Days 21-24
Sunday, fittingly, is my day of rest in this running plan. This Sunday (day 21) was also a day of learning to make margaritas from scratch. And a day of not reading the “Common ratios” section on the margarita entry on Wikipedia very closely — or really at all — and instead relying on the easiest version on some other website (3:2:1, where 3 is tequila, 2 is triple sec and 1 is lime juice). And a day of laziness, as I did not want to do complicated math in order to make margaritas that contained fewer than three shots of tequila each. So then it was a day of everyone at my house feeling unexpectedly drunk midway through their first drink, and then a day of discovery that six people had finished off nearly a full, brand-new bottle of Cazadores. So yeah. Restful. In a way.
On Monday (day 22), I skipped my run, mostly because I worked from home that day and still don’t have a route near my house. My reluctance to run close to home is due to a combination of fear of hipster passersby, fear of running on sidewalks (more on that in a sec) and fear of gang members. Turns out, give a girl a marathon training plan and the entire city suddenly looks vicious. But don’t tell me my dad wouldn’t be glad that I wasn’t out running alone south of Market (and southwest [?] of, like, 4th?). I’m thinking about others, here. And about how I run too slow to escape from potential pursuers.
This is all going somewhere, because on Tuesday (day 23) I dragged myself into Burn and five minutes into the workout remembered, hey, I feel terrible on days I don’t work out! Especially on days when I don’t work out for the second day in a row! It’s quite amazing, really, how sluggish I am after more than a day of rest. I mean, rest is great. Too much rest is no good. This should all be obvious, but for someone who has spent the vast majority of her life with zero exercise habit (see: most of middle school, most of high school, most of college, all of 2007) this is a revelation. I found myself walking around work wondering, do all these people have exercise routines I don’t know about? If not, how are they even standing? Maybe there’s an exercise freak inside of me just waiting to come out. Maybe she’s skinnier than I am!
The ironic part of all this revelatory thinking, unfortunately, is that in the meantime, my legs are starting to rebel against this whole plan. On the way from Burn to Ace’s apartment yesterday, I tried jogging on the sidewalk just to see how it felt (especially since I was wearing my new shoes). It felt impossible. It felt like my legs were flimsy Ikea chair legs with too much weight on them. I mean, it wasn’t shooting pain or anything, but it did not. feel. stable. No concrete, no thank you.
Today (day 24) was interval day. In some ways it’s easier to psych myself up for intervals because they are inside, on an extremely familiar treadmill. The treadmill without intervals would be dreadfully boring to me right now, but the treadmill (familiar) with the intervals (impossible to zone out and be bored during) is pretty appealing — especially on a day like today, when the sky’s been spitting rain periodically and unpredictably. So. I headed down to the gym, got on the treadmill, started running and owww.
I still managed to do two miles. For first 10 minutes, I alternated minutes at 5.7mph and (well, the first 3 minutes were just 5.7 to warm up). Then I had to pause for a few seconds to drink water, and the last 10 minutes I alternated between 5.7 and 6.7mph. It wasn’t a resounding success, and it felt harder than last week’s interval session, both in terms of breathing and in terms of actual feelings in my legs. By the numbers, I did better. And for the last minute maybe (whatever I had to do to hit that 300 calorie mark, meaningless though it is) I ran 6mph and it felt like a totally normal speed, whereas the 5.7mph felt really (thankfully!) slow. Other than that, it kinda sucked.
In case you’re interested, and maybe if you happen to have any experience with physical therapy that would be sweet, I’ve identified the three key problem areas with my legs. The first: my right knee, just under the knee cap. This is a pretty classic thing, I think, and it’s not super pronounced. It’s the only part of that leg that hurts, if it does, and it’s a pretty new development (last week and a half I’d say). The second: my left hip, where the pelvis meets the … I have no idea. But if you’ve ever yanked the leg off a Barbie doll, it’s like where the little knob is at the top of her leg that normally fits into her body. Just slightly towards the back. And the Barbie is a great analogy here, because it feels just a leetle bit loose there, like the Barbie leg might be easier to yank out now. And like it’s missing a teeny bit of padding to make the impact softer. And the third and the worst: my left thigh, above the knee, the right side (if I’m looking at it). I suppose this feels less like a joint thing and more like a muscle thing. Could it be some kind of strain? Is it maybe just too tight?
More importantly: I’m supposed to run 3.5 miles tomorrow. Do I have to?
Summary:
- 2.15 miles
- 22:00 minutes
- 5.9mph average
