fausses Reposes" (the forest of false rests!). Once I got through the forest, it was mainly relatively flat terrain on sidewalks until I got into the center of Paris and the quais along the Seine.
There I had to spend about a mile running on cobblestones, which is my least favourite footing in the universe. BUT on Sundays there is a stretch of road along the Seine that's closed to cars, so I got to run on the road for the last mile or two.
AMT: My sources tell me your trip to Versailles involved a commuter train. I have used subways to organize long runs, but never trains. Again, living in Paris. Tell us what the Sunday train riders thought of you?
MG: I took the metro to get to St. Michel station, and I think people might have looked at me oddly but I was practicing my metro nose drishti [link provided for the clueless like me. yeah, ok meaning i require you to know French but not Sanskrit. double standard, i realize -- ed.] so I didn't really notice. From there I took the RER-C commuter line to Versailles and it was completely full of tourists going to the Château. So it was definitely not the usual Parisien(ne)s with their perfectly haphazard outfits and artfully messy hair. I didn't feel weird because the tourists were all focused on their magical Paris experience and also wearing some pretty questionable outfits themselves. At least my stretchpants and sneakers had a purpose!
AMT: What was the hardest part?
MG: Well until earlier this summer, I was basically just running for fun, when I felt like it, and until I felt like stopping. Normally I would run somewhere between 3 and 7 miles. But obviously when you're trying to run longer distances, sometimes you have to keep going past that point. Over the past few weekend runs it's been at about mile 8 or so that my legs (and especially my right hip) start to tell me that they would just rather not. But then if I just keep going, by the next mile it's much better. Today at mile 8 I was already back in the center of Paris so I was feeling pretty good about that, but there was also a stretch of slanty sidewalk that was really no fun and some crowds to get through at the traffic lights. I think that was the hardest part.
AMT: (we want truth here) What do you mutter/think/envision to yourself when running to keep going when it sucks?
MG: For me, I think this is where planning a fun route is very helpful. During my tough mile 8 I was thinking about that stretch of closed road along the river, and how I would be there soon and there would be other runners there and it would be great. Before coming to Paris I lived in the country in Massachusetts, and I would run to places where I thought there might be deer or eagles or other cool animals hanging out, and looking for them kept me happy and motivated (and nerdy). [omg she ran with EAGLES! -- ed.]
AMT: Finally, please detail any insights on running in your current habitat, and/or what you think is the most or least Parisienne way to celebrate a long run. Whatever it is, I hope you are doing it.
MG: I think running here is like running in any big city with little green space - there's a lot of pavement, construction, traffic, garbage and bad smells (don't get me STARTED on how covered in pee this city is, my friends are probably really tired of my pee-related rants). But it's also a city that is covered in history, famous landmarks, and neat things to see, and there are some parks that are actually really nice. And once I started running more than a 6-mile loop starting and ending at my apartment (which is on a rare kind of street that does have some trees, only people are always peeing on them!) I found that I could do a fair amount of sightseeing while getting my miles in. It also helps that I have a metro pass (employer subsidized, it's France!) so I don't necessarily have to run the whole way to and from the place I want to run.
As for celebration... On my route today I saw numerous bus shelter ads advertising... bread! I didn't know baguettes needed a marketing board, but they have one. Their current slogan is: 'Coucou, tu as pris le pain?' (Hey, did you get/take the bread?) The ads must have worked, because my celebration at the end of my run definitely involved a stop at a bakery. Oui, j'ai pris le pain!
***
So, Meg braved the disapproval of French fashionistas, ran home from Versailles and ate Parisien baguette. This seemed blogworthy, and it comforts me to feel part of a bigger world of nutcases. Actually to be honest, I know Meg to be a pretty rational woman who gets shit done in the world without falling to pieces, and appears to challenge herself without beating herself up, and given that much of the point of this blog was to not let myself get self-judgy for no goddamn reason while trying to achieve a task i invented for myself, for chrissake -- i thought Meg was a good posterchild to feature.
plus, there's the baguette envy.
a plus tard, mes ami(e)s.
also, let me explain.
you will recall, since you're obviously reading from the beginning like you should, that this blog's purpose is to prevent me from going crazy while i attempt to run the detroit marathon, and more specifically prevent me from having to talk about running the detroit marathon every waking moment with everybody else. another thing, in addition to bloggery blathering, that helps with not-crazy-going, is the occasional check in and catch up with some of my many far flung friends who are also training for things at present. and the one i told you about last time, who said she was foolishly hoping i would post something inspirational? ... well SHE did something kind of inspirational today, and so i told her she had to guest blog about it.
it is helpful that most of my running friends have flung themselves to pretty places. like: Meg's living in Paris right now. so her guest post comes complete with the kind of beautiful in-run imagery that ... well, that makes you pretty happy i don't run with a camera. because University of Cornfield Credit Union is not e.g. by the Seine.
without further ado! read below. more from me later tonight.
***
[editor's note: because it's my blog and apparently i'm a control freak today, i decided that guest bloggery here is in Q&A format. so, AMT asked the questions and MG responded.]
AMT:'Running Home From Versailles' sounds like the name of a documentary about antiquarian ultrarunners. It becomes only marginally more reasonable when one knows you in fact live in Paris. So tell me: how far did you run, and what was the terrain like?
MG: I stopped running when the French lady in my iPhone said "Temps: deux heures quinze minutes, Distance: Treize virgule quarante cinq miles." [ no translations provided around here, folks. you gotta French up or get out -- ed.]That didn't get me quite all the way home - I walked from just before Bastille to my place in the 11th arrondissement (a mile and a half, I think).
In Versailles the terrain was a beautiful tree-lined street with a flower market - it's a pretty posh suburb. Then there was bike path over a big hill that went through the "Forêt Domaniale des Fausses Reposes" (the forest of false rests!). Once I got through the forest, it was mainly relatively flat terrain on sidewalks until I got into the center of Paris and the quais along the Seine.
There I had to spend about a mile running on cobblestones, which is my least favourite footing in the universe. BUT on Sundays there is a stretch of road along the Seine that's closed to cars, so I got to run on the road for the last mile or two.
AMT: My sources tell me your trip to Versailles involved a commuter train. I have used subways to organize long runs, but never trains. Again, living in Paris. Tell us what the Sunday train riders thought of you?
MG: I took the metro to get to St. Michel station, and I think people might have looked at me oddly but I was practicing my metro nose drishti [link provided for the clueless like me. yeah, ok meaning i require you to know French but not Sanskrit. double standard, i realize -- ed.] so I didn't really notice. From there I took the RER-C commuter line to Versailles and it was completely full of tourists going to the Château. So it was definitely not the usual Parisien(ne)s with their perfectly haphazard outfits and artfully messy hair. I didn't feel weird because the tourists were all focused on their magical Paris experience and also wearing some pretty questionable outfits themselves. At least my stretchpants and sneakers had a purpose!
