Day 23: Um, ugh

Post-run, not feelin it

I had my first bad run of the training season today.  Like, real bad.  It started when my new GPS watch, which I was sooooooo looking forward to breaking out, ran out of battery.  It got worse with a debilitating stitch in my side.  The rest was all downhill (or uphill depending on how you look at it).  And that badness was exacerbated by the fact that it was 1) just five miles! and 2) only my second official Saturday run with Houston FIT.  I was embarrassed to be both slow and subsequently grouchy.

But the nice thing about bad runs is that they are inevitable, and because they are inevitable, there’s a certain peace of mind that I’ll get over them.  Everyone has them, everyone gets over them.  I remember having the most awful time last year during an 11-miler: I was sweating and out of breath and had to walk the last mile, and during the run I remember thinking I wouldn’t be able to make it to the following week’s half-marathon.  But I bet you can guess what happened the next week: The half-marathon was one of the best runs I had during the season.  So yes.  I had a bad run.  It really sucked and I wanted it to be over the whole time.  But maybe next week will be better.

In other news, I have done only morning workouts for the past two weeks, and it’s actually been surprisingly great.  The fact that all my workouts are in the morning has helped my body get used to the wake-up time, and this past week I’ve started to push myself during the workouts, rather than groggily getting through them.  But they say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so I have to commit to keeping this up for at least the next week before I’ll consider myself a morning-exerciser.

Day 23, by the numbers:

37.72 – miles run to date
5 – miles we ran today (longest run to date)
48 – minutes it took

Week 3 schedule:
Sunday – Tuesday: Memorial Day vacation: lots of hiking (pictures to come!) but no running
Wednesday: 4 mile run
Thursday: 4 mile run, strength training (arms and legs)
Friday: hot yoga
Saturday: 5 mile run, strength training (core)

To reward myself for making it through today’s workout, and to enjoy my favorite part of Saturday runs (the being done with a workout by 8 a.m.), I headed to the farmer’s market to treat myself to a breakfast of poached eggs over kale salad and toast.  And of course, I couldn’t help but buy a few groceries, too…

Reward breakfast.  Don’t know if I would call those “poached,” but they were delicious nonetheless.

And some espresso to put a little more pep in my step

Couldn’t resist doing a little grocery shopping.  These tomatoes are so beautiful I had to buy!

These beautiful, colorful radishes also found their way into my bag.

Day 1: Training Begins

I love training.  The energy — physical, mental, and probably as close as I ever get to spiritual — in running with a group is honestly something I have never replicated in another area of my life.

This morning I woke up a little after 6 for our first training run of the season at 7:30.  This is honestly a late start, because as the Houston summer gets underway and our runs get longer, we’ll try to be done with lengths as long as 21 miles before the sun comes up.  That will often mean starting as early as 5 a.m.  Early, yes, but critical in the Houston heat.

Last year, in the midst of my longer runs, sometimes I wouldn’t make it back to my car before the sun completely rose.  I’d watch it peaking up, and start getting panicked.  It was hot enough — 85+ degrees — in complete darkness.  At this point I’d be hours into the run, and I would actually try to run faster.  Like Peer Gynt escaping from the Hall of the Mountain King, I’d push on, faster, until finally I’d hit the reprieve and safety of the finish.  The shade.  The end.  I do imagine this year will be like that, too.

Anyway, the weather isn’t like that quite yet, and we were able to start our run well after the sun rose with no issues.  Since we were just doing 3 miles, I didn’t even bring water.

The group I’m training with this year, Houston FIT, is a little different from last year’s group, Team In Training.  It’s larger, so we split up into timed groups.  This morning I ran with the 9-10 minute-per-mile group, which felt somewhere between good and challenging.  We don’t stop or take water breaks, so I’ll have to get a belt to carry my own water.  I met a few people who are also training for New York (yay!) and embarrassingly felt so inspired by the morning introductory motivational speeches that I maybe just a little teared up.  Fun fact: Marathon training does that to me.  Sheesh, it’s a big deal, okay?

The best part of training?  Enjoying a post-run espresso while I watch my neighborhood wake up.

Day 1, by the numbers:
3.06 – number of miles we ran today
28:24 – number of minutes and seconds it took
9:17 – my pace per mile (if I did the math right — maybe a little too fast if I wanna keep this up over the long haul)
12 – number of people in my pace group
10 – excitement level post run!

Day 0: Looking toward the next six months, and other Friday happiness

The building I work in handed these out today for Mother’s Day.  Really happy about getting one, despite not being a mom!

Training for the marathon starts tomorrow!  Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow!  Yippee!!!  Tonight marks the start of Marathon Season Friday Nights In.  And you know what?  I’m PUMPED for them!  Okay.  That was maybe a lot of exclamations.

On an unrelated note, I’m not usually into reading interviews unless they’re extremely well done, but this one has a great message: Nice does not equal weak.  I may adopt this as my motto.  Happy weekend!

