Filed under: The Race, Training Runs | Tags: days off, dreams, gu, long run, marathon, nerves, Rest Days, running, shoes, short run, Taper
I purchased new shorts and a lovely blue lightweight tech shirt for the race. I tried the shorts out on my last “long” run – eight miles – and, disappointingly, they rode up a little. Most shorts do that when I run, but with a predicted temperature of seventy-three degrees (most runners dress for temperatures twenty degrees warmer than the actual, so do the math on that one), I’m going to go with my capris. I don’t want to be picking cloth away from myself for nearly five hours.
My Asics should be broken in enough. I was thinking of using my Guides, but I’ve done my last three weeks of running in these shoes, so Asics it will be.
I’m having anxiety dreams: I fly to the wrong city. I wake up too late. I get injured at the start of the course. I’ve forgotten my running sneakers.
Lists are beginning to form in my mind: Gu packets. Shoes and clothes. Body glide. Ibuprofen. Socks. Ponytail holders. Headband. (I can’t find my stupid headband!) Course map for friends and family. Watch. Sunblock. Camera.
There are other things I can’t control that I must make myself stop worrying about. Weather’s a big one. I haven’t run in hot weather at all. Worse than that, though, is the idea of a race cancellation. The ten-day weather forecast predicts scattered thundershowers all weekend. I’ve seen those Midwestern storms, and I’ve seen that lightning. It’s out of my hands, I know, but please, please let there be decent weather. I don’t know what I would do if these nine months were all for nothing.
I’ve gotten myself worked up, though, so it’s time to calm down. That’s what the Taper is for: recovery, relaxation, mental preparation. You hardly run, you eat a lot, you try not to obsess.
Six days.
Filed under: Dealing, Inspiration, The Race, Training Runs | Tags: good advice, Inspiration, marathon, nerves, running, short run
It’s going to be that kind of week. Working at a running store in Boston means that when April begins, you don’t slow down until a week after the Boston Marathon is over. If you’re training for a marathon yourself, that means you succumb quietly, with barely a whimper, to insanity.
(Tangent: Has anyone ever noticed – at least those who’ve been to my city – that if you tell a Bostonite you’re running a Spring race other than the Boston Marathon, people look slightly bewildered? They get that same perturbed, sort of Linus-y worried look that I imagine people had when they found out the world wasn’t flat. Ok, end of tangent.)
Anyway, I was talking to a fellow coworker and runner about marathoning today. She asked me if I had a reason for running, because it’s always the reason, the mental resolve, that gets you through the last six miles. Nothing can prepare you for what it’s really like to run the Marathon, she said, but you’ll do it because you have a reason. What’s your reason? she wanted to know.
I usually don’t share things like that with coworkers anymore. I’ve learned well and hard that keeping things separate from work, keeping your own dirty laundry and your own secrets, your own emotional highs, middles, and lows, protects you in some way. You’re not as vulnerable. You’re not as open to judgment. But something made me tell her, at least a very brief and spare version.
“I just got chills,” she said. ”You know how I know you’ll finish? Because no matter how hard it is, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much you want to stop running, you’ll remember that what you’re feeling during those last six miles is nothing compared to what you’ve already lived through. You’ve already survived something far harder than a marathon. Let that thought take you to the end.”
Filed under: Dealing | Tags: memories, recovery runs, sadness, short run, struggle
I’ve only recently started doing recovery runs. I went on one tonight. Just a mile or two, at an easy pace, to be done the day after a long run. It’s supposed to help the muscles heal faster by increasing blood flow to the affected areas. So far, it really has been helping. I’ve felt less stiff, less sore, less tired.
Tonight was the first warm night in many months. I put on a pair of capris and a long-sleeve shirt, covered my ears with a hat. The breeze was cool against my face. I sailed, gently. Feet like rudders on the ground. Breath like the slow swish of waves.
It was warm when he left me. Now it’s warm again.
Filed under: cross-training, Inspiration | Tags: days off, Inspiration, running, short run, swimming
My aunt is probably the best swimmer I know. I may be training for a marathon, but my aunt has been getting up at 3 AM practically everyday for the majority of her adult life so she can swim five miles – I think that’s what my uncle said, five miles – before work. This isn’t something to sneeze at, folks, as I found out today.
I’ve always been a very strong swimmer, myself, but it’s been years since I’ve purposely gone to a pool and done laps. Let me tell you: I cross-train on the stationary bike at a steady 80-100 RPM for a full forty-five minutes at least 3 days a week, and that first half-lap in the pool schooled me! I began to get the hang of it after a while, alternating freestyle with breast stroke and backstroke for about a half an hour. The better my form in the pool, the easier it was to get through it.
I may not have run today, but I feel really good. I’m going to try to swim as often as possible between now and the race. I have a VERY short run tomorrow – just three miles – and I might jump in the pool after finishing, if I have the time. I’m quite excited about this new development. I just hope I don’t develop huge shoulders!
Filed under: Speedwork, Training Runs | Tags: good day, running, running routes, short run, winter
Don’t worry. As soon as I get a more functional outer layer (and maybe some YakTrax), I’ll be back outside. It’s not like I have much of a choice; Hyannis is in February, and it’s along the beach. You can’t get much colder than a New England beach in February.
For tonight, though, I hit the treadmill once more. I wasn’t planning to run hard tonight. I borrowed my roommate’s boyfriend’s headphones (I threw mine in the wash by accident – oops), turned on my iPod, took a swig of water, and hit “Start.” I finished tonight’s 5-miler in just under forty-five minutes.
The thing is, I can only give credit to the iPod. I rarely listen to music during runs, unless I know that my route is going to be particularly boring. Today, though, I plugged that thing in, and off I went. Madonna, Black-Eyed Peas, the Offspring, anything with a hard, pounding bass line. I couldn’t slow down if I wanted to.
It was exhilarating. I just have to remember that I’m not going to be using an iPod for any of my races, and I can’t rely on music to give me speed.
I hope I’ll be able to run fast on my own one day!