AMT: What was the hardest part?
MG: Well until earlier this summer, I was basically just running for fun, when I felt like it, and until I felt like stopping. Normally I would run somewhere between 3 and 7 miles. But obviously when you're trying to run longer distances, sometimes you have to keep going past that point. Over the past few weekend runs it's been at about mile 8 or so that my legs (and especially my right hip) start to tell me that they would just rather not. But then if I just keep going, by the next mile it's much better. Today at mile 8 I was already back in the center of Paris so I was feeling pretty good about that, but there was also a stretch of slanty sidewalk that was really no fun and some crowds to get through at the traffic lights. I think that was the hardest part.
AMT: (we want truth here) What do you mutter/think/envision to yourself when running to keep going when it sucks?
MG: For me, I think this is where planning a fun route is very helpful. During my tough mile 8 I was thinking about that stretch of closed road along the river, and how I would be there soon and there would be other runners there and it would be great. Before coming to Paris I lived in the country in Massachusetts, and I would run to places where I thought there might be deer or eagles or other cool animals hanging out, and looking for them kept me happy and motivated (and nerdy). [omg she ran with EAGLES! -- ed.]
AMT: Finally, please detail any insights on running in your current habitat, and/or what you think is the most or least Parisienne way to celebrate a long run. Whatever it is, I hope you are doing it.
MG: I think running here is like running in any big city with little green space - there's a lot of pavement, construction, traffic, garbage and bad smells (don't get me STARTED on how covered in pee this city is, my friends are probably really tired of my pee-related rants). But it's also a city that is covered in history, famous landmarks, and neat things to see, and there are some parks that are actually really nice. And once I started running more than a 6-mile loop starting and ending at my apartment (which is on a rare kind of street that does have some trees, only people are always peeing on them!) I found that I could do a fair amount of sightseeing while getting my miles in. It also helps that I have a metro pass (employer subsidized, it's France!) so I don't necessarily have to run the whole way to and from the place I want to run.
As for celebration... On my route today I saw numerous bus shelter ads advertising... bread! I didn't know baguettes needed a marketing board, but they have one. Their current slogan is: 'Coucou, tu as pris le pain?' (Hey, did you get/take the bread?) The ads must have worked, because my celebration at the end of my run definitely involved a stop at a bakery. Oui, j'ai pris le pain!
So, Meg braved the disapproval of French fashionistas, ran home from Versailles and ate Parisien baguette. This seemed blogworthy, and it comforts me to feel part of a bigger world of nutcases. Actually to be honest, I know Meg to be a pretty rational woman who gets shit done in the world without falling to pieces, and appears to challenge herself without beating herself up, and given that much of the point of this blog was to not let myself get self-judgy for no goddamn reason while trying to achieve a task i invented for myself, for chrissake -- i thought Meg was a good posterchild to feature.
plus, there's the baguette envy.
a plus tard, mes ami(e)s.
Friday, September 20, 2013
cornfields, surreality, measuring up, not vomiting, other stuff... are you inspired yet?
i don't usually remember all the mile splits for my runs as i am doing the run. but yesterday early evening i ran 5 miles, and i was very aware of each one. it was a bumpy road in some parts, but i definitely came out on top. somehow it's a really long story for only 5 miles, but apparently i have a lot to say.
it mostly starts with pretzels.
my stomach was a little iffy yesterday, but i knew i could go for my run as planned. but then at some point in the afternoon, i fell a bit comatose into a short nap, and when my alarm got me up again, groggy, i wanted a little snack, and i remembered that i am going to try snacking on a few pretzels on my long run sunday, to see whether a little more salt staves off the hamstring doom cramping. but that meant i had a bag of pretzels at hand, so i had a handful of little pretzels. and my stomach thought that was a BAD idea. ... unfortunately, it didn't mention that until a mile into the run.
so: i ran out into the sunshine. it was pretty lovely out; the sun was not yet setting, but slanting through the trees in a crisp fall way. ok, sun can't slant crisply. this isn't a haiku. the point was, it was sunny and it *looked* like fall. however it was also humid and 25C. this is relevant.
on yesterday's agenda, according to the plan (aka the slavedriver), was a 5 mile tempo, which meant i should have been running at a consistent pace of ... oh god, who knows at this point. i think the most realistic pace calculator calculation would say 9-minute miles. ok, so i ran one mile out in the slanty sun, and it beeped in at 8:54. which was just great. except then i noticed i was not feeling up to running that pace for 4 more miles. and also i wanted to puke a little. oh dear.
i turned right on this road which runs parallel to a US highway, where the landscape here changes abruptly from suburban strip malls, older 50s style house and newer student apartments and condos, to ... cornfields. i mean, actual cornfields. and in between and around these cornfields are small office parks with 4 or 5 brick office buildings that are made to look like residential bungalows (why??), as well as a fair number of remaining trees, and the occasional house whose provenance is completely unclear -- who on earth lives there? -- and then more corn. or at least fields. yesterday, they all seemed to be full of 5 foot corn.
it's kind of surreal, that this area of cornfields, trees and suburban orthodontist offices is 1.2 miles from our apartment. it's also kind of surreal that this place has a sidewalk? i really don't think anybody else is using it. perhaps pre-2008 crash, those corn fields were all going to become business parks? it's a little eerie. they're still building more student apartments and condos and so on up there, though.
but yesterday: i was running along this sidewalk, and the sun was pretty and so was the corn and the sky was blue and sidewalk was wide and all mine, but unfortunately i wanted to vomit. so i kept running. i told myself that i only had one more mile and then there was just a 5k left. how this was supposed to be comfort, i don't know. i mean, i still wanted to puke. but i knew i wouldn't, really, and my ipod was playing stupid songs but it's misbehaving and i can't fastforward it right now... and then! lo and behold. up beyond the cornfields, in the sunlight, there emerged a green shining glass fortress!
it's true. half a mile ahead, up around a comfortable bend in the road, which was surely invented by a road planner who envisioned the majesty of a bend in the road, surrounded by a sea of corn, because there is no natural landmark requiring anything but straw-straight roads... there was (is) this emerald city, dazzling in the sun. how on earth is there an epic glass castle out here? why? how? who goes there? am i really only 1.34 miles from my apartment? (oh GOD is that really how little distance has elapsed since i last checked? i still definitely want to vomit)... and of course it turns out that gleaming glass building is the headquarters of the local university's Credit Union.
so i ran to the corn-wreathed credit union. and my Garmin beeped: mile 2 at 8:58. well, nice that i'm holding this pace, despite the vomit thing. it's definitely too hot out to be pumpkin spice latte season. ugh.
