20 miles. DONE!

let's examine the positives:
+ great soundtrack
+ functioning nike +
+ gorgeous view of the chicago skyline at sunset and at night
+ great pace--finished with an average mile 9:49 pace (paused for a stretch at mile 12)
+ amazing personal moments at mile 10 (sober, k. clarkson) and 19 (marchin on, one republic)
+ ran TWENTY MILES when i could've run 18
+ felt mostly strong and energetic

the less than amazing aspects:
- knees hurt like a mother
- cold
- ten miles of crazy chicago wind going against me for the last TEN miles (WHAT THE HELL?)
- finished the run and post-euphoria almost threw up in walgreens of dehydration
- my whole body hurts

too tired to finish. but i did RUN TWENTY MILES. i am awesome and ready for the marathon.

k took the pic of me after finishing. i look heinous but the joy is evident.

i'll leave with the lyrics of the song that popped up at mile 19.2:

We'll have the days we break
And we'll have the scars to prove it
We'll have the bombs that we saved
And we'll have the heart
Not to lose it

For all of the times we fought
For all of the things I'm not

Oh!
You put one foot in front of the other
We move like we ain't got no other
We go where we go we're marchin on
Marchin on

There's so many wars we fought
There's so many things we're not
But with what we have
I promise you that
We're marchin on
We're marchin on
Right Right Right Right Left
Right Right Right Right Left
Marchin On

confidence then terror.

i'm overdue for a long run update. first, let me share an embarrassing (but maybe logical?) fact: in between my long runs, i've barely run at all. maybe a 3 or 5 miler now and then but really, ever since my 10 miler i've been focusing on eating protein and resting. plus, i'm old now and it takes a bit of time to recover.

my first long run was a 10 miler and it was amazing. completely, freakishly wonderful. i was nervous (appropriate) and maintained a great pace with solid energy. it started to lightening then quickly progressed to near black skies with horizontal rain at 10 in the morning. somehow, the fact that i was running despite my rampant apathy in such crazy weather made it all more fun. i high-fived a 70ish runner in the pouring rain and smiled A LOT. averaged a 9:30 pace and ran from my place to north ave beach, down past navy pier, montrose harbor, the aquarium, the bears stadium and mc cormick place (land of the marathon expo) and back.

last monday kristen and i ran a half marathon (separate) on monday. my ipod was acting up (see previous blog--also just found out NONE of my runs have been sent to the website since january. UGH!) so i'm not sure of my pace, but i think it was 9:45. the first 8 miles were fun but the least few were v. painful since my knees decided to remember that i have osgood-schlatter's and are not quite run-friendly. during the end of the run, i tried to remember that the ridiculous pain was helpful in the training to teach me to keep moving despite complete discomfort and my body screaming at me to stop.

with two good runs logged, i am running 18 miles today and totally freaked about it. it's over three hours of running solo, with a quiet running path and little to no external energy to motivate me. i am a classic extrovert who derives great energy from the people around me. so all factors considered, today may be harder than the marathon. which is a WEEK from today, by the way. shit.

enough talking, now time to drink a bit of fluids and gear up. personal lesson: stop talking and get out the f'ing door.

Nike+

I'm at the Apple store on Michigan Ave, again. The pairing of Apple and Nike has led to one of my all-time favorite intuitive consumer products, the Nike+. That said, it's been acting up and when that happens, all goodwill goes out the door. I have become overly dependent on my little running buddy, completely reliant on it to tell me pace, distance and provide me with my power song when needed. To be on a run and realize you have NO IDEA how far or fast you're going is infuriating.


So, I've replaced my Nike sensor twice and am working on replacing my iPod Touch for the second time as well (for free so far). It's probably my very struggling computer that's actually to blame, but that's not a problem I'm willing to deal with now. Anyway, here's hoping that the glory that is the Nike+ system returns. I can't imagine running this Saturday's 18 miler without it.

Soundtrack for the moment: Allison Krauss, Baby Now That I've Found You.

Back on the path

Day 1. Great run with good energy and stamina. Only ran around 4 miles because my Nike+ was acting up and I didn't feel like guessing 5 miles' distance. Given my lack of any exercise recently, I think today was a good enough start.

Also finally invested in a new pair of shoes tonight after realizing I've run a half and full marathon in the current ones. They've done good work and deserve a rest. Fun PD (Plan Madness) Fact: You can buy a new pair of shoes this close to the race as long as they are either the same or similar model to the current shoe (presuming the previous pair worked for you).

After trying on a New Balance, Saucony and an Asic, I went with my current shoe: the Nike Vomero. Painfully pricey (as is the case with any distance shoe) but worth every dollar in injury prevention.

Tomorrow: tackling 5-6 miles. Let's hope that my Nike+ decides to work and that my motivation continues to improve.

The irony does not escape me.

The date to motivate, indeed.

The Details

This week's milage plan:

Monday: 5 mi.
Tuesday: 3 mi., with speed work (run hard for 30 sec, jog for 1 min)
Wednesday: 10 mi. (EEEEK)
Thursday: 6 mi.
Friday: 7 mi.
Saturday: 12 mi. (Oh, HELL.)

Wednesday and Saturdays will be longer runs, with the rest of the time serving to build up our "base." Once KJS returns to Chicago, bi-weekly yoga classes will be key in preventing injury.

The Madness Mindset

29 days

The typical marathon program consists of pre-training and then 18 focused weeks of training to prepare to run the big 26.2. I plan to go from couch to finish line of the Chicago Marathon in just shy of a month.

Let me be clear: Training (ish) for a marathon in >30 days is total lunacy and in no way endorsed by normal, disciplined athletes. Considering those two adjectives aren't how people probably describe me, I think Plan Madness is an ideal opportunity to leverage my procrastination talents to pull off the ridiculous.

Prior to today (Sept 12, 2010), I was convinced that I wouldn't be running this year's Chicago Marathon. After a summer primed for idyllic training, aka an available daily running buddy, flexible schedule (read: endless hours of nothing), and a supportive running group for long runs, I lacked even a drop of motivation. And, well, I kinda sorta gave up. (Internal rational went something along the lines of "this just isn't my year; I'm ok waiting for another race at another time--I've already done a few marathons, no real NEED to do this one anyway...") Gradually, I was able to talk myself into believing that quitting didn't make me a quitter.

Co-marathoner KJS informed me that despite her lack of running this summer (in her case, totally valid) she was still in. Her response to my reaction cocktail of We lack the time!/I'm too out of shape!/There's just no chance in f-ing hell we can do this!, was, well... we actually have done this. Exactly this. Last year. So, I guess it's the Thing We Do now. Welcome to the Marathon In A Month program for the insane. Let's get started. (Tomorrow.)