It's weird to think that I've done all this before, but there's still a nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me this is impossible, that I simply don't have the constitution, the body, the willpower to make it through this. I think this is the reason why people run marathons. I know it is for me. Because I can think back on this at any point in my life, whenever things seem impossible, and remember that that nagging voice is nothing but a scared, ignorant, lying source of misinformation. It's sounds corny as hell, but seriously, there have been countless times when I've thought to myself, "I ran a goddamn marathon. I can do anything."
As I mentioned in my last post, I'm doing the "train less, run faster" program, which started this week. As I was warned, just because I'm training less days a week, this does NOT make it any easier. This is freaking hard, and I am feeling pushed right to the edge of my ability. However, I am hugely grateful for having a day off in between runs. I ran Monday/Wednesday/Friday and did yoga on Tuesday and Thursday. Not surprisingly, my knee pain is GONE. Like magic. Even after the 8-miler today, I feel great. I didn't even need ice.
So, Monday involved speed training. 10-20 minute warmup (about 1.5 miles jogged slowly, followed by stretching), then 3 x 1600 meters (1 mile) at a 10K-45 second pace, 1 minute rest intervals. End with 10 minute cool down. I thought this would be easy! Only three miles? And I get a whole minute to rest in between? Piece of cake. My pace was supposed to be 7:15/mile -- quite fast for me, but I'm only doing one mile at a time, so how hard could it be?
I was hoping to run on a track, but that proved trickier to find than anticipated. I called UVM's athletic department to ask if I could use their track and got no response. I then called Burlington High School, and they said it was cool so long as the gate was unlocked, which they said it should be. Drove down there early afternoon, and it was locked. Argh. SO, I went down to the waterfront instead, as they at least have mile markers on the bike path. I was hoping to run on some rubber, but had to deal with the asphalt once again.
Once warmed up on the bike path, I began the first run, iPhone in hand to measure the miles. Turns out I really need a watch, or a stopwatch. The iPhone screen turns off, and it's too easy to accidentally hit the pause button on the touch screen. Plus I kept yanking my headphones out of my ears. I gave up on music by the third mile.
For the first mile, I felt like I was running fast as hell, but I made it in 7:30-ish. I felt exhausted. The one minute of rest FLEW by and I felt like I was still gasping for air on the second mile. "I hate this. I hate this. I hate this," is what ran through my mind. I finished the second and third miles in about 8 minutes. I felt really uncomfortable and unhappy the whole time. This is very different from the long distance running I'm used to. Plus side? It went by really fast, I guess.
Day #2: easy 2 miles, 2 miles at 10K pace, easy 2 miles. I was wary about running 6 miles for the first time, but I actually really liked this run. The easy miles were, well, easy and quite enjoyable. I didn't quite make my desired 10K pace (8 minutes), and was closer to 9 minutes. We'll work on that.
Day #3: 8 miles at planned marathon pace + 30 seconds. For me, that's 9:40/mile. This was actually great. The weather was absolutely gorgeous -- about 40 degrees and soooo sunny. I think this is my favorite running weather. Just perfect. The run was challenging, but I felt prepared for it. Now, I have GOT to work on my pacing. With the "lap" feature on the iPhone stopwatch, I tried to capture my times for each mile. After the fourth mile, it looked like it wasn't letting me do that any more -- turns out it just scrolled down and I could have kept using it. So, I only got the first 5 miles, and it's obvious that I'm all over the place and not great with pacing.
Overall, my time was about 81 minutes, or 10:07/mile. I don't have the exact time because a) I didn't start running the second I hit "start" and, b) my phone froze at the end of the run for about 30 seconds. Here's the breakdown. This looks ridiculous:
Mile 1: 10:00
Mile 2: 9:11
Mile 3: 10:44
Mile 4: 9:47
Mile 5: 9:21
Miles 6-8: 32 minutes (10:40/mile)
Miles 3 and 6 involved a ridiculous hill on Battery Street -- 6 solid blocks of a relatively steep decline/incline. This is actually what runners face at the 15th mile of the Burlington Marathon, affectionally referred to as the "assault on battery." I figured I should get a handle on it so it doesn't wipe me out like it did in 2010. It's surprising that running DOWNhill (mile 3) slowed me down so much. I think I was holding back as I saw it as an excuse to conserve my energy, but there's no excuse for that time. I'm assuming that running up the hill on mile 6 slowed me down to about 12 minutes, and I ran 7 and 8 in 10 minutes each. I felt like I was crawling up that thing. It's pretty damn tricky.
Week 1 is done. I feel great. I love how breathing feels after a long run. My lungs feel so open, like I was never really breathing before. Have I mentioned how much more energy I have now? How I can climb the multiple flights of stairs to my apartment without being out of breath? Life is good.
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