Archives for July 2006

Eek! The 31st of July is creeping up on me. The return of official “training” has long been anticipated. With the “plan” I have been failing to thrive; I have been apathetic. I’ve long been craving the return of regimented training. At the same time, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of panic hit upon realizing that my training schedule will begin in 1 week.

I’m excited and nervous at the same time. With a single week left of doing whatever I want, many questions run through my mind.
Have I run enough?
Just how much fitness have I lost?
When will the weather be cooling down?

Just after 11 am today, I began to feel the pull to go running. I ate my yogurt – enough fuel to satisfy my hunger for a bit longer – and made my way to the fitness center. I would not brave an outside run today. Yesterday was far too miserably hot to venture outdoors when I can just run on the treadmill.

I hoped on the 1st treadmill and began my warm-up mile (9:33). Post warm-up, my pace hovered from 8:39 – 8:27 minutes/mile for the next 5 miles. After hitting mile 6, I cooled down at 9:34 for 1 final mile.

I feel better about missing yesterday’s workout. I know that I have lost a considerable amount of fitness since running Grandma’s Marathon, but I am confident that I can gain it back. I am ready to be back on a training plan again. I thrive in the regimented structure.

I didn’t run, but I did manage some cross training. It was really by survival, or by accident. It seems that the increased heat caused too many people, myself included, to turn on the rarely-used air-conditioning system. The power was pushed beyond the maximum capacity and finally just quit. For hours on end, there was no electricity. I came home with bags of groceries only to find out that our refrigerator wasn’t running. The ice in all of the stores for all of our surrounding cities was gone by the time we hunted it down. We retreated to my old neighborhood pool.

At the pool, the water was warm but still offered some relief. Feeling guilty from no form of exercise for my Sunday, I started to swim some laps. The pool was crowded. For 10 minutes, at the top of each hour, however all kids must exit the pool. This allows the grown-ups a kid free pool for 10 full minutes. Normally, it is heaven…but there were so many adults in the pool that I had to swim around them to get across the pool. When I lifted my head for a breath, I often saw the people looking at me with that look of “you *must* be crazy!” Whatever. As a runner, I’m used to that look; I get it often. I may not have run, but at least I did *something*.

It’s 91 degrees out with 43 % humidity and it’s still early. The weather forecast is showing 101 degrees by the peak of the day. I knew it was going to be a hot one but I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed after a late night of scrap-booking. Yes, I made head way on the kids’ Birth to whenever books and stayed out until past midnight.

Around 10 am I finally changed out of the jammies and into my run wear. It seemed to take me forever to get it together to get out the door for a very short run, but a run none-the-less. Hot? Yes, it was hot already and I tried not to get discouraged by telling myself that I’d just go for 3 miles. I demanded a “quality” run today; no easy run would satisfy me. I didn’t figure that this would be an issue since my run would be so short.

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Post-run fatigue had already set in by the time I hit the stairs with my lunch in hand. It was a good run today and my body was just reminding me of that. It’s the nice sort of soreness that says, “Good Job.”

Cindy and I met up at the street crossing half-way between our two companies. She *said* that she would be slow and I just laughed in knowing that it wouldn’t be so. Cindy has a habit of saying that and pushing through it just fine. Today, it wouldn’t be an issue; I was happy for whatever pace we’d go just so long as we were able to cover 5 miles. So, we set out at a brisk pace and moaned about the heat from time to time throughout the run.

It was a nice change to run somewhat fast. We ran for over 5 miles on a relatively flat course. I was talkative and that meant that I worked harder to keep the pace. I can now say that I got my sorta long run in for the week.

Cindy and I talked, ran, and enjoyed eachother’s company and the warm breeze.