Karen writes: Training over before it started
Last long run was on Sunday. Just over 28km in 3 hours 10 minutes. No pain, well not in the ITB but the rest of me felt pretty miserable. I tell myself that LSD runs (Long Sadistic Distance) are meant to feel like that, especially with me having made a leap from barely doing any running mileage (just hours and hours of frustrating walk/run) into an almost peak training schedule only a few weeks out from a marathon. And now, daft though it sounds...taper time.
I had a weird marathon dream the other night, the marathon course wound through the inside of peoples houses and I distinctly remember running through lounges with people sitting in their chairs, me trying not to get in the way of the television, but having to ask someone where the kitchen was so I could get a drink. Wonder what deep psychological truth that bit of brain strangeness was meant to be getting at?
I'm pretty happy that people important to me, like Cousin R, are out there being energetic, she finished her first half marathon on Sunday. It was nice to imagine how she was doing while I was out clocking up mile after mile myself and send her little mental messages. It always helps me when I'm taking on something important when someone tells me they will be 'with me' as I run. Anyway, such an excellent achievement for R, and future challenges can never be quite as big again when you've knocked off a challenge like that. Just had a chat with an old friend, he surprised me by telling me he had been trying out running and was bemoaning the steepness of Red Hill (yep, that's a big one). Ahhh...runner talk...its nice sometimes when you've reached the point where exercise dominates your life and you have driven your family and everyone else close to distraction (because your conversation reflects total obsession), to be able to chat with other runner people who don't automatically go into a sleep-mode with their eyes still open.
Speaking of which, while the long run on Sunday disappeared under my shoes without any major hitch, being tired at 8pm for a few days afterwards reminds me that the body did actually suffer some stress, and the desire to eat everything in sight for days afterwards is another reminder. I've just packed my running gear in my carry-on bag to take away next week, I might go and soak my running shoes in nappy-san overnight so I don't get into trouble with Australian customs for importing wads of genuine kiwi mud, then I'm off to sleep for 10 hours straight.
I had a weird marathon dream the other night, the marathon course wound through the inside of peoples houses and I distinctly remember running through lounges with people sitting in their chairs, me trying not to get in the way of the television, but having to ask someone where the kitchen was so I could get a drink. Wonder what deep psychological truth that bit of brain strangeness was meant to be getting at?
I'm pretty happy that people important to me, like Cousin R, are out there being energetic, she finished her first half marathon on Sunday. It was nice to imagine how she was doing while I was out clocking up mile after mile myself and send her little mental messages. It always helps me when I'm taking on something important when someone tells me they will be 'with me' as I run. Anyway, such an excellent achievement for R, and future challenges can never be quite as big again when you've knocked off a challenge like that. Just had a chat with an old friend, he surprised me by telling me he had been trying out running and was bemoaning the steepness of Red Hill (yep, that's a big one). Ahhh...runner talk...its nice sometimes when you've reached the point where exercise dominates your life and you have driven your family and everyone else close to distraction (because your conversation reflects total obsession), to be able to chat with other runner people who don't automatically go into a sleep-mode with their eyes still open.
Speaking of which, while the long run on Sunday disappeared under my shoes without any major hitch, being tired at 8pm for a few days afterwards reminds me that the body did actually suffer some stress, and the desire to eat everything in sight for days afterwards is another reminder. I've just packed my running gear in my carry-on bag to take away next week, I might go and soak my running shoes in nappy-san overnight so I don't get into trouble with Australian customs for importing wads of genuine kiwi mud, then I'm off to sleep for 10 hours straight.
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