to make things even more surreal, the credit union building has a large immaculate parking lot on all four sides, and around that is a paved 1 mile trail. 1 mile total, yes. and why is it there? did someone at the credit union get a grant to support employee health and so install this paved trail -- complete with wildflower beds, tasteful trash cans and park benches every 100 metres? seriously. and the building had maybe 15 cars in the huge lot, and no humans could be seen. and the sun shone on, and the corn waved in the wind, and i ran around about a third of the mile-long paved trail. even in that little section, there were THREE maps indicating exactly where i was on the trail. um, but where? how could you get lost?! there is only one path, and wherever you are, you can always look around across the wildflowers and shrubs and see the huge credit union building, being the ONLY building anywhere in sight, looming like the freakin Eiffel Tower, and know exactly where you are! this thing is the weirdest. ... so i did a little bewildered loop all on my own on this freakishly well-maintained useless trail, and then i went back the way i came. i got back to slightly more familiar roads surrounded by the condos and apartments, and i STILL wanted to vomit. uuuugh. i started bargaining with myself about only running a 5k and then walking the rest. i knew i would hate that. marathon training confidence, is not what that would build. i reminded myself i wasn't *really* going to puke. it would pass... and then mile 3 beeped. 9:00 min/mile exactly.
half of mile 4 took me back close to the trails right by our house, and i started to think that i was doing ok. my legs were already a little sore before this run from the plyo class i went to the day before (uh, it's sort of intervals-bootcampy exercise? lots of 'ballistic' motion, done in intervals) and the class had been hard and full of 20 year olds, but i had definitely held my own, and only moderate soreness both made me feel strong, and also that my self-crosstraining lately hasn't been too wimpy like i worried, because this class in which i was measuring myself against others didn't kill me. i know it shouldn't work that way, but it does. i especially know i shouldn't do that because when i have taught group exercise classes at the Y i yell at people (it's a kickboxing class, i'm supposed to yell) that nobody cares what they look like as they flail along, because unless you're doing it wrong, you should be too busy with your own flailing to look at anybody else. but when honest: i know it's not true, i'm watching the other people in class, not wanting to fall behind even when we're doing exercises on our own. in fact i try to make myself get up close to the mirror, not to be a vain douche, but so i'm distracted enough by my own form to ignore everybody else. it's not an impressive fact, but i kind of doubt it's that uncommon. i'm not sure if this means i should stop lying to my kickboxing classes (when i get back to them next year), or lie differently or something.
so remember, i was running (oh right, this is about running) along during mile 4, still wanting to puke, but recognizing that my tired legs were tired, but no more tired than when i started, and not hurting in any worrying way. here i was running along a bigger road, and in light of the humid hot-ish weather, i had worn a spandex-y lime green tank top, and i'm not being hard on myself when i say it's not the most flattering piece of clothing i own. that's ok. when i wear it, i feel like i'm saying 'yeah, i'm lumpy and jiggly, whatever, i'm still really strong.' and related to the unimpressive gym stuff above, i notice that when i'm wearing such a top, and i'm running on a busier road, i run faster than when on an empty one, wearing something flowing. apparently i feel the need to impress the people driving by? who might be couch potatos and might be college varsity rockstars and might be too crippled to even walk and might be all sorts of things and are probably too busy with their own lives to care about the woman in the lime green tank top with some fat around her waist? right. anyway i was trying to tell myself that the goal was excellent form for its sake alone, and not for the drivers, and i remembered i'm trying to stay careful with my gait and keep my hamstrings happy, and they *were* happy, it was going fine, i was keeping it together although maybe not running any faster, and i turned off onto a little road that leads behind a huge grocery store, to a path to my familiar trails, now about a mile from home though only 3.4 miles in. this road turned out to have a human gazelle on it: college girl, wearing racing kit, doing drills, warming up for no doubt 6 minute miles. ... but you know, i felt ok to just keep going at my 9 min/mile pace, and we exchanged nods and smiles as i passed by and headed back to the little trailhead.
and then i realized, finally, that i didn't want to puke anymore! i was too hot and thirsty and tired and would have preferred to stop running probably, but the lack of nausea was pretty exciting. so! i told myself i was going to finish the 5 miles, and so turned off the pavement to a trail detour through the woods a bit, to make the route long enough... and mile 4 beeped in on my Garmin at 9:01.
of course at this point my ipod with its capricious and unalterable song order started playing this lovely french ballad, yeah no, that's not going to help me here, and i turned the damn thing off.
i told myself that i had just run 3 uncomfortable miles. but that was ok: in a month (from today as a matter of fact) i will run 26 miles, and probably a lot more than 3 of them will be uncomfortable. i told myself to remember how those three felt, to remind myself when i'm feeling really shitty in the marathon that i can run 3 bad miles, and then the next one can still be better. to make that last point more convincing, though, this last mile in the woods, with no music but no vomit, was going to be my fastest mile today. i told myself i could be a little more uncomfortable. i tried to speed up just a bit; i didn't let myself look at my pace on my watch once, because i was pretty sure i could feel how fast i was running, and it felt about right. hard but not deadly. in that last half mile i was on a more populated trail, and i used each person i saw as an excuse to run better, with better form, making it look easier than it felt, again why? but it helped, and though i was breathing hard it was still rhythmic, i was hardly sprinting, and people and their dogs nodded and smiled as i passed them. and finally i got close to the end of that bit of trail, right beside our apartment complex and my watch beeped. mile 5: 8:52. bullseye.
so, i jogged back to our front door and came inside to get joyously greeted by the dog. it was a good run. and i felt like i banked a nugget of confidence, to use when i need it. (um, who banks nuggets? please insert reasonable metaphor as you like.)
in conclusion: yesterday before the nap and the run, a friend of mine in paris who is gearing up for a trail half marathon adventure told me she had come earlier to this blog looking for inspiration before going on a run, but i hadn't updated since sunday night. well! ... i sure hope she has a LOT of inspiration now, because i used a lot of damn words here to describe what was only 5 miles to and from a credit union of Oz in a cornfield.
this weekend is long run time. i am still on the fence about whether to make my final (all-at-once) 20 miler this weekend or next -- turns out there are two versions of the plan online, and they arguably differ as to whether you're a marathon novice or not (obviously yes), and the novice one has its 20 miler four weeks out not three. ... so tomorrow i will decide if i am mentally ready for 20 miles this sunday. i might be!
lots more confidence nuggets to mined there, i bet. ugh. (very quietly: remind me why i signed up for this?)
more sunday night. stay tuned.
it mostly starts with pretzels.
my stomach was a little iffy yesterday, but i knew i could go for my run as planned. but then at some point in the afternoon, i fell a bit comatose into a short nap, and when my alarm got me up again, groggy, i wanted a little snack, and i remembered that i am going to try snacking on a few pretzels on my long run sunday, to see whether a little more salt staves off the hamstring doom cramping. but that meant i had a bag of pretzels at hand, so i had a handful of little pretzels. and my stomach thought that was a BAD idea. ... unfortunately, it didn't mention that until a mile into the run.
