So. I have done it, and signed up for a half marathon, which apparently I must do now in just about 14 weeks. I was tooootttalllly on my training schedule* for the first three days (two runs, one Burn class), and then I missed a day and was grumpy, was back on schedule for a day by which I mean I went to personal training (part of my schedule, guys), and then utterly blew it for the weekend. In my defense, it was rainy on Sunday, and, yes, my long runs are supposed to be on Saturday but it totally looked rainy in the morning and then I ate a big breakfast and then… yeah. So far, half marathon training not going so well, is the point.
But I was back on it today. And in the course of my run I did some thinking, as one is supposed to do when running long(ish) distances, and came to the conclusion that I might as well do some blogging about my training, because it will keep me honest and might keep me blogging as well, which would be a kind of win-win. I promise not to over-bore you with the details or narrate extensively about silly things. And who knows, perhaps I will end up learning something.
I was absolutely dreading today’s workout in the way you dread working out after it’s been a while. I find that whole sensation quite intriguing. You know, you miss a day, you’re super pissy about it. You miss another day because you kind of let yourself miss it, and you’re sort of grumpy about it but less vocal because you know you let yourself miss it and you don’t want anyone to call you on it. Repeat. Maybe repeat again. And somewhere in there you do something like eat two handfuls of Cadbury Mini Eggs you bought, even though you know there is a reason you don’t keep candy in your own vicinity, and you especially don’t leave the bag right on top of the kitchen island, because if you see it, they will be eaten. (Attempted takeoff on Field of Dreams - check!) And that sucks, because now you’ve crossed the line from being disappointed in your ability to train for the race you’re not very prepared for to being disappointed in your ability to have any kind of willpower at all. Aaaand then the next day you eat a bag of Chex Mix at work, which officially cements this as the worst eating week you’ve had since, like, Christmas or something, and you are really in trouble because the cycle of laziness has set in.
This literally happens to me in the exact same way multiple times a year and the trick (obviously) is to break that cycle immediately instead of letting this become weeks on end of non-exercise (not to mention, although this is a rarer thing for me, the junk food cycle, by which I mean how if you eat, even just once, one packaged, probably high-fructose corn syrup, definitely high sodium, who-knows-what-else food, you start to crave it even though it makes you feel terrible and lazy). Which is why, even though I had a persistent headache thanks to Matt’s birthday yesterday, the accompanying consumption of strong beers, followed by the equally necessary consumption of coffee instead of water all of today, I forced myself to change into my workout outfit and go running.
And it wasn’t so bad. In fact, my headache went away within the first quarter mile. Maybe that was coincidence, but I am going to chalk it up to the run and convince myself that exercise is some kind of miracle cure for mild hangovers. Who knew?
Things I thought during my run:
- Wind really does make a difference. When it’s at your back, you truly do go faster. And when it’s at your side, you really can find yourself drifting over. [Not that I’ve never run outside before, but I’m right on the water.]
- I need new shoes, pretty bad. I get somewhat numb in the toes in these. [People have recommended the Ariel; is there an easy place to find these and try them in SF?]
- Ah! Baby geese! I mean, goslings! My coworker told me about these! And I haven’t seen them before! I should think of this as some kind of reward for forcing myself to run today!
- [Meta thought] I seem to spend my time running thinking about stuff to buy. Besides the shoes, I need to get some kind of stopwatch, find headbands to tame back my bangs (note: I have bought countless versions of this item and they do not work with my ridiculously slick hair apparently), and buy either an iPod shuffle or one of those armbands to put my iPod in.
- This isn’t so bad. And a half marathon is only, like, four or so times this.
- [100 feet later] Wait, why would I think I could do four times this!?
Summary:
- 3.2 miles (route)
- 33:25 minutes (determined not by stopwatch, but by the fact that I ran for the first eight songs, minus 30 seconds, of Hot Chip’s album “Made in the Dark”)
- ~5.76 mph
That’s all she wrote.
*if interested, let me know and I can share…
