So...I messed up a bit this week.
Here's the deal. I was sick all week, and since I work with children and have this weird thing where I hate taking sick days unless I absolutely have to, I spent all of my free time taking cold medicine and sleeping. Marathon training became temporarily nonexistent. The good news is that by the end of the week I felt much better (thanks for asking), and ready to pick up where I left off...which brings us to tonight.
I planned on running my 12 mile run yesterday, but was quickly talked out of it when I got a better offer. I then briefly considered running this morning before church, but it was far too early. So I made plans to run with friends after church...well, after church and after (dun dun dun) the Indian Buffet. Oops. Though the run took place a full 5 hours after our feast, the food was not to be forgotten. The good part was that I ran with two awesome people (yay Rachel and Mike) and the conversation throughout the run made me forget that I was in the midst of running 12 miles. The bad part was the haunting presence of the Indian Buffet. Oh yeah, and the fact that my body now hates me for doing zero physical activity all week and then running 12 miles.
From now on, we will be going out to eat after our runs. Life lesson learned.
76 days to go.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
5 Weeks Down
I ran 10 miles yesterday!
That brings this week's grand total up to 24 miles. In an entire week, I have still not quite reached the distance that I will be running in a day. It's a bit intimidating, but there is still a lot of time to work up to 26.2 miles. Another thing that's intimidating? I will be running for longer than it takes me to drive from Pittsburgh to Buffalo. Yep.
83 days to go.
That brings this week's grand total up to 24 miles. In an entire week, I have still not quite reached the distance that I will be running in a day. It's a bit intimidating, but there is still a lot of time to work up to 26.2 miles. Another thing that's intimidating? I will be running for longer than it takes me to drive from Pittsburgh to Buffalo. Yep.
83 days to go.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Valentines' Day
I went to the gym today, assuming that everyone else would be out with their lovers celebrating Valentines' Day. There are apparently a lot more singles at my gym than I thought because the gym was PACKED. I creepily hovered by the treadmills for a few minutes, trying to see who had the least amount of time left but then decided that I didn't have enough time and did some cross training instead. I don't know if it was because today was Valentines' Day (or as some call it, Singles Awareness Day), but I got stared at excessively at the gym today. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was trying to be super hard core on the elliptical, since I couldn't get on a treadmill or maybe it was because I've decided I work out harder when I make really intense faces at the wall. Either way, there was excessive staring and all I wanted to do was say to the men "can't you see I'm disgusting? I am dripping with sweat, bright red, and panting. This is not cute. Go away." Instead, I continued to stare at the wall while making intense faces and pretending they weren't there. Happy Valentines' Day.
89 days to go.
89 days to go.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
So there's this hill...
Why did I choose to run a marathon in a city of hills? Next time (ha), I'm going somewhere flat.
There's one hill in particular that makes me cringe. I'm pretty sure I run up the hill slower than a typical person would walk. As I run up the hill, I feel like I'm going in slow motion, with some kind of force pushing me backwards. Though I'm pretty sure I'm going the slowest pace possible, I still end up winded when I reach the top. Every time I "run" up this hill, I tell myself that someday I will be in good enough shape that I will be able to sprint up the hill. For the record, I have absolutely no desire to sprint up that hill (or any hill for that matter). I have no desire to spend any more time on that hill than necessary, yet for some reason my brain always thinks that sprinting up that hill will be one of the great successes of my life. My body disagrees and I'm pretty sure my body is going to win this one.
While I was running yesterday, I passes a relatively distinguished looking older man who was washing his Mercedes in the middle of the park using milk jugs full of water and a rag. I spent a good mile speculating about him. There was not a source of running water nearby (hence the milk jugs) and it's the middle of winter. I decided that he is obsessed with washing his car and his wife limited the amount of times per week he is allowed to wash it, so he decided to sneak around behind her back and wash his car in strange places like the middle of the park.
When I run outside, I spend a good deal of my time people watching and then making up stories about them. There was an old couple parked on the side of the road, with their car facing an ugly fence and I decided that they were having a romantic Valentines' weekend drive, and they decided to park there to talk about the "good old days" before the ugly fence was built and ruined the aesthetics of the neighborhood.
Week 4: 21.5 miles (success!)
