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lack of motivation: pwned
Maybe it was the time change. Maybe it was the “my parents are buying everything, who cares what I eat” diet. Maybe it was the fact that I ran a 5K really hard without having done any speedwork since early spring. (I did get a adult PR of 22:43, although still well shy of my overall PR of 19:20 at age 16.) But towards the end of last week’s Ohio trip, I self-destructed. My 7-miler on Saturday turned into a 4-miler. My 11-miler on Sunday turned into a … 1-miler. 2, I guess, if you count the shameful walk back to the car. Anyways, it continued this week, as I lazily skipped my Tuesday and Thursday runs, and walked the last 2 of Wednesday’s 8-miler. Finally, this morning I had a great run, running 8 miles. It called for “race pace” again, although I averaged about 9:30 instead of my usual 9. But who cares, it felt great to get out there and actually finish a run for the first time in over a week. Some of my morning runs earlier this summer were really chilly as I started, running to the west into the wind, and really warm as I finished, running back east into the sun. Today was the opposite, as I ran east first. I guess the return of that chilly wind means that fall is right around the corner. The fact that classes start back up on Monday is probably even more of an indication…
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round on the ends and hi in the middle
Now that the summer session is at its close, I’ll be traveling to Ohio for a week. That won’t stop my training, though! I have a 7-miler I need to get out of the way early tomorrow morning before I drive to the airport, and Sunday is a planned 15-miler. I’ve figured out a little 3-mile route that goes around my old high school and middle school, which I’ll tack on the beginning of an out-and-back 12-miler on the Heritage Rail Trail, where I did most of my long runs when I was first attempting to train for a marathon last year.
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i've got nothing to say but it's okay
After over two weeks of laziness, I finally forewent the snooze button on my alarm clock (okay, I might have hit it once…) and went for a morning run. As much as I love getting my run out of the way early and having the rest of my day ahead of me, there’s one thing that I definitely prefer about evening runs, especially this time of year: it gradually gets cooler during the run. Morning runs are exactly the opposite. Bleh.
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night of the living dead
If someone had put a gun to my head this morning and told me I had to run a half marathon today, I can honestly say I would have had no problem, since I did not only 13.1 miles – I did 14 miles. (Actually, it was probably a little bit more than that, since I took a wrong turn around mile 6 and it took me a few minutes to figure out that I wasn’t going the right way.) Also, since I was running for two and a half hours, I can say that I have the ability to keep running as long as the world’s most elite marathoners. Now I just need to work towards running as far as them… Not to say that my run was all fun and games, however. The first hour was very sluggish, and I found myself thinking, not two miles into the thing, that I think that’s about as far as I want to go. The second hour I had fallen into a rhythm and just kind of grooved along. The third hour, however, I was in complete zombie mode, as if nothing but my hunger for fresh brains was keeping my forward momentum. Around mile 13, I was passed by a girl. Despite my brain congratulating me on all the milestones I was achieving on this run, every Y-chromosome in my body was screaming, “Dude, you just got beat by a girl!” Granted, she was probably just running a few miles tonight and I had been running for over two hours at that point. Who knows, she might even be on the university cross country team or something. But still, it did kind of topple over some of my sense of accomplishment. Does this make me a misogynist pig? Oink oink?
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2+2=
Today was my first 4-mile “easy run”, which will mark Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next several weeks. The route is an out-and-back on the Paradise Path and Latah Trail. I’m not really sure where one ends and the other begins. The western boundary of the Paradise Path is pretty obvious, as there’s this giant archway announcing that you’re entering the Bill Chipman trail. But the eastern boundary is much more nebulous. According to the website, the Paradise Path connects campus and downtown, implying that the Latah Trail begins in downtown. But, at least based on what I consider “downtown” to be, the trail goes nowhere near it! It jogs a good deal south. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say the trail changes names when it crosses US-95. Speaking of which, the fact that I have to wait at a light twice to cross US-95 during this route makes me consider finding another 4-mile route with less red light waiting time, and possibly less confusing trail name switches.
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i blame voldemort
Yesterday, a dark wizard put an Imperius curse on me, forcing me to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows all day rather than run. So my scheduled 6-mile “race pace” run never occurred. Oh well, it was a “stepback” week anyway. However, the curse wore off today, as I went out and did my 9-mile long run.
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farewell, washington-and-back
sniff Today was my last 3-miler until the week before the marathon. Next week, my “easy runs” on Tuesday and Thursday get amped up to 4 miles. So I said goodbye to the Bill Chipman Trail and will say hello next week to the Paradise Creek and Latah Trails, which make up the bulk of my 4-mile route. insert montage of fond memories running on the Chipman Trail and turning around at the state border, complete with sappy music
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blood, sweat, & tears
So today was my big 12-miler. Not 2 minutes into it, I tripped on my shoelace and found myself giving a very personal hello to A Street. My knees got pretty scuffed up, but I managed to finish the run just fine. I don’t think I could have gone much further than the 12 miles - the last mile especially felt like I’d lost all actual energy and was running entirely on willpower - but that’s all I needed to do for this week. I’ve also decided to start posting some video blogs on YouTube - check out the first one.
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meep meep
Today’s run was another 6-miler, and, thankfully, happened to be one of the occasional Saturdays which didn’t call for “race pace”. I did my usual route, the “Kibbie/sheep run”, which, surprisingly enough, goes behind the Kibbie Dome and through the university’s sheep farm. (My buddies weren’t out eating today…) Almost every time I do this, or similar, runs, I see a few birds running around on the road just north of the sheep farm. At first, I thought they must be roadrunners. I mean, they are running on a road - and they’re pretty good at it I might add - the little buggers are faster than me! They even have a little tuft of feathers on their heads that look like they might have inspired a cartoon version on Wile E. Coyote’s nemesis. But alas, Wikipedia tells me that the Greater Roadrunner is exclusive to the southwest, not the northwest. It’s probably just some Idaho species of sparrow taunting me.
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double digits!
Well I did it. My first double-digit long run. Today’s run was 11 miles. I tried a new route that went east of town on Darby Rd. and Olsen Rd., right in the shadow of Moscow Mountain. I thought the road names were especially cool because they happen to be the same as the names of my high school and a certain Daily Planet photographer who also happens to be Superman’s pal. I’m really starting to feel like I’ve built up some good endurance - I just kept on trucking without really feeling tired.
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