Pain Proof

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November 19, 2013 by Amy B

I have never been one to  buy the “pro” photos from a marathon (because hello, expensive), but I made an exception this year (after the photo peeps ran a sale, bringing the price to a much more reasonable level).

 

Funny, but now I’m wondering why I chose the first one when I look like I am clearly NOT having fun. I guess it never hurts to have visible proof of a time when you were completely miserable, so that you can be transported back to the agony before you do something silly like sign up for another race. Or go through pregnancy/childbirth again. Note: I do not have photos of myself in labor. Maybe I should.

I can tell you that for myself, it takes about a month and a half after a marathon for me to have forgotten most of how much it sucked. I have been thinking about my next race but don’t know if it will be a full or half. A spring full seems overly ambitious and just downright stupid. I know I could pull off a half, even with the stupid amount of snow that falls here from November-April. Yes, APRIL.

Still have time to think about this so let’s quickly recap some workouts.

On Friday I ran up to the local HS track to calibrate my new Garmin Foot Pod. I’d been thinking of one of these for awhile but didn’t think I had any need for cadence. Then I started running in more minimalist shoes and worrying about cadence and midfoot strike and OMG SHUT UP ALREADY and decided to go for it. I also have this dream/goal/idea that I’ll run more on a treadmill this winter (up at the local meat market/mental health melting pot/workout center) and wanted ALL TEH DATA.

It’s about 1.5 miles to the track, which I ran at an easy enough pace.

 

I had to run behind a closed grocery store and among scattered liquor bottles, pringles cans, misc. debris until I found a gate that was locked, yet had an opening wide enough for me to squeeze through.

I didn’t try to race this, but I would be lying if I was a little worried someone was going to drive up and start yelling at me for running on the track. In the dark.

 

Um, holy what?

Many years ago I did some early morning track workouts with a coworker and one morning actually timed myself running a lap. I’m pretty sure my best time ever was somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:00, and that was an all-out sprint (for me at the time).

The run home was uneventful (2.41 mi @ 9:26/mi pace). As for the calibration run time, I don’t know if I could keep that up for an entire mile, but I’d sure like to see if I could. I guess that means more track workouts for me. 

Saturday’s weather was supposed to be shitty but ended up really quite lovely. After some coaxing from Scott and Nancy, I pulled off my comfy pants and went on the hilly loop. I did not expect to run this fast, but I ended up setting a PR for this route. I also paid attention to cadence and whoa. I had no idea my cadence was this high. Good? Bad?

I was surprised by the laps; the third and fourth mile of this loop are usually pretty slow for me.

 

Also: I pulled out my bike trainer last night and reaffirmed my hatred of it. Not only is it weird but it slips on the downstrokeTrying Nancy’s tonight to see if the wheel makes a difference. If it does, I may bite the bullet and go for a fluid trainer so that I have something to do on evenings when I can’t get up to the gym, can’t get outside to run, and can’t for the love of all things holy do another Jillian DVD. Report coming soon.