Thursday, August 04, 2005

Weeks.....




It's been over a month since I've jotted down my thoughts. Stop judging me.

There have been three runs of note. The first was the 14-miler, which I described in an email to my mom and then cleverly saved: "today's run kicked my ass. i did everything i know to do...ate a good dinner last night, no booze, went to bed at 10;30, ate breakfast this morning, drank a bunch of water. i guess i was just tired from my busy week. also i had a slight cold this week but i thought i had kicked it. i think that's what did me in. the "designated driver" (person who stays with anyone having trouble) of our group was a guy named owen* the ultra conservative guy. we had some interesting conversation. i don't meet a lot of republicans. it was a tough blow when i had to fall behind today, i'm so stubborn. so i'd say i ended up walking 4 of the 14 miles, which i know is still not that bad. after this we slow our pace down for longer runs which will help me out a ton." The second notable run was the 16-miler, of which there is no written record. I could catagorize it as not as bad as 14 but I have had better runs. The only thing I remember was that when I was done I did have a thought that ohmygod maybe I can actually do this. So I have that going for me. The third run was last week in the Outer Banks when it rained and I broke my iPod, further stregthening the case I should never own anything nice.

So there's the abridged version of the last month of my training. I think the pictures are a nice touch. Chances are if anyone ever did tune in to read this they have long gotten discouraged by the lack of updates. I said, stop judging me.


*name has been changed to protect the ultra conservative guy

Friday, July 08, 2005

Weeks 8 & 9

Pretty uneventful. Hot, that's really all that I remember. The humidity was kind on the 12 mile run (the, ahem, *longest* run of my life) but was back with avengence for our first "recovery run" which was harder than the real run. No aches or pains of note. I was originally planning on taking off tomorrow in order to drink my face off in Baltimore while watch the Red Sox with my girl Jana. Sadly, it was not meant to be as she is a much better person than most of us and will be taking call this weekend for her sub-internship ("sub-i" if you're in the industry) in pediatric something or other. So there's not much excuse for missing tomorrow. I am scared, though, mainly due to my lagging behind in my maintainence runs. Not only have I not been planning on running, but I've had a bit of a head/sinus/cold thingy this week that has made it hard to want to run. Tomorrow's gonna be quite the test.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Week 7

Great run this week. Really it could be said that I was powered by the strength of cheesey 80's classic "Xanadu," viewed Friday night while eating pizza and drinking Gatorade. Why did leg warmers ever go out of style. And who knew that Olivia Newton John's ankle's were so chubby. The weather for the 10 mile run was perfect. Perfect. I was even a little chilly when I left my apartment. Seriously, running 10 miles on Saturday was easier than running on Monday in 98% humidty and 90 degree heat. A guy in my group is from Canton, Mass. so I think about half of the run was spent talking about the Sox. Which never hurts, they are always kind of my fall back running thought when I'm bored or just want the time to pass. Total running time: 1 hour 50 min. That means next week we'll be clocking over two hours. Yikes. My group is starting to bond a bit which is nice, I've almost got it figured out who everyone is.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

What week is it?

With the arrival of the Washington DC heat, my brain has melted into a nice gooey substance that has made it hard for me to remember what day it is. I think I missed writing last week, for my eight mile run. From what I remember, it was just lovely. The sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the 1 hours and 22 minute or so run which I appreciated. It was probably pretty hard but certainly paled in comparison to this current week's run - the 9 miler. You know you're in for a tough run when your pace group leader, who has run 5 marathons and countless other shorter races, has to bail out of your group after 2 miles. Perhaps I should have followed her example and paid attention to my body. But I'm much too stupid for that. By the end of the 9 miles I was woozy and so hot that I was cold. We were told to consume salt during the run. At the water stop there were pretzels, which turned into a floury goo in my mouth. I'm not sure how much good they did. I never thought I would wish to have to get up earlier, but I almost wish we were starting before sunrise. I'll be adjusting my diet this week to include more salt. We'll see how that goes. Snaps to Angie, because I'm pretty sure the only thing that kept me from collapsing last week was the thought of pink lemonade and vodka by the pool that awaited me back in the city. Now that is incentive.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Week 5

