...running 7 miles is the most relaxing part of my week. After Christmas Eve with in-laws, Christmas morning with my folks and Christmas day-evening with my OTHER in-laws, I was ready for an hour and a half on the treadmill. As I've mentioned before, my running pace is barely more than a walk - and maybe even slower than a fast walk. At 5.0 mph, I knew it would take me about an hour and a half to do seven miles, with a couple of warm-up/cool-down walking minutes on either end. As with every Saturday long run, this would be my longest distance yet and would require some serious measures to keep my eyes off the treadmill display screen.
Enter Netflix Watch Instantly - and the router expander that took me 3 hours to set up earlier this week (a little present to myself). I had purchased this little gadget earlier in the week to extend the wireless signal out to the 'exercise room' which is housed in the addition on the back of house, woefully out of the reach of our ancient router. I won't go into the gory details of the two hours spent on the phone with Cisco non-support before figuring out, on my own, how to get the thing to work with our antique router. But once I had everything working, I was able to triumphantly complete my shorter runs on Wed. and Thurs. to early episodes of L.A. Ink. Joy.
So, since Saturday's agenda not only included my 7 mile run, but also a 5 hour round trip drive to the Meineke Car Care Bowl (my husband's present to himself, his dad and step-mom), I rose early and drank my morning coffee while I scoured Netflix for a 90 minute running diversion. Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist was a perfect fit. I completed the 7 miles with relative ease and did not harm anyone (husband, in-laws, other drivers, innocent bystanders) either physically or verbally the entire day.
Thanks Nick and Nora. Thank you Netflix. And Cisco tech support, go $#%^ yourselves.
Evening is definitely my least favorite time to run. I will even run during my second least favorite time - morning - to avoid it. Evenings in my house are sacred. Being married to a chef, even a 'grab and growl' meal thrown together from leftovers deserves to have both of us eat at the same time and frequently involves wine. Also, regularly traveling for work has given me a guilt-complex around not being in the same room with my hubby when I am home. Plus, the treadmill just seems all the drearier when the only thing I can see out the picture window is pitch darkness.
So, I shoot for afternoons, quick-changing into running gear as soon as I walk in the door. During this time, the treadmill looks out on the woods with setting sunlight filtering through the trees. Afternoons are also the only time I can really run outside in winter. I love running outdoors, but I usually only get to do it once a week. Since I run in a nearby neighborhood - one of those cookie cutter jobs with a perfect mile long loop - it is always entertaining. For instance, last week I was sort of attacked by a dog. Really just scratched and snarled at, but I yelled profanity at the owner who turned out to be a little girl who rode her bike up to me a few minutes afterward to apologize. I was in turns terrified, infuriated and mortified - but not bored.
On another occasion, an elderly gentleman who I had seen walking around my same loop, decided to speed-walk race me for part of a lap. The funniest part, for me, was that I run so slow that he actually did outpace me. However, he only lasted for about 100 ft. until he reached his yard and hurried through his front door, leaving me to picture him collapsing in a coughing heap on the other side. Good times.
So now, with the next two weeks off work (working in the education industry does have its perks), I plan to maximize my outdoor running time. The neighborhood kids are out of school, all of the extended family members are in town. All good fodder for running entertainment. And even if my husband is fairly disinterested in hearing about my growing distances and shrinking times, he does enjoy my dog attack and elderly speed-walker stories.
Rest. For me, this concept - that of NOT running 3 days a week - was at first hard to grasp. At this point, though, I am completely converted. The weekly pattern of short runs and rest periods does actually seem to help build stamina for the long runs, which for me fall mostly on Saturdays. So, today being a Sunday, I am indulging in a little laziness and revisiting the ipod playlist. I will likely do a little Wii Fit Plus later, following the sage advice to avoid being completely sedentary on rest days. But, at the moment, lounging in my pajamas with coffee and laptop is feeling just about perfect. As to the playlist, I think I've finally honed it to the point where I don't feel the urge to skip any songs as I run. Originally, I thought I could just use the generic workout playlist I had put together over the past couple of years of sporadic walking, jogging and weight training. But too many of the songs turned out the be the wrong pace or mood for distance running. So, the new list was born... and then tweaked, and then tweaked again. This week, over 16 miles, I did not skip a single song.Happiness.
...although, I'm sure I'll add more songs and probably get sick of some that pop up more often than others in the shuffle.
And for the days when music just isn't doing it for me, I'm still working on getting my laptop close enough to the treadmill to stream bad tv. But, that's a whole 'nother story.
So, I'm starting this blog as an outlet for the sorts of inane musings that even my facebook friends would be apt to ignore. Specifically, the thoughts that I have while running and about running as I train for a half-marathon. I am only three weeks into a training program and even my usually loving husband is tired of hearing about how amazing it is that I can run six miles straight! I understand his ambivalence - I'm not even sure yet how much I really care about it.
I'm 31, one semester into PhD study, 4 years into a fixer-upper, with a full time job that involves lots of travel, and with no real reason to take on something like a half-marathon. (I love the 'half' part - makes me feel like an even bigger poseur). Even though I am in pretty fair shape, I've never been a runner (unless you count intervals) and until three weeks ago, had never run more than a mile without slowing to a walk - or more likely doubling over and gasping for breath. I didn't even really like running until I discovered a few years ago that I could run on a treadmill without too much effort, if I had the right trash tv to watch. After that, I had become a believer in the runner's high, though I rarely felt motivated to achieve it.
The whole half-marathon thing came about as the result of what I like to refer to as my 'other' drinking problem: a tendency to be slightly tipsy around sober people (such as my parents) when they make ridiculous announcements/proposals/dares to which I generally respond, "Yesirree! I'll do that." This time it was over Thanksgiving dinner. My mom (50+, breast cancer survivor, non-runner) announced that she was beginning to train for a half-marathon 4 months out. And I really cannot even blame her a little bit here, because she did not follow this with anything resembling an invitation for others to join her. No "Who's with me?". No taunting about how difficult or noble the cause. Just, "this is what I am doing". And, I very easily could have just done what the rest of my family did - be thankful that she is healthy enough to take on such a challenge and offer encouragement and support. But, under the cheery influence of a couple glasses of pinot noir, I raised my hand (as though someone had asked a question) and exclaimed that I would join her.
So there it is. I got on the extremely dusty treadmill that weekend and ran 3 miles straight. I think part of me was hoping that I wouldn't be able to go very far and would be able to give the idea up. But no. That 3 miles was enough encouragement. Now I'm hooked. I did my research (my PhD program is in Ed Research and Policy, so it's kinda my thing), bought new shoes, a new sports bra, the latest issue of Runner's World and created a training schedule. Now, three weeks in, I am up to 6 miles and feeling like I will actually be able to do it. I talked my mom into signing up for a couple of 5Ks with me in Jan and Feb - partly because neither of us have never run 'in public' and partly to gauge where each of us are at that point. My mom, ever ambitious, recently said, "You know, after we do that half-marathon, we should go for a full in the Fall." She hadn't even started running yet when she said this. I responded, "Let's just see how we do on this one and then we'll talk."
The Tobacco Road half-marathon is Sunday, March 20.
