Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The shortest best worst week.

I always take the week after a big race off completely from running.

I don't do my shorter speedwork-type runs during the week. I sleep in to the BIG WHOOPIE late hour of 7:30am on Saturday. I drink on Friday night without worrying about how I'll feel in the morning's early hours.

And I feel zero guilt.

I bask in the glory (and waning soreness) of having finished a big race and think nothing at all about having bacon with all three meals.

It is, in a word, the Best.

That was last week.

Unfortunately, last week was also my first week back at work after my sabbatical, so that made it the Worst week, in a way. Not that I hate my job at all, but it's just that I loved my sabbatical weeks so much that, by comparison, it was totally the red-headed stepchild week and I wanted to slap it or make it stand in the corner the whole time.

Also, because it was my Post-Race Break Week, it was also very short.

Especially when I got up on Saturday to go out for my first long-ish run since Seattle, after sleeping in a little longer than normal for a training day, and found myself trudging through a short-ish six mile trot under actual sunshine.

Ew.

See, usually, for training purposes, I get up early-ish on Saturday morning, so that I can get my miles in under cover of darkness or at least clouds. And by 8am, the clouds were disintegrating faster than I could make it around my tried and true six mile loop and, obviously, any shade of darkness had vanished into full blown Day.

And the whole time I was out there, semi-baking beneath the rapidly revealing sun ball, I kept thinking that my break week had seemed awfully short and how come the weeks never seem that short when I'm at the end of my training and staring down a 12 mile run.

But I think we know the reason to that, so I won't bore you with any more of my brain's idle minutia on that topic.

On another running related topic, however, I signed up to run San Jose in October.

Because I guess I can't go back to Life Without Running any day soon because I've changed my lifestyle (read: eating lifestyle) to accommodate Life With Running and that means I eat just whatever I want, really, and imagine that my 20+ miles a week will handle it.

Without that 20+ miles a week? Well, my bikini and I would have a falling out. Specifically my ass cheeks would be falling out. And other parts that become excessively jiggly without the requisite running of miles would follow suit.

And I think you know that if I don't have an event out there, just looming in the distance with PR implications and the potential for public self-shaming, I'm probably not going to do these long runs that get me to my 20+ miles/week and that is when things start falling out of bikinis.

I'll need all my parts IN my bikini soon, so no flaming out now. Must get back to it.

So, I did my six on Saturday and then a few miles of speedwork this morning with the dog, which wasn't so much speedwork as it was trying to run while simultaneously trying not to catch the whiff of the poo bag I got the pleasure of carrying throughout mile 3, and after another day of speedwork this week, I'll go out this Saturday and run seven. Likely at an earlier hour so that my precious dewy flesh doesn't scorch under the sun ball and so that the sidewalks and bike lanes will be devoid of double strollers and zombies carrying trays of Starbucks.

What's in that coffee, people, that you must cart it around in bulk?

Anyway.

I'll be back on the Supah Technical Training Schedule so that, come September, I'll do some 11 and 12 mile runs so that potentially maybe if I'm lucky I can go for a PR in San Jose come October.

Which will now be a little bit harder since I came to find out that my time in Seattle was actually a blistering 2:23:57, rather than the initially reported 2:24:00.

For the record, when I registered just now, I put my predicted finish as 2:20:00, which might be a bit of pipe dream, although not as much as my Super Secret Predicted Wish Finish time of 2:TEENS:.

If you feel like crossing your fingers for me from now until October, I'd be ever so grateful.

10 comments:

  1. Fingers crossed.
    Not that you really need it!
    :)

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  2. Fingers are crossed- and toes are a challenge, but I think I can master it by October. :) If I don't master it, and you don't finish/do well I will feel like a failure and you are welcome to place all blame on me. I'm not red-headed but you know, I'm willing to wear a wig if it helps. :) LOL!!

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  3. You can do it. Is it hilly like Seattle? I bet you can easily shave off 3-4 mins. Easy peasy.

    I went for a run (almost 5 miles) at 9:30 one morning. I started to get heat exhaustion as soon as I got home. It was yucky.

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  4. Holy fried-on-the-sidewalk-eggs Batman! You're fast. I fell off the run wagon Finny, but you'll be glad (or maybe just mildly amused) to know that I am still on the martial arts wagon. Hoping to get that brown belt by November. JeezY Petes. I'm sore, too. That's what major couch surfing will do to ya. Gonna climb back on the ol' paint though and start back in on the running by this weekend. So impressed by you, Gal! As you run those scorching miles, I'll be thinkin' boutcha! (On a side note, the secret no-spam bloggy thingy word this time is 'beebut', which I can't say without giggling. Tee hee. See? Thought you might appreciate...) Beeeeeebutt! LOLOLOL

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  5. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you but really don't see the need as I know you'll accomplish your goal.

    Running is out for me, no two ways about it. My bad joints can't handle it, plus my new knee joint is not working as well as it should. However, between you and Kelli, I'm inspired to take some form of action and mine is walking. While I'll never have a bikini body again, health is my goal, so I've started a walking program. Although it's not the running thing you do, your posts do help me figure out some actions that transfer over to my own endeavor. Thanks!

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  6. So that's in October. October of 2010 sounds like a good month for me to shoot for to run a half...we should start looking!

    I am impressed with you jumping back on the running train so quickly. Dang, inspiring! (I am eating jelly bellies right now)

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  7. claudia - Oh but I do. Thank you.

    Sara - DEAL! No wig necessary though. That would be weird.

    lera - It's flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! Flat as all get out. I think the elevation gain max is, like, 90 feet or something ridiculous. It's awesome. Except for the obvious draw back of there being no downhills. Let us just agree now to not be running in yucky heat, k?

    Kat - Kat. I love you. Thank you for saying I'm fast even though I'm slow like a god damn snail out there. Chugging along all super dramatic and sad looking as I am. But bless you because I FEEL fast but then I see pictures and the times and I'm, like, Oh. Slowsky.

    Have a good (and cool!) time out there running this weekend with your beebutt.

    Junie - You say the sweetest things :) I do hope I accomplish this goal. That'd be nice. And, hey, I'd never tell anyone they should be running if it's not something they wanted to do. I think just getting out there and getting the blood moving is the key - how you do it, that's your choice. And walking is so relaxing and lovely. I build a cool-down walk into all my long runs and it's what I look forward to the whole time I'm out there pounding the pavement.

    Dig - Let's look! Maybe you want to run super flat San Jose with me. You'd kick major ass since it's also at sea level - so no elevation! Also, if I don't get back on the training bandwagon right away, I'll melt into a hopeless pool on my couch, so out I go.

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  8. Look at you go! So rad. I hope you rock San Jose in October. Woot!

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  9. I just wanted to say I really enjoy reading your blog. It makes me laugh and I thank you for it. I'm big into knitting and running right now too and can relate. Thanks for making me smile!

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  10. Kell - Yah. Me too.

    Christi - We are torturing ourselves the same, then! Look at us go! I'm going to wander over there and see what kind of torture you're putting yourself through today. Enjoy them both. (knitting + running, but you knew that)

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[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.