"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Reality, Hope and Determination: Day 5

[Someone found this blog today searching for "Mens Pants Size for 350 Pounds." I love that. Even more than the single hit from Google Cameroon, looking for hot muscular men, last week.]

Reality
After such an extensive lay-off, it's been difficult to decide what condition I'm in. I'd do an occasional run and make a guess that that was an average day. This week, I've discovered that I'm in far worse shape than I had imagined. The initial thought was: On Jan 1, the weather was awful, so that day doesn't count; Jan. 2 was a good, average day; Jan. 3 was a bad day. Two more runs under my belt, I see that the run on the second was in fact a rather hard day and the one on the third was average (feeling difficult because I was tired from the hard run the day before). I have a lot longer road back to where I want to be than I thought.

Hope
I'd looked back at the first 7 days of the previous years to find that in 2007, I ran 71 miles. In 2008, I ran 74. In 2009, it was 61 and in 2010, I was down to 43. That was disheartening. Then I looked again and saw it differently. In 2007, one of those days was 38 miles, indoors, so the other days I only averaged 5 miles. In 2008, I had back-to-back runs of 18 miles (in warm - for Minnesota - temps), so the other days I ran 7 or 8. In 2009, one run was 27 miles, so the other days were 5 or 6 miles.

This year, I'll be over 65 miles for the same period, all outdoors, all slow, with no long runs. One of the things that's been iffy about my training for ultras has been daily "time on one's feet" training. I'd alternate a hard run with a few days of easy running - just as my last post said: when you run hard, run very hard and let the easy days take care of themselves - but there was no consistency. I'm now getting in a decent, though never good, day of training each day. That gives me hope.

Determination
The weather continues to be bad. The whole next week will be below average temperatures, though no really cold (like -20F) days. It's going to be a grind, just getting outside and running, but I'm thinking each day will be a little easier as I get used to it.

4 comments:

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Wow. I read that title and I thought this post was gonna be a review of an Earth Wind & Fire cover band on the 5th day of their World Tour.

Here's my review of that non-happening:

sucks.

No:

sucks dick.

slg are you okay?

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Going by the comments on this post, I, according to your own blog, am the only person still talking to you.

I started off this day feeling sorry for myself, but now?

I feel sorry for you.

My word verification: "dehoi".

Sounds like a Prof. Frink word: "de-HOIIIIIIIII!"

sea legs girl said...

Oh, I'm still talking to Steve and I'm okay, too, thanks, Glaven. :)

God, reading your posts is NOT making me want to move back to the midwest. Rasmus and I have this conversation almost every day:

SR: I can't wait to move back to Wisconsin
Me: I don't want to live in Wisconsin. It's too cold in the winter.
SR: My son lives there.
Me: Um, but it's really... cold... (My argument just isn't holding that much weight.)

Re. Jens Lekman. He, as far as I can tell, is completely unknown in Denmark. I'm not sure about Sweden. But he sure is a Stereogum sweetheart. Have you ever read his blog? He's an odd chap who seems perhaps a bit bored with life. But his music is fun - especially with his accent.

Rasmus and I are both big Avett Brothers fans, so we were shocked we hadn't heard January Wedding before.

And LCD Soundsystem. I know everyone likes them, but they've just never really excited me. But I guess that could change.

My 2010 song list is up on my blog now. If you have heard of all the bands there (all the non-Danish ones, that is) then you seriously need to spend less time finding new music ;).

sea legs girl said...

One more thing: all this talk about Famine Affair and then you liking the beginning of the Local Natives song reminded me of Id Engager by Of Montreal. It is SUCH a great running song and so funny. I'm sure you know it, but it might be worth adding to your playlist again.