so: i ran out into the sunshine. it was pretty lovely out; the sun was not yet setting, but slanting through the trees in a crisp fall way. ok, sun can't slant crisply. this isn't a haiku. the point was, it was sunny and it *looked* like fall. however it was also humid and 25C. this is relevant.
on yesterday's agenda, according to the plan (aka the slavedriver), was a 5 mile tempo, which meant i should have been running at a consistent pace of ... oh god, who knows at this point. i think the most realistic pace calculator calculation would say 9-minute miles. ok, so i ran one mile out in the slanty sun, and it beeped in at 8:54. which was just great. except then i noticed i was not feeling up to running that pace for 4 more miles. and also i wanted to puke a little. oh dear.
i turned right on this road which runs parallel to a US highway, where the landscape here changes abruptly from suburban strip malls, older 50s style house and newer student apartments and condos, to ... cornfields. i mean, actual cornfields. and in between and around these cornfields are small office parks with 4 or 5 brick office buildings that are made to look like residential bungalows (why??), as well as a fair number of remaining trees, and the occasional house whose provenance is completely unclear -- who on earth lives there? -- and then more corn. or at least fields. yesterday, they all seemed to be full of 5 foot corn.
it's kind of surreal, that this area of cornfields, trees and suburban orthodontist offices is 1.2 miles from our apartment. it's also kind of surreal that this place has a sidewalk? i really don't think anybody else is using it. perhaps pre-2008 crash, those corn fields were all going to become business parks? it's a little eerie. they're still building more student apartments and condos and so on up there, though.
but yesterday: i was running along this sidewalk, and the sun was pretty and so was the corn and the sky was blue and sidewalk was wide and all mine, but unfortunately i wanted to vomit. so i kept running. i told myself that i only had one more mile and then there was just a 5k left. how this was supposed to be comfort, i don't know. i mean, i still wanted to puke. but i knew i wouldn't, really, and my ipod was playing stupid songs but it's misbehaving and i can't fastforward it right now... and then! lo and behold. up beyond the cornfields, in the sunlight, there emerged a green shining glass fortress!
it's true. half a mile ahead, up around a comfortable bend in the road, which was surely invented by a road planner who envisioned the majesty of a bend in the road, surrounded by a sea of corn, because there is no natural landmark requiring anything but straw-straight roads... there was (is) this emerald city, dazzling in the sun. how on earth is there an epic glass castle out here? why? how? who goes there? am i really only 1.34 miles from my apartment? (oh GOD is that really how little distance has elapsed since i last checked? i still definitely want to vomit)... and of course it turns out that gleaming glass building is the headquarters of the local university's Credit Union.
so i ran to the corn-wreathed credit union. and my Garmin beeped: mile 2 at 8:58. well, nice that i'm holding this pace, despite the vomit thing. it's definitely too hot out to be pumpkin spice latte season. ugh.
to make things even more surreal, the credit union building has a large immaculate parking lot on all four sides, and around that is a paved 1 mile trail. 1 mile total, yes. and why is it there? did someone at the credit union get a grant to support employee health and so install this paved trail -- complete with wildflower beds, tasteful trash cans and park benches every 100 metres? seriously. and the building had maybe 15 cars in the huge lot, and no humans could be seen. and the sun shone on, and the corn waved in the wind, and i ran around about a third of the mile-long paved trail. even in that little section, there were THREE maps indicating exactly where i was on the trail. um, but where? how could you get lost?! there is only one path, and wherever you are, you can always look around across the wildflowers and shrubs and see the huge credit union building, being the ONLY building anywhere in sight, looming like the freakin Eiffel Tower, and know exactly where you are! this thing is the weirdest. ... so i did a little bewildered loop all on my own on this freakishly well-maintained useless trail, and then i went back the way i came. i got back to slightly more familiar roads surrounded by the condos and apartments, and i STILL wanted to vomit. uuuugh. i started bargaining with myself about only running a 5k and then walking the rest. i knew i would hate that. marathon training confidence, is not what that would build. i reminded myself i wasn't *really* going to puke. it would pass... and then mile 3 beeped. 9:00 min/mile exactly.
half of mile 4 took me back close to the trails right by our house, and i started to think that i was doing ok. my legs were already a little sore before this run from the plyo class i went to the day before (uh, it's sort of intervals-bootcampy exercise? lots of 'ballistic' motion, done in intervals) and the class had been hard and full of 20 year olds, but i had definitely held my own, and only moderate soreness both made me feel strong, and also that my self-crosstraining lately hasn't been too wimpy like i worried, because this class in which i was measuring myself against others didn't kill me. i know it shouldn't work that way, but it does. i especially know i shouldn't do that because when i have taught group exercise classes at the Y i yell at people (it's a kickboxing class, i'm supposed to yell) that nobody cares what they look like as they flail along, because unless you're doing it wrong, you should be too busy with your own flailing to look at anybody else. but when honest: i know it's not true, i'm watching the other people in class, not wanting to fall behind even when we're doing exercises on our own. in fact i try to make myself get up close to the mirror, not to be a vain douche, but so i'm distracted enough by my own form to ignore everybody else. it's not an impressive fact, but i kind of doubt it's that uncommon. i'm not sure if this means i should stop lying to my kickboxing classes (when i get back to them next year), or lie differently or something.
so remember, i was running (oh right, this is about running) along during mile 4, still wanting to puke, but recognizing that my tired legs were tired, but no more tired than when i started, and not hurting in any worrying way. here i was running along a bigger road, and in light of the humid hot-ish weather, i had worn a spandex-y lime green tank top, and i'm not being hard on myself when i say it's not the most flattering piece of clothing i own. that's ok. when i wear it, i feel like i'm saying 'yeah, i'm lumpy and jiggly, whatever, i'm still really strong.' and related to the unimpressive gym stuff above, i notice that when i'm wearing such a top, and i'm running on a busier road, i run faster than when on an empty one, wearing something flowing. apparently i feel the need to impress the people driving by? who might be couch potatos and might be college varsity rockstars and might be too crippled to even walk and might be all sorts of things and are probably too busy with their own lives to care about the woman in the lime green tank top with some fat around her waist? right. anyway i was trying to tell myself that the goal was excellent form for its sake alone, and not for the drivers, and i remembered i'm trying to stay careful with my gait and keep my hamstrings happy, and they *were* happy, it was going fine, i was keeping it together although maybe not running any faster, and i turned off onto a little road that leads behind a huge grocery store, to a path to my familiar trails, now about a mile from home though only 3.4 miles in. this road turned out to have a human gazelle on it: college girl, wearing racing kit, doing drills, warming up for no doubt 6 minute miles. ... but you know, i felt ok to just keep going at my 9 min/mile pace, and we exchanged nods and smiles as i passed by and headed back to the little trailhead.
