A Fool of Myself

When I came back online early in August, I updated you all on my marathon training and accounced that a marathon just isn’t in the stars for me this fall. Not because I don’t want to run a marathon–I do. Just not right now. Plus my fitness goals of toning and speeding up don’t align with marathon training.

So I’ve tabled the marathon training for a later date, which kills me a little bit because I had aspirations of being done with the marathon by my ten-year high school reunion (2011). Oh the weapons of ego we wish to weild when we meet our high school classmates again…

My pride issues aside, I’ve made my goal for the fall the Sunshine Run 10K in October. This race is easily one of the largest in Springfield, and I’ve always wanted to run it. In fact, I registered for it in 2006, but didn’t train for it. I didn’t even start. And a DNS is way worse than a DNF. Yuck.

This year, I am prepared to start and finish this race. I have an arsenal of weapons to make sure I do:

1. First, I made my training schedule yesterday and photocopied half a dozen times so it can be posted all over my house: refrigerator, bathroom mirror, work office, etc. Accountability everywhere for the next eight weeks. In it’s essence, Mondays I have a medium run (working from 3 miles up to 6 miles), Tuesdays I run 2 miles, Wednesdays I have speed work on the track, Fridays I do some light cross training for 60 minutes, and Saturdays I have my long run (working from 4 miles up to 8 miles). Wednesdays and Saturdays are my most essential and hardest runs because a) they’re just tougher and b) I have to run them in the mornings.
2. Second, I am getting a new training watch. My old Timex’s band finally bit the dust this winter, so I’ve sort of been running “in the dark” for a few months. If I am going to work on speed, a watch is mandatory, right? A watch will allow me to keep a training log right here on my blog. My birthday is next week, and I am, without subtlety, hinting that I want a new watch, specifically this one. If I don’t get it, surely I’ll have some birthday money to blow.
3. Third, I am getting a subscription to Runner’s World (and maybe Women’s Health). This depends on how the birthday money is spent, but I’ve found I’m a lot more inclined to get off my duff and workout when I have magazines to keep me inspired.
4. Actually, this isn’t a fourth weapon. Well, if you knew these girls personally, you might consider them weapons. Anyway, I have Sarah and Linden (who returns September 10) to smack me around if I don’t do this. Actually, I haven’t even asked them to smack me around, but I know they’ll jump on the opportunity.

So now you know what I’ll be up to for the next eight weeks. Right now, I’ve got to wrap up this blog post and do my cross training before it gets to hot outside.

For the second time this week, I went to bed before my bedtime and woke up just as the sun was rising to go running with The Other Sarah. We ran 3.1 miles in less than 36 minutes. Started off at a pretty good clip (11:30/mile), but that only lasted until we got to the third mile when my butt and hamstrings literally said, “We am not doing this any more.” Our last mile featured a lot of walking breaks. No matter, you have to run faster to get faster, and since Other Sarah had a pretty easy Crossfit workout, we were able to take our speed up a notch. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt for me to speed up a teensy bit; Linden has been running with her speedy hubby for almost two years, and she’s gotten speedy, too. I won’t be able to keep up with her when she returns in September.

Tomorrow is my first speedwork class, which is likely to include a lesson on vomiting. My goals are to 1) Wake up and get to class at 5:45 AM, 2) Run all assignments, even if I’m getting smoked by others, and 3) Adequately cool down and stretch before driving home. I’m a little concerned that this class might be too much too soon, but I know I can’t make it to next Thursday’s class, so I’ll have two weeks to recover from this hard workout. And Other Sarah and I have already decided that Friday’s run will be easy, so we can work the kinks out of our legs.

My body is slowing remembering that we used to run like this all the time. My abs are like, “Oh, you haven’t used us like that in a while.” And my hamstrings are saying, “We’re a little tight from sitting in that office chair all day long. Don’t forget to stretch us!” So I’m remembering what it means to be a good, healthy runner. Trying to stretch every day. Going to do some ab work and strength training once I get a few more weeks under my belt. Eating the prescribed calories before and after workouts. Drinking water. Sleeping.

It’s funny, after only three days of behaving like a runner and actually running, I already feel like a runner again. And it always surprises me how a little bit of hard, physical work wipes away much of my body-related anxieties/perceptions/unhappiness. I love that.