Operation GET YOUR BUTT IN GEAR

So the other day, I realized something slightly disconcerting.  My first marathon is less than 70 days away!

Ok, so the realization was more like fantastically horrifying, considering I haven’t run more than 12 miles in quite some time.

And that training schedule I had made myself? It looks lovely hanging at my desk, but I don’t remember the last time I actually did what it said.

So my friend Tiffanie and I decided last week that it is GAME TIME. She’s running the New York City Marathon in November (for Hope for the Warriors, help her!), so she’s got a few weeks more than me to prepare, but we both needed a serious re-commitment to training.

We’re aiming to run 7ish miles two mornings every week together before work. And trust me, we are far from the only people out there in the park at 5:30 a.m.  

Then there’s Saturday long runs with JackRabbit, my Tuesday spin class, Wednesday November Project, a rest day somewhere, and trying to keep up on my weight training.  I know I should get some yoga flowin’ in my schedule too.

So it was with my recommitted mindset that I set out on Saturday’s Yankee Stadium run with the JackRabbit crew.   We had done this route a couple weeks ago, so I knew my way and felt comfortable leading the pack. I wasn’t very chatty on the run, which I felt kind of bad about, but it was more of a solitary running kinda morning I guess.

It never fails to crack me up how confused people in the Bronx are by a large group of people running.  Half of them are convinced we’re running the marathon.  The other half just yell at us to “GO! FASTER!”

For those of you who would like all the intimate details of my run, I had the lovely experience of getting my period around mile 6. Yep. That happened.  Luckily, I had supplies with me.

Not much else to comment on for the run, except that mentally and physically I was feeling good, and hoping to do more than the planned 11 miles.  I felt like I had at least a half-marathon in me that morning (I had even changed my party from Friday night to Saturday night to ensure a hangover free long run on Saturday- look, I’m getting so mature and responsible!) I was scared that I would make it back to the store, get my water (it was SWEATY out there) and then mentally feel like I was done.  But since I was the second one back, it made it easier to drink my water, start Map My Run, and head to Central Park to see what more I could do.

The longer I ran, the more I wanted to get my mileage UP. I couldn’t hear Map My Run, so I wasn’t positive how far I had gone, so I just kept going. A bridle loop and two reservoir loops and back to my apartment. 6.36 miles. And the Yankee Stadium route had come to just over 12 miles.  Meaning, I had reached 18 MILES! The last six weren’t very pretty. They were slow. And everything hurt. And they had me thinking, “I’m going to do this + 8.2 MORE?!” But I did it. And now I feel so much more confident that I can get through this training, do a 22 mile training run, and cross that finish line after 26.2 miles on October 4.  

(8:47 pace, OOOOF)

I got back to my apartment, opened up my yoga mat, grabbed the evil foam roller, and could barely move for the next half hour. 

(Although I moved enough for a photoshoot...guilty)

The only thing that motivated me was the fact that I neeeeded food. I then took an hour long nap, and didn’t even feel guilty about it because it wasn’t that nice out anyway.

(Lion mane)

So I guess my lesson has been learned. If you want to be able to run 18 miles, you should probably not drink your face off the night before a long run. (Notice I said my lesson was learned, not that I would actually heed this advice on a regular basis). But I’m glad that I had made it up in my mind to make this run a good one and did what I needed to do to make sure it actually happened. 

High fiving myself, sorry.