and then i realized, finally, that i didn't want to puke anymore! i was too hot and thirsty and tired and would have preferred to stop running probably, but the lack of nausea was pretty exciting. so! i told myself i was going to finish the 5 miles, and so turned off the pavement to a trail detour through the woods a bit, to make the route long enough... and mile 4 beeped in on my Garmin at 9:01.
of course at this point my ipod with its capricious and unalterable song order started playing this lovely french ballad, yeah no, that's not going to help me here, and i turned the damn thing off.
i told myself that i had just run 3 uncomfortable miles. but that was ok: in a month (from today as a matter of fact) i will run 26 miles, and probably a lot more than 3 of them will be uncomfortable. i told myself to remember how those three felt, to remind myself when i'm feeling really shitty in the marathon that i can run 3 bad miles, and then the next one can still be better. to make that last point more convincing, though, this last mile in the woods, with no music but no vomit, was going to be my fastest mile today. i told myself i could be a little more uncomfortable. i tried to speed up just a bit; i didn't let myself look at my pace on my watch once, because i was pretty sure i could feel how fast i was running, and it felt about right. hard but not deadly. in that last half mile i was on a more populated trail, and i used each person i saw as an excuse to run better, with better form, making it look easier than it felt, again why? but it helped, and though i was breathing hard it was still rhythmic, i was hardly sprinting, and people and their dogs nodded and smiled as i passed them. and finally i got close to the end of that bit of trail, right beside our apartment complex and my watch beeped. mile 5: 8:52. bullseye.
so, i jogged back to our front door and came inside to get joyously greeted by the dog. it was a good run. and i felt like i banked a nugget of confidence, to use when i need it. (um, who banks nuggets? please insert reasonable metaphor as you like.)
in conclusion: yesterday before the nap and the run, a friend of mine in paris who is gearing up for a trail half marathon adventure told me she had come earlier to this blog looking for inspiration before going on a run, but i hadn't updated since sunday night. well! ... i sure hope she has a LOT of inspiration now, because i used a lot of damn words here to describe what was only 5 miles to and from a credit union of Oz in a cornfield.
this weekend is long run time. i am still on the fence about whether to make my final (all-at-once) 20 miler this weekend or next -- turns out there are two versions of the plan online, and they arguably differ as to whether you're a marathon novice or not (obviously yes), and the novice one has its 20 miler four weeks out not three. ... so tomorrow i will decide if i am mentally ready for 20 miles this sunday. i might be!
lots more confidence nuggets to mined there, i bet. ugh. (very quietly: remind me why i signed up for this?)
more sunday night. stay tuned.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
20 miles in 26 hours, part two: For The Win!
short version: last night i ran 7 miles in an hour. this morning i ran 13 more miles in 2 hours. guys, i think i can run a marathon.
(you can just do a little dance for me now and move on, or you can read all the blather.)
long version:
after last night's success (see last post), i tried to go to bed early (ha! look, i got into bed at midnight, that's what i managed) i got up at 6:30am (dog thought i had lost it), had coffee and new breakfast, and got ready. the weather was pretty cool, actually, there was some sort of sunlight even (once the sun bothered to get UP, ugh), and it didn't rain (spit, more like) till the last couple miles.
i think i succeeded at eating quite a lot but not too much and not too fatty last night, because this morning i only had to eat a piece of bread and a half a banana with peanut butter. this was in part practice for the marathon, because i don't want to have to mess around in a hotel room with kettles and oatmeal on the morning (middle of night) of the main event. and this worked fantastic! i brought a couple figs to eat half an hour before we started, and i ate a package of stinger chews throughout. ok, so energy success. (i have this idea that i'm going to bring salted mini pretzels on my next two long runs to see if they help with cramps -- some people online say it worked for them. may just be an excuse to eat pretzels, but i can sure see not wanting to just eat sugar for four hours.)
overall, it all went ticketyboo. the course was pretty chill -- mostly paved trails, pretty damn flat, some pretty low-key but sweet cheering, and quite a few aid stations with volunteers who weren't exactly organized but still gave us the desired liquids. my running partner and i were together for the first 10 miles, after which i turned on my music and we picked up the pace slightly, and she finished about 5 seconds ahead of me. we both had reasons to take it easy (uh, did i mention she needs gallbladder surgery? but, you know, first a little half-marathon. STERN STUFF.) so we started just in front of the 10:00/mile pacer, but mostly we ran behind the 9:30 pacers, and after 10 miles we moved ahead. our final time was probably 2:05, which is 9 minutes slower than two years ago but quite a success in the present state!
i was definitely putting on the brakes for the first three miles, and i was definitely working for the last three. my legs were certainly more tired at 7 miles than normal, but starting with the 16 mile cramp-tacular last sunday, i'd run 35 miles in the last 7 days before this race, so i'm gonna feel good about that. i'm also SO COMFORTED by the fact that my left hamstring felt nearly no different than my right, and that finally i felt like my stride was back to a place where my quads can do the work i want them to -- somehow since i hurt myself it's always been the back of my legs feeling it, and the front of my legs never felt like got their turn. today, they got sore too. this is what it's come to: i'm so pleased to have feel sore differently.
oh, yes! and the beer tent. i had half a beer, preceded by a full pint of alcoholic cider (don't worry, i had food too) and hung out stretching and blathering with my running partner for an hour, wearing some comical attire (hot magenta argyle compression socks. were on my body. and yet, she talked to me.) ... and you know, with a little bit of foam rolling tonight, i don't even think i'll have any problem cross training tomorrow.
the take home message here: it's been pretty much two solid weeks of physically encouraging signs. and now when i sat down to write this post i realized something in earnest that i had semi-realized in the shower earlier: i now think i can actually run this marathon. this may be the first time i've really believed it to be possible.
to which my head immediately yells: HUSH UP, CAPTAIN JACKASS! DON'T JINX IT!
so, ok. no getting greedy with the training or stupid with the form or sloppy with the sleep schedule or whatever. and probably, what i need to do mostly is not let my worried mind crap all over what my stubborn body can in fact do (this is the kind of eloquent training mantra you come here to read, i am sure. new side career as inspirational poster motto writer, here i come.) it still might go to hell, but no use stressing over hellish possibilities. just gonna eat some coconut curry and keep saying nice stuff to myself.
next week's long run is 15 miles, and the week after is the second 20-miler, which this time i will do all in one go. by which time i may not even be able to shut up the belief that is happening.
... five weeks to go.