90 days to go.
There's one hill in particular that makes me cringe. I'm pretty sure I run up the hill slower than a typical person would walk. As I run up the hill, I feel like I'm going in slow motion, with some kind of force pushing me backwards. Though I'm pretty sure I'm going the slowest pace possible, I still end up winded when I reach the top. Every time I "run" up this hill, I tell myself that someday I will be in good enough shape that I will be able to sprint up the hill. For the record, I have absolutely no desire to sprint up that hill (or any hill for that matter). I have no desire to spend any more time on that hill than necessary, yet for some reason my brain always thinks that sprinting up that hill will be one of the great successes of my life. My body disagrees and I'm pretty sure my body is going to win this one.
While I was running yesterday, I passes a relatively distinguished looking older man who was washing his Mercedes in the middle of the park using milk jugs full of water and a rag. I spent a good mile speculating about him. There was not a source of running water nearby (hence the milk jugs) and it's the middle of winter. I decided that he is obsessed with washing his car and his wife limited the amount of times per week he is allowed to wash it, so he decided to sneak around behind her back and wash his car in strange places like the middle of the park.
When I run outside, I spend a good deal of my time people watching and then making up stories about them. There was an old couple parked on the side of the road, with their car facing an ugly fence and I decided that they were having a romantic Valentines' weekend drive, and they decided to park there to talk about the "good old days" before the ugly fence was built and ruined the aesthetics of the neighborhood.
Week 4: 21.5 miles (success!)
90 days to go.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Quick Recap:
Week 2: 20 miles (total)
Week 3: 17.5 miles (out of 21.5 miles. Surprisingly, when I increased my amount of physical activity exponentially, I got tired a lot easier. Huh. I was driving home from work on Friday, fighting to stay awake, when my friend called and said she was in town. I couldn't go for a 4 mile run when my friend was in town...what kind of a friend would I have been?). I've missed one run in 3 weeks - I can definitely live with that. I ran my 8 mile run outside on Saturday, which was definitely a change since I had been running on the treadmill so much lately. The freezing rain halfway through was a bit of a surprise and resulted in black ice for about a mile, which made me feel like I was running an obstacle course.
Last week I got new shoes :) I decided (and by decided, I mean my wiser friends told me) that training for a marathon in old shoes is probably not the best idea. So, thanks to an awesome Groupon, I got a new pair of shoes for a pretty decent price. And it will still probably be the most I will ever pay for shoes.
http://www.thatsfit.com/2010/08/09/new-balance-759-shoe-giveaway/
3 weeks in, still going strong. I've come so far in terms of my treadmill fears - today I only thought about falling off and dying twice during my run. I've also stopping looking at the clock every 30 seconds (which, by the way, makes the run feel like it takes forever). And...today I unclipped the emergency stop clip BEFORE I walked away from the treadmill. Life is good.
96 days to go. Whoa kids, we've hit double digits.
Week 2: 20 miles (total)
Week 3: 17.5 miles (out of 21.5 miles. Surprisingly, when I increased my amount of physical activity exponentially, I got tired a lot easier. Huh. I was driving home from work on Friday, fighting to stay awake, when my friend called and said she was in town. I couldn't go for a 4 mile run when my friend was in town...what kind of a friend would I have been?). I've missed one run in 3 weeks - I can definitely live with that. I ran my 8 mile run outside on Saturday, which was definitely a change since I had been running on the treadmill so much lately. The freezing rain halfway through was a bit of a surprise and resulted in black ice for about a mile, which made me feel like I was running an obstacle course.
Last week I got new shoes :) I decided (and by decided, I mean my wiser friends told me) that training for a marathon in old shoes is probably not the best idea. So, thanks to an awesome Groupon, I got a new pair of shoes for a pretty decent price. And it will still probably be the most I will ever pay for shoes.
3 weeks in, still going strong. I've come so far in terms of my treadmill fears - today I only thought about falling off and dying twice during my run. I've also stopping looking at the clock every 30 seconds (which, by the way, makes the run feel like it takes forever). And...today I unclipped the emergency stop clip BEFORE I walked away from the treadmill. Life is good.
96 days to go. Whoa kids, we've hit double digits.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)