Friday, August 22, 2008

catchup

Goodness. Been a while. (Hi!) Things've been a tad hectic, partly due to much recent attention given to my grad skoo app (finally finally finally taking the plunge, though w/ a 15 percent acceptance rate, I'm hardly holding my breath) and partly due to training requirements. Regarding the latter, it's been an interesting ride these last few months. I've had a hell of a time running in the heat/humidity this year/summer, even w/ a few years of experience under my belt by now. Eesh. I was so miserable for it that I made the decision to start running my hard/long workouts in the evenings--late as I can, really. I'm thinking this'll only last through August and maybe the first half of September, 'cause it definitely fouls up one's social calendar. (Heh.)

But yeah, for this reason and for others I can't quite place--oldladyness, maybe--training for this race feels like a bigger, more serious commitment than in the past. The fact that I really really really want to qualify for Boston again probably adds something. One thing, I switched training schedules a few weeks back, opting for ol' Hal's sage advising over some Portland Marathon-sponsored garbage the pops put me up to back in July (dangit!). That first sched called for super-high mileage, and besides the fact that my body was acting hurt-y and it was damn hard to find the time required to keep honest, I was slowing down--of all things! What I need/ed, I figured, was a return to some good old-fashioned speedwork, which is just what this replacement schedule's good for. Signif lower mileage, too, which has been nice. I think it's working.

Anyhow, I'm up to 14-mile long runs, w/ a 16-miler on the books for this Sunday, placing me about halfway into my training. And it's neat, because I feel like I v. recently--as in, a week or so ago--hit that sweet point in one's training when the whole deal just starts getting/feeling easier. And this, well, this brings the fun back, which was something absent from my workouts in weeks/months prior. Amazing, what staying on schedule will get a runner. Yeah.

As far as specific runs, I've been sticking pretty consistently to quiet, straightforward Fourth Avenue. To be honest, it's just the easiest: convenient and familiar and right on the R line should I decide on a 'point a to point b' run over an out-and-back. (Uh, yeah, done that maybe twice.) Plus, it makes up a reasonable stretch of the actual marathon course, so there's that. Still, I've done a good bit of river crossing these last couple of months, rotating pretty evenly between the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. Nothing like covering this ground at 2:00 in the a.m. on a Sunday. Nothin'. Views of these are also pretty cool, though only good through 10:00 in the p.m.

Oh, also, and this is something I'm quite excited for, a dear person just gifted me w/ an early bday token: a session w/ these folks (Monday!), and timing couldn't be better. See, I've been having this knee thing--not at all debilitating, just pesky and a nuisance and slightly worrisome when I think about the months ahead. Last thing I wanna do is recreate the dealbreaking experience of a couple years back, when that damn stress fracture sidelined me for a good four months, and so soon before race day, too. Drat. Still bitter.

I've also spent even more time than usual these days reflecting on running's mind-body connection. *Dear person* referenced above has been instrumental in encouraging this, and some great eye-opening conversations have resulted.

One recent decision I made was to, at least where lengthy and/or hard workouts are concerned, lose the headphones. I've never been one to pair music w/ running more often than not, but had fallen back on the practice to a greater degree in the last year. Because it can help, for sure. Thing is, I've determined that it most def distracts my attention from form/posture, and this just isn't something I'm willing to compromise--I can't compromise it, not if I want to be at my best come November 2. So there it is: no more Arcade Fire. (Drat--sorta. I love running to that shit.)

Posted by princess kanomanom @ 3:47 PM