(you can just do a little dance for me now and move on, or you can read all the blather.)
long version:
after last night's success (see last post), i tried to go to bed early (ha! look, i got into bed at midnight, that's what i managed) i got up at 6:30am (dog thought i had lost it), had coffee and new breakfast, and got ready. the weather was pretty cool, actually, there was some sort of sunlight even (once the sun bothered to get UP, ugh), and it didn't rain (spit, more like) till the last couple miles.
i think i succeeded at eating quite a lot but not too much and not too fatty last night, because this morning i only had to eat a piece of bread and a half a banana with peanut butter. this was in part practice for the marathon, because i don't want to have to mess around in a hotel room with kettles and oatmeal on the morning (middle of night) of the main event. and this worked fantastic! i brought a couple figs to eat half an hour before we started, and i ate a package of stinger chews throughout. ok, so energy success. (i have this idea that i'm going to bring salted mini pretzels on my next two long runs to see if they help with cramps -- some people online say it worked for them. may just be an excuse to eat pretzels, but i can sure see not wanting to just eat sugar for four hours.)
overall, it all went ticketyboo. the course was pretty chill -- mostly paved trails, pretty damn flat, some pretty low-key but sweet cheering, and quite a few aid stations with volunteers who weren't exactly organized but still gave us the desired liquids. my running partner and i were together for the first 10 miles, after which i turned on my music and we picked up the pace slightly, and she finished about 5 seconds ahead of me. we both had reasons to take it easy (uh, did i mention she needs gallbladder surgery? but, you know, first a little half-marathon. STERN STUFF.) so we started just in front of the 10:00/mile pacer, but mostly we ran behind the 9:30 pacers, and after 10 miles we moved ahead. our final time was probably 2:05, which is 9 minutes slower than two years ago but quite a success in the present state!
i was definitely putting on the brakes for the first three miles, and i was definitely working for the last three. my legs were certainly more tired at 7 miles than normal, but starting with the 16 mile cramp-tacular last sunday, i'd run 35 miles in the last 7 days before this race, so i'm gonna feel good about that. i'm also SO COMFORTED by the fact that my left hamstring felt nearly no different than my right, and that finally i felt like my stride was back to a place where my quads can do the work i want them to -- somehow since i hurt myself it's always been the back of my legs feeling it, and the front of my legs never felt like got their turn. today, they got sore too. this is what it's come to: i'm so pleased to have feel sore differently.
oh, yes! and the beer tent. i had half a beer, preceded by a full pint of alcoholic cider (don't worry, i had food too) and hung out stretching and blathering with my running partner for an hour, wearing some comical attire (hot magenta argyle compression socks. were on my body. and yet, she talked to me.) ... and you know, with a little bit of foam rolling tonight, i don't even think i'll have any problem cross training tomorrow.
the take home message here: it's been pretty much two solid weeks of physically encouraging signs. and now when i sat down to write this post i realized something in earnest that i had semi-realized in the shower earlier: i now think i can actually run this marathon. this may be the first time i've really believed it to be possible.
to which my head immediately yells: HUSH UP, CAPTAIN JACKASS! DON'T JINX IT!
so, ok. no getting greedy with the training or stupid with the form or sloppy with the sleep schedule or whatever. and probably, what i need to do mostly is not let my worried mind crap all over what my stubborn body can in fact do (this is the kind of eloquent training mantra you come here to read, i am sure. new side career as inspirational poster motto writer, here i come.) it still might go to hell, but no use stressing over hellish possibilities. just gonna eat some coconut curry and keep saying nice stuff to myself.
next week's long run is 15 miles, and the week after is the second 20-miler, which this time i will do all in one go. by which time i may not even be able to shut up the belief that is happening.
... five weeks to go.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
marathon training: excessive wildlife edition
so i need to go to bed. i need to go to bed so i can get up at 6:30am (to which my gentleman replied 'no, c'mon, pick a real time, that's not even a real time to get up'; we are not morning people) so i can leave at 7:20am to pick up my running partner so we can be ready to half-marathon starting at 8:30am.
i ran 7 miles tonight, btw, so as to be ready to run another 13 in the morning. this is my first attempt at a 20 miler, and i decided to put 12 hours and a long nap in the middle. perhaps you say they will not let me do that on marathon day? but i will not listen to you at present. ... and tonight's run went really well -- it was probably the most effortless run i've had in ages. probably because it was also like 15 degrees cooler than the last four months. i focused very hard on keeping this form thing in check and not bollocksing up my left hamstring, and guys it's still working! i let myself run on feel for the first two miles, and after a slow warmup mile, my second was 8:45, and i thought whoa, nelly! let's not throw the next 18 miles under the bus... so i reeled it in, and ran most of it around 9:20-9:30 pace. felt really quite easy, and am slightly optimistic about tomorrow.
so now i'm just going to foam roll, lay out all my clothes and gear (i already ground the coffee so the gentleman doesn't get the wake-up-call shock of his life in the morning), and collapse.
first, though, i need to tell you about how nature has been getting all up in my running grill this week, and it's a little ridiculous. there are three items on this list, and one of them is kind of PG-13. just warning you. dad, it'll only be about two sentences. k, without further ado
1. on thursday morning i ran quite a hot and slightly hard 8 miles. the first few were in an arboretum that i didn't know lansing had. where'd it go getting a pretty and quite large arboretum and not telling anybody? anyway, i went and ran around its spring dirt paths, and at one point i emerged from the woods to cross a field... and it was full of wild turkeys! there were maybe 15 or 20 wild turkeys just chillin' in the morning sun, and we were equally surprised to find each other there. i think of them honked at me? do turkeys honk? i don't know, it made a big noise and i kept running. big birds just make me think of dinosaurs now that i know the fossil record situation, and that's a little creepy. and then thanksgiving, that's awkward. so yes: wild turkeys.
the other two incidents happened tonight.
2. it rained a few days ago? and now there are a ton of mosquitos in the area. AUGHGHG. hate. hatred. much hate. so i sprayed myself with a lot of bug spray tonight, because i was running in the half hour of sunlight and into dusk... but you know, i have my limits. i don't spray bug spray in my ears and stuff -- i smear a lot on, and it's gross, but i shower (mostly) when i get home, so that's ok -- but i don't coat every inch of my body. sometimes you believe in the power of preventive clothing, no? ... no. so: not to get too graphic, but tonight while i was running, a mosquito bit my vagina. you know what happens when you suddenly feel a mosquito bite you? instinctively? ... you slap where it bit you.
probably nobody saw me. let's just assume so. if you ever see a video on the internet, we're just going to pretend it wasn't me, ok?
