I've officially started training for Boston 2011. I write about all sorts of topics in this blog, but I must say it feels good to finally have it live up to its URL.. so I run marathons...
Technically, our first team training run is tomorrow morning, but I didn't want to chance running long distance the day before going back to school, so I did it yesterday, and it was fantastic.
It's weird how things change as you get older. Five years ago, the most I would run alone was 8 miles. I lived in Beacon Hill, so I'd run down Cambridge street, over the Longfellow, down to the Harvard Footbridge, and back up to the Longfellow. I loved it. A solid 8 miler. Now that I'm older, I've found I'm much more willing to run longer distances alone. Plus, I'm thinner. Last night at my parents' house I looked at the Saucony 26 billboard and for the first time, I noticed what you are all talking about: My face looks drastically different without the extra 25 pounds. I was pretty then, and lord I miss that long hair (soon, soon), but I was chub chubs. Major chubs. It's so much easier to run when you're thinner. Granted I still have ten pounds to go, but still.
It's weird how I used to run short distances. I have to get back to that. Lately I'm in this mindset of "if I run, I want to run at least 9 miles." This isn't such a bad thing, but I need to do speed, intervals, hills, and short runs. I looked at my training log, and I'll run 12 miles, then not run for 5 days, then run 11 miles. I need to stop that. There should be 3-milers and hill workouts in between That NEVER used to be the way. I used to love my fast-paced 3-milers, 4-milers, etc.
When I try, I can't remember when it happened. It must have been sometime after I moved to Brookline/Brighton, because I don't have such easy access to short runs that involve mostly esplanade. I love my new neighborhood, but I so miss being half a mile from the Charles. Back then I didn't even have to count the distance I ran to get to the Esplanade. I just did it as a 10-minute warmup and then measured my mileage by the bridges. Now I'm 1.88 miles from the nearest bridge over Storrow (bay state Rd, BU). Then I'm 1.98 miles from the Everett Street exit off Soldier's Field Road. So basically, even if I run to the first one, run down the esplanade, and leave at the Everett exit, that's 6.7 miles. I could shorten it by taking the Cambridge / Double Tree exit, but I hate running there. About half the time, I zone out, and then get confused when I run up to the tolls for the turnpike. Being yelled at by cops for almost running on an interstate = not fun.
So yeah, it must have started when I moved out of Beacon Hill. As much as I love Boston, it's difficult to make routes that don't involve stopping at a thousand intersections. Even yesterday's 12-miler involved 7 minutes of waiting. That is, the difference between my start and end time was 7 minutes slower if I didn't stop my watch at intersections.
It was glorious, however. Part of the reason I think I rarely do short runs is that for distance runners, often it takes 3 miles to get into the groove, and if the run's only 3 miles, then you never even get there before it's over. In this case... well, I'm not sure exactly where the mile markers are on this run, and I'm deliberately trying not to know. I'm compulsive. Very, very compulsive. Even knowing that when I cross onto the Esplanade it's exactly 1.88 miles is very difficult, because I psychoanalyze everything. But with that said, the first 40 minutes-ish were tough. I was not feeling it. I persevered, but it was long. The route I did involves most of the Esplanade--- BU, Storrow, all the way up to Route 28, past MOS, and back down Memorial. I honestly didn't feel good until I was almost on the other side of the river. Then there was this moment when I realized "I can push it harder. I can fucking fly, why am I going this slow?" and off I went.
Towards the end, it hurt, but not too badly. I ran sub-10 minute pace, but beyond that, I didn't calculate. I suppose I could if I didn't have an aversion to math. Next Saturday, I'm running with the Fitcorp team. That should be fun.
Not sore today, surprisingly. Maybe I'm in better shape than I thought I was. Although I do have one question for runners, if anyone reads this, and if you haven't been driven away by my rambling and repetitiveness by now. Do you ever get sick after runs? I don't mean "puke when you walk in the door." Lately, if I don't eat something major within 15 minutes of the end of my run, I get really, really sick. Vomiting violently sick. This never happened before this year. Does anyone else run into this problem? Haha. run into. Luckily I managed to stuff a few pieces of bread into my system just as I felt the nausea coming on, but it wasn't as foolproof as eating a Luna bar.
OH, ONE MORE THING.
I ran 3.2 miles on a treadmill in Cleveland and went into near-anaphalactic shock. No idea what cauesed it. Luckily my brother was on the treadmill next to me, and I was able to somewhat communicate to him that he needed to retrieve our father from the family suite (my face was swollen, talking was difficult). I'm also lucky that my brother is THAT GUY who takes his cell phone to the gym with him. Now I have a bunch of random food allergies, but I hadn't eaten any of those foods. What the hell?
Okay, over and out.
1 comment:
omg what happened?
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