NYC Marathon 2013

New York City Marathon, here I go again.  Just as I was getting a little worried that something would go wrong with my acceptance, an email came through saying it was time to sign up.  So I did!  And then I bought myself these sweet new shoelaces.

Training starts May 11!

Boston

Painted tree exhibit near Spotts Park in Houston.  It felt appropriate — if atypical — to add this beautiful blue scene to this post.

You can read more about this art project here.

So I’m feeling a little unsettled, and when I started to write this post I was going to blame that feeling on these things, in this order: humidity; that stupid fruit cleanse I tried and its plaguing backlash; a friend’s move to NYC; and my lack of a normal weekend for what feels like now has been months.  Then I realized that today maybe I don’t want to keep this post light.

I don’t want to keep it light because, to be honest, the Boston Marathon has had me on edge the last three days, though out of respect to everyone who has actually been affected by that tragedy, I will not pretend to have any sort of right to claim grief by what happened Monday.

I — like everyone else, like you — have been nose-to-the-wire around news reports, imagining what it must have been like to be there, feeling so sorry for the runners and spectators.  Oh, hey, you spent the last year training for this?  You dreamt of crossing the finish line with thousands of others cheering you on?  Surprise. 

I know all acts of violence like this are terrible, I do.  But there’s something just especially horrific to me about the idea that an event that makes people so happy — that makes me so personally happy — could be so scarred.

I first became familiar with the Boston Marathon when I was living in New York, starting to run.  Every few weeks I’d walk into Jack Rabbit to pick up various bits of running gear, and I’d spend time cautiously eyeing the employees, who were all expert runners, imagining what it would be like to be one of them, to run for speed.  

On the wall of the store, behind the counter, was a large chalkboard devoted to running talk.  Scrawled across the board were sayings making references to running culture, and I remember that someone had written, “I broke down a wall on Heartbreak Hill.”  I learned later that this was a reference to the Boston Marathon’s most notorious hill, and also to what happens to runners at mile 21.

References to Boston continued to pop up as I made my way deeper into running culture, and I learned that “qualifying for Boston” is for many the goal itself.  At a strict 3 hour and 5 minute qualifying cutoff time, just getting there is a feat that takes years.  People who run Boston are pretty special.

I so utterly revere Boston runners, and more-so today.  And so to echo all the rest, there’s nothing to say but that I’m so sad and sorry.  

Resolution #3: Fitness

Disclaimer: This post is a little embarrassing to write, which is why it’s February and I’m just now going for it.  So let’s just get it out there, rip it off quick like a Band-Aid: My third resolution this 2013 is to get into shape.

Oh, the cliché!  The mediocrity!  The humiliation!

PHEW!  Now that’s over, let me tell you that I’m really excited about this one, and the other day I realized why.

On Sunday, an acquaintance asked if I was a runner.  I had been talking about a race I’m entering this weekend, and when she asked, I paused.  Well… no?

I mean, there was this whole thing about training for the New York City marathon.  But that got canceled and I never got to do it.  

This strikes me as a funny question because it’s confusing.  You see, I run every week without fail.  When I trained for the marathon, there was a six-week period when I would have considered a half-marathon distance to be short. Pending no hurricane-caused cancellations, I’ll be running 26.2 miles in November, and just last week I let myself spend an hour designing my new training schedule, savoring the idea of those early Saturday morning runs.  But runner?  Me?  Eh…

When I think about why I’m not a runner – I do recognize what a self-deprecating thought that is – I come up with a few reasons. 

First, I do have a pretty conscious commitment to humility.  In my mind, runners are people who run MARATHONS!… which I have yet to do.  So saying I’m a runner is a little too boastful, like bragging about landing a new job before you’ve got the offer.  In life, I tend to think the literary technique of “show, not tell” is really best.  And I haven’t shown anyone I can run.

But I have to admit the real reason is that, ever since college, I haven’t really exerted myself… you know, physically.  For the past three years (this post is getting pretty cathartic) I didn’t push myself.  When I ran, it wasn’t for speed.  When I practiced yoga, it was with resistance.  And when I did boot camp… well, I didn’t do boot camp.

So 2013, what’s changed?  Well, I’m not doing anything too special – yoga, boot camp, running and weights – but what I am doing I’m doing consistently.  A few of my self-imposed guidelines:

1. Work out four times per week.  Anything less than vigorous DOESN’T COUNT.  (I had to add this clause because in my marathon-training days, to be able to squeeze in a million runs per week, I’d let myself off with something super easy, like a 20 minute relaxed run.  Might as well have given myself the day off.)
2. Write down my workouts.  This part I love: I keep track of them on a calendar on my fridge.  Probably the most satisfying part of my entire workout routine. 
3. Mentally reframe.  One of the most important changes I’ve made is to look forward to my workouts.  In January, I looked forward to them because I was excited about the New Year.  Now I look forward to them because I’m getting betterat them.  It also helps, when I’m feeling too tired to lace up and head out the door, to remember that pent-up feeling I get when sitting at my desk.

So there you have it.  Well, there I have it, in all my clichéd New Year’s Resolution glory.