3. ... a couple miles after the mosquito incident, i was getting into a groove, headed home over familiar terrain -- and i kind of ran into a moth. really, that's weird? a moth flew by and hit my knee? and wow that was a substantia... nope. it was a bat. i kneed a bat while running. what the fuck? that is not how nature is supposed to work, for a whole slew of reasons. meanwhile, the bat shook it off, and headed back out into night.
maybe you need to turn up that sonar a bit, bat.
i wasn't going that fast.
right! so, to bed. it's probably going to rain on us tomorrow morning, just to make everything interesting (by which i mean damp and unpleasant) but nevermind! the 20 mile weekend will not conquer me! i may even drink some beer!
more tomorrow night.
i ran 7 miles tonight, btw, so as to be ready to run another 13 in the morning. this is my first attempt at a 20 miler, and i decided to put 12 hours and a long nap in the middle. perhaps you say they will not let me do that on marathon day? but i will not listen to you at present. ... and tonight's run went really well -- it was probably the most effortless run i've had in ages. probably because it was also like 15 degrees cooler than the last four months. i focused very hard on keeping this form thing in check and not bollocksing up my left hamstring, and guys it's still working! i let myself run on feel for the first two miles, and after a slow warmup mile, my second was 8:45, and i thought whoa, nelly! let's not throw the next 18 miles under the bus... so i reeled it in, and ran most of it around 9:20-9:30 pace. felt really quite easy, and am slightly optimistic about tomorrow.
so now i'm just going to foam roll, lay out all my clothes and gear (i already ground the coffee so the gentleman doesn't get the wake-up-call shock of his life in the morning), and collapse.
first, though, i need to tell you about how nature has been getting all up in my running grill this week, and it's a little ridiculous. there are three items on this list, and one of them is kind of PG-13. just warning you. dad, it'll only be about two sentences. k, without further ado
1. on thursday morning i ran quite a hot and slightly hard 8 miles. the first few were in an arboretum that i didn't know lansing had. where'd it go getting a pretty and quite large arboretum and not telling anybody? anyway, i went and ran around its spring dirt paths, and at one point i emerged from the woods to cross a field... and it was full of wild turkeys! there were maybe 15 or 20 wild turkeys just chillin' in the morning sun, and we were equally surprised to find each other there. i think of them honked at me? do turkeys honk? i don't know, it made a big noise and i kept running. big birds just make me think of dinosaurs now that i know the fossil record situation, and that's a little creepy. and then thanksgiving, that's awkward. so yes: wild turkeys.
the other two incidents happened tonight.
2. it rained a few days ago? and now there are a ton of mosquitos in the area. AUGHGHG. hate. hatred. much hate. so i sprayed myself with a lot of bug spray tonight, because i was running in the half hour of sunlight and into dusk... but you know, i have my limits. i don't spray bug spray in my ears and stuff -- i smear a lot on, and it's gross, but i shower (mostly) when i get home, so that's ok -- but i don't coat every inch of my body. sometimes you believe in the power of preventive clothing, no? ... no. so: not to get too graphic, but tonight while i was running, a mosquito bit my vagina. you know what happens when you suddenly feel a mosquito bite you? instinctively? ... you slap where it bit you.
probably nobody saw me. let's just assume so. if you ever see a video on the internet, we're just going to pretend it wasn't me, ok?
3. ... a couple miles after the mosquito incident, i was getting into a groove, headed home over familiar terrain -- and i kind of ran into a moth. really, that's weird? a moth flew by and hit my knee? and wow that was a substantia... nope. it was a bat. i kneed a bat while running. what the fuck? that is not how nature is supposed to work, for a whole slew of reasons. meanwhile, the bat shook it off, and headed back out into night.
maybe you need to turn up that sonar a bit, bat.
i wasn't going that fast.
right! so, to bed. it's probably going to rain on us tomorrow morning, just to make everything interesting (by which i mean damp and unpleasant) but nevermind! the 20 mile weekend will not conquer me! i may even drink some beer!
more tomorrow night.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
in which nothing bad happens
so about that 8am wake-up call? hollow laugh. it's hard, when your other half is on a 3-10am sleep schedule.
so i finally dragged myself up at 9:30. so i ran at 11am. it was like 30C and humid. wise! easy! obviously! and yet: it was just fine.
i drove to a park which i almost never go to, and which has a lot of shade, and which conveniently is the only part of the half i'm running on sunday that i'm not familiar with. in fact, the only time i ran there previously was on this race two years ago, and it was some overzealousness on this terrain that caused the last two miles to feel like helldamn punishment.
anyway, what i did was run 4 miles. it was supposed to be 'speedwork' but you remember operation not try running so fast and not get hurt? yes. and also the 16 miles from sunday was not entirely forgotten. so in the first mile i was caaaaautious. given the fatigue of my hamstrings, i felt pretty slow, stiff and shanky -- like maybe i was running on rusty stilts? and that seemed dumb, but i figured just be slow and warm up. i did NOT stalk my pace, and i waited for the little garmin BEEP... and it said i ran the first mile in 9:35. well, if that feels super slow, it'll be an ok day.
so i did my best to pick it up a bit, A BIT, and the other three miles were around 8:35-8:45. it was only 4 miles and it felt somewhat hard, but it was dumbass hot (whereas apparently the race will be like 18C and maybe raining?) and i got a little runner's high at the end even, which it's hard to get running slow. i'm getting increasingly more sure that i'm fixing my form in a way that prevents left leg injury, and i'm foamrolling my ass off (literally, that's where i'm sore/tight at present) and chug chug chug, building blocks, etc.
three other things about this run:
1. a random dude walked out of the forest onto the trail and politely asked me which way to the pavilion. there's like 3 pavilions within a mile of that spot. i described them to him, and he picked the one he wanted and i gave him directions and he headed off. he was carrying a huge box of tools. uh, weird?
2. i got winked at by what i can only describe as a dashing hipster construction worker. he held traffic while i crossed the road two times. i mean, he was holding traffic for this huge dumptruck, actually, but he graciously gestured for me to take advantage of the hold-up for my own purposes. i felt like running royalty! sweaty, disgusting run-royalty. now that i think about it, i was also wearing a pink top with (god help me, it was on sale) **ruffles** on it... yeah, overall i was probably looking pretty elegant.
3. labor day comes and goes, and they close the beach at this park, and turn off the water fountains. people? global warming? it's 34C with the humidity? let's rethink this policy. (i had lots of liquid with me, don't worry -- it's just not nice, though.)
anyway, the point of all this blathering is that it's working! i'm running as intended! ... eh, pace can fuck off. i'm not saying i'm not slightly terrified still, but no point in focusing on future horrors just yet. in other words: back to (real life) work.
maybe more after tomorrow's tempo, otherwise full deets on the weekend back-to-back on sunday. ... i know, the suspense might kill you.
so i finally dragged myself up at 9:30. so i ran at 11am. it was like 30C and humid. wise! easy! obviously! and yet: it was just fine.
i drove to a park which i almost never go to, and which has a lot of shade, and which conveniently is the only part of the half i'm running on sunday that i'm not familiar with. in fact, the only time i ran there previously was on this race two years ago, and it was some overzealousness on this terrain that caused the last two miles to feel like helldamn punishment.
anyway, what i did was run 4 miles. it was supposed to be 'speedwork' but you remember operation not try running so fast and not get hurt? yes. and also the 16 miles from sunday was not entirely forgotten. so in the first mile i was caaaaautious. given the fatigue of my hamstrings, i felt pretty slow, stiff and shanky -- like maybe i was running on rusty stilts? and that seemed dumb, but i figured just be slow and warm up. i did NOT stalk my pace, and i waited for the little garmin BEEP... and it said i ran the first mile in 9:35. well, if that feels super slow, it'll be an ok day.
so i did my best to pick it up a bit, A BIT, and the other three miles were around 8:35-8:45. it was only 4 miles and it felt somewhat hard, but it was dumbass hot (whereas apparently the race will be like 18C and maybe raining?) and i got a little runner's high at the end even, which it's hard to get running slow. i'm getting increasingly more sure that i'm fixing my form in a way that prevents left leg injury, and i'm foamrolling my ass off (literally, that's where i'm sore/tight at present) and chug chug chug, building blocks, etc.
three other things about this run:
1. a random dude walked out of the forest onto the trail and politely asked me which way to the pavilion. there's like 3 pavilions within a mile of that spot. i described them to him, and he picked the one he wanted and i gave him directions and he headed off. he was carrying a huge box of tools. uh, weird?
