We had a warm day yesterday, the warmest since mid-November (three months when it never got above freezing and the cabin fever had advanced all the way to "I'm not showering; my skin's drying out as it is. And it's not like anyone will care, what with me always up on my roof, chiseling ice dams"... yes, STILL) and so I had to go out for a long run. It was a mental health thing. Had to be done.
Training has not been going the way I want. I expect to make the biggest advances in fitness early and then plateau, but I've been backsliding. Mileage has dropped. Speed (a relative term at this point) has slipped. Even the non-running training has been put on hold, as I tore my right trapezius - happened as I discovered I can do a one-armed pull-up if my life depends upon it, as I was hanging from the eave of my house.
Put the damn in ice dam.
I managed 25 miles, my longest run sice last May. I started out at 9.5 min./mile and slowed very gradually for the first 15 miles, when things started getting hard. The next 5 miles had me running on the ice and mud on the side of the asphalt path, rather than puddle-jumping with the other 1000 people (and dogs) at Lake Walkathon, as the bottom of my right foot began to ache. The last 5 were a death march, ending at 11.5 min./mile. All the work I've done on maintaining posture to avoid backache late in ultras appears to have been for nothing, as I started to hunch my shoulders and every now and then I'd force my shoulders back and hear the bubblewrap pop of my upper spine. Four hours and change.
This is not where I hoped to be in training at this point, but it's better than nothing. (and I know someone will point out that a 4:30 marathon as a training run is better than they race, but I should be a couple of minutes per mile faster than that)
Added later: What makes me laugh
I'm spending Valentine's Day at New York's Hottest Club: TWICE
And, because it's driving me nuts, can anyone tell me which Beatles song this reminds me of (the first guitar lick is straight out of the Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville" and that I think keeps throwing me off):
First big snow
4 days ago
5 comments:
It's early season, there's bound to be more bad runs now than later on. Many months to go before Sawtooth. You've got huge base right now, I wouldn't sweat these tough ones just yet!
:)
"Good Day Sunshine"? "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"? "Hello, Goodbye"?
Could be any number of Paul's piano songs. Sounds the most like "Hello, Goodbye" to me.
It also sounds a bit like the Kinks' "Walter".
I hate core work to begin with, then when I get lower back pain when I swim (of all times), I decide it's totally not worth it.
G: THAT'S IT! It's "Walter" by the Kinks I was thinking of; that's why I couldn't think of which Beatles song it was... it wasn't.
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