Had I not been so out of breath, I would have laughed at myself for drawing parallels to the chapter I’d been struggling with in Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. This may be the chapter that pulls it all together – I can’t be sure. I’ll let you know when I finally am able to conquer it. For now…the run.
training déjà vu
I’ve been rather pleased with the way my speed work has progressed. The long run build, however, has been rather difficult. While I shouldn’t be surprised, I must say that it is humbling.
On Saturday, I set out late morning for a 14-16 mile run. My targeted 16 miles was quickly reduced to 14. The run was hot, and boring, and LONG. Can you believe that: A long run felt LONG? To make matters worse, the people out were the most unfriendly lot yet. Well, with the exception of Betty (my neighbor’s mother). I slowed to a walk for a few minutes to say Hi and catch up briefly then returned to my plodding.
It was all I could do not to walk the entire return trip. Instead, I stopped on a bench to whine to the Twittosphere and started up again. A mile later, I got word that a dear friend was heading to the running store. It just so happened that my car was parked there and I really wanted to be able to say “hello.” It was just enough motivation for me to fight the urge to walk.
A short while later, as I was complaining that my level of fitness was comprised of far too little FIT than I wanted, I felt a little déjà vu. Could it be that this is all a part of the plan? Maybe we are supposed to be beaten down so that we can learn to fight back. After all, isn’t that what happens on race day?
Trek the track
I’m batting 100%. To date, not a track workout has gone by where SOMEone hasn’t asked me about my Vibram Fivefingers: KSO Treks. Let’s face it…they ARE cool. Especially the way the bottoms pick up the red off of the track.
flex this…and that
Leveraging my training log for Santa Barbara, I’ve populated myCal with a workout plan for Portland. Almost as soon as I laid it all out, I had to modify it in order to accommodate my ever growing social schedule. The camping trip moved up my long run to Friday – so as not to worry about finding 12 consecutive miles (in addition to the time) to run. This week’s 6-mile race with also require some juggling of the schedule by either having me double back on the point-to-point course or move the long run to another day. Then there is DD’s upcoming visit which honestly has moved 3 times already so I’m not sure if any amount of planning will be adequate to account for it.
Honestly, I’ve always needed to be extremely flexible in my training approach. This is the reason Jeff gave me the nickname Gumbyhead shortly after he started coaching me in 2007. When things like fallen trees or downed fences tried to obstruct my training, I’d just “gumby it” and move on. I don’t know why I thought this training would be any different.
Plan P
After running with Big Sis, we joined a handful of her running friends at the local bagel shop. In no time, I was caught up on the injuries, life events, and running plans of many in the group. Not long after that, I was changing my marathon plans from California International (CIM) to the Portland Marathon.
I’m now registered and laying out the course for Plan P.