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.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)