Today I got to know my pace group a little better. My pace group is called the Cathy O'Brien's, for no apparent reason. There is no one named Cathy O'Brien in the group, at least not that I've seen. I wish we were called the Tigers or something tough like that. Everyone made a bunch of small talk today. My favorite guy was Craig, who mentioned that after runs he likes to reward himself by smoking a cigar. He wondered out loud whether his lifestyle and training for a marathon might be a clash of interests. I'll be keeping an eye on Craig. The run itself was great. That was the one upside of the Red Sox defeat last night. It depressed me so much that I was in bed, completely sober, at 11 o'clock. WHY DID SVEUM SEND THEM HOME?? WHY??? But I digress, top form today. First rate 7 miles.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Week 4

I wish so badly that I could have recorded my running inner monologue while I trained this week. Not only did I train by myself, since I was out of town over the weekend, it was pouring down rain. Like buckets. Like the thing that I remember thinking the most was "it can NOT get any worse than this." Other thoughts included congratulating myself on investing in non-cotton running wear and that after finishing fundraising for AIDS foundation I am going to have to fundraise for the Ali's Pneumonia Foundation. Song of the week stuck in my head: "Pay for what you get" by Dave Mathews. Just awful. I will say that at least the weather gave me something to think about besides just the running. I avoided stepping in puddles, which lasted about 30 seconds. Turned out that stepping ankle deep in cold water really wakes you up. But I did it, 6 miles, all on my own, in the rain. It cannot get much worse than that.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Week 3.5

From what I remember of my run 5 days ago, 5 miles is a lot more than 4. Although it's hard to tell how much my body was affected since I played softball the next day and put my body into a world of hurt. How could it be that there are so many muscles that I don't use on a regular basis. I was so sore I had to take 3 days off, and when I ran yesterday I was still stiff. I have yet to meet anyone in my pace group going to Ireland, which concerns me a little bit. Surely someone will pop up. I will be missing group training this weekend for a wedding, so I'll be training on my own. It will be a test of commitment, making it the whole 6 miles, or 72 minutes. I'd like to say I know I can do it, but we'll have to just wait and see.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Week 2

4 miles today. I mean, Saturday. In keeping with every other time I've tried to find a marathon meeting spot, I got lost this morning. Luckily mine was the last group to leave so showing up 20 minutes late was not a problem. Sunny day, almost warm, didn't trip and fall or anything. Nobody else tripped and fell. Pretty ordinary.

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Week One

First day of training. The tempurature was in the high 50's, the rain was falling at pace not quite a drizzle, not quite a pour. But at least I got there on time, which is more than I can say for myself last Saturday. Orientation was 11 am last week, I was up and ready to go at 9:30. And somehow I missed it. I can't explain how terrified I was all week that the same fate would befall me today. Luckily no.

3 miles today, which is shorter than the usual runs I take. Today we ran to see which pace group we will train with. To my surprise, I finished at 29 minutes - putting me in the 11 minute pace group. I can't lie, I was pretty pleased. Although I do have to give some credit to the stranger who started at me about 200 yards before I was finished. He caught me off guard. The only person on the street I'm used to lunging at me is the crazy Asian guy near my work. Apparently this kid had nothing better to do than walk around in the rain at 8:30 on a Saturday morning and scare the crap out of me. He apologized after startling me...but my pace picked up markedly for the last few steps.

Last night was, obviously, my first "night before training" night. I had been dreaded it. Friday nights, for the last 3 years, have ended up similarly - usually involving a cocktail, some friends celebrating the fact we don't have to work for two days, and staying out well past what Reader's Digest will suggest is a suitable bedtime. But I made it home at a decent hour last night. Let me tell you one thing for sure. It sucked. It was as terrible as I had imagined it. For the first time since I don't know when, we had seats at Dan's. And I had to go home early like I had a curfew. But what I need to remember, is that it was easy to get up and run this morning. Eventually, I know I'm going to be out...and I'm going to think to myself...just a little bit longer...just another MIller Lite...I'll be alright... and I'm going to be wrong.

Well those are my thoughts for today. I never promised they would be interesting.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Here goes...

This seems a little odd seeing as how I have not even started officially training for the marathon yet. I guess I'm in the mental preparation phase. Phase one...create a web journal of my training. Phase two...? Phase three...win marathon. That's my plan of attack for now. No really, I'm freaked out. Until recently, my running history included the eight laps around the WHS gym we did before volleyball practice and the mile they made us run in freshman gym class. I ran track one year in high school. My event was the 50 yard dash, and I ran in that heat that didn't count towards anything. And I usually lost. So I think it will be amazing if I can pull off a marathon. Not to mention if I manage to keep up writing on this blog, or if it ever ends up to be interesting. Lofty goals.