2. i got winked at by what i can only describe as a dashing hipster construction worker. he held traffic while i crossed the road two times. i mean, he was holding traffic for this huge dumptruck, actually, but he graciously gestured for me to take advantage of the hold-up for my own purposes. i felt like running royalty! sweaty, disgusting run-royalty. now that i think about it, i was also wearing a pink top with (god help me, it was on sale) **ruffles** on it... yeah, overall i was probably looking pretty elegant.
3. labor day comes and goes, and they close the beach at this park, and turn off the water fountains. people? global warming? it's 34C with the humidity? let's rethink this policy. (i had lots of liquid with me, don't worry -- it's just not nice, though.)
anyway, the point of all this blathering is that it's working! i'm running as intended! ... eh, pace can fuck off. i'm not saying i'm not slightly terrified still, but no point in focusing on future horrors just yet. in other words: back to (real life) work.
maybe more after tomorrow's tempo, otherwise full deets on the weekend back-to-back on sunday. ... i know, the suspense might kill you.
Monday, September 9, 2013
day-after optimism and several pitfalls regarding early morning running
hey, so! this is a good sign: i woke up this morning after yesterday's long typically dramatic effort, and felt pretty fine. hamstrings a little sore, both of them near equally i thought; hip flexors could use some stretching (which gave 'em, and more to come tonight before bed.) but nothing out of the ordinary. no difficulty sitting on a toilet seat for instance (if your quads have ever been really angry, you know what i mean, yes? right.) so i was able to do all the normal crosstraining and whatevering today, and that gives me hope.
it's going to be 800C tomorrow with 2000% humidity, which is completely dumb and inexcusable because it got chilly and cold a few days ago but what's to be done, so i'm going to get up EARLY and do my quick run before it gets mega-gross. ... of course by EARLY i mean awake at 8am. this is why i could never have an actual running blog, because those people are at *lunch* by 8am.
the half marathon on sunday starts at 8:30am, though, so i guess i have to remember how to run first thing before the week is out. my partner in trail crime from yesterday (we'll just call her PITC ok?) pointed out that while this isn't insanely early like some races (uh, detroit marathon i'm glaring at you), it also means that, assuming we run it in something around two hours, we're going to be at the finish line at 10:30am, and there's a beer tent... and you don't want to turn down free beer! but sunday at 10:30am is a tad early! what is it, st patrick's day?
sidenote: when i ran this race two years ago, i didn't know that PITC was literally 5 seconds behind me at the finish -- we knew of each other professionally because we're in the same field and had a bazillion mutual friends on facebook but had never met -- and so that day i finished alone, and felt a little queasy (got a bit too excited around miles 7-9 and paid for it in the last two), and then walked over to the beer tent. as mentioned above, i was on the fence regarding the beverage, viz "on the one hand, free beer; on the other hand, just ran 13 miles, often not awake at this hour on a sunday, might vomit..." so, i took one and sipped, and thought immediately it was a bad plan. as i walked across the field with this bad plan in my hand and a bit of its taste in my mouth, a random guy yelled at me GO GREEN! and i thought -- man, if i look that close to nausea, there's no need to rub it in, buster ... and i gave him a bit of a rude look... and then i remembered that i was wearing a t-shirt supporting the local rabidly-supported college sports team, whose main colour is green, so actually he was yelling SCHOOL SPIRIT! and not YOU MIGHT BARF! sorry, School Spirit Guy, for misunderstanding.
anyway, when PITC ran it, she and her friend went and chilled in the beer tent for a while, consuming multiple beers she tells me. of course they did. she's from maine; they are made of stern stuff up there.
so this weekend's goals are: 1. run 7 saturday night 2. run 13 sunday morning 3. learn to drink a sunday morning recovery beer.
go team!
(don't) go green!
... 5 weeks to go.
it's going to be 800C tomorrow with 2000% humidity, which is completely dumb and inexcusable because it got chilly and cold a few days ago but what's to be done, so i'm going to get up EARLY and do my quick run before it gets mega-gross. ... of course by EARLY i mean awake at 8am. this is why i could never have an actual running blog, because those people are at *lunch* by 8am.
the half marathon on sunday starts at 8:30am, though, so i guess i have to remember how to run first thing before the week is out. my partner in trail crime from yesterday (we'll just call her PITC ok?) pointed out that while this isn't insanely early like some races (uh, detroit marathon i'm glaring at you), it also means that, assuming we run it in something around two hours, we're going to be at the finish line at 10:30am, and there's a beer tent... and you don't want to turn down free beer! but sunday at 10:30am is a tad early! what is it, st patrick's day?
sidenote: when i ran this race two years ago, i didn't know that PITC was literally 5 seconds behind me at the finish -- we knew of each other professionally because we're in the same field and had a bazillion mutual friends on facebook but had never met -- and so that day i finished alone, and felt a little queasy (got a bit too excited around miles 7-9 and paid for it in the last two), and then walked over to the beer tent. as mentioned above, i was on the fence regarding the beverage, viz "on the one hand, free beer; on the other hand, just ran 13 miles, often not awake at this hour on a sunday, might vomit..." so, i took one and sipped, and thought immediately it was a bad plan. as i walked across the field with this bad plan in my hand and a bit of its taste in my mouth, a random guy yelled at me GO GREEN! and i thought -- man, if i look that close to nausea, there's no need to rub it in, buster ... and i gave him a bit of a rude look... and then i remembered that i was wearing a t-shirt supporting the local rabidly-supported college sports team, whose main colour is green, so actually he was yelling SCHOOL SPIRIT! and not YOU MIGHT BARF! sorry, School Spirit Guy, for misunderstanding.
anyway, when PITC ran it, she and her friend went and chilled in the beer tent for a while, consuming multiple beers she tells me. of course they did. she's from maine; they are made of stern stuff up there.
so this weekend's goals are: 1. run 7 saturday night 2. run 13 sunday morning 3. learn to drink a sunday morning recovery beer.
go team!
(don't) go green!
... 5 weeks to go.
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