This Damn Long Run Wall

I’ve been away for a while. I can’t break the 6 mile mark and when you keep slamming your giant gourd of a head into the same wall over and over and over you don’t really want to taco ’bout it. (2 things. 1. It took three tries to spell gourd 2. If you don’t know the taco reference google “husband illustrates drunk wife’s joke” and find the video about the corn chips. You’ll thank me)

Back to running. Tonight I ran 50 minutes. And by ran I mean I ran 5 minutes, walked 1-2 minutes, rinsed and repeated. It was a gorgeous night, a little hot in the blasting sun, but the Charles was buzzing. Pretty soon it’s going be filled with thousands of college freshman who think their God’s gift to the city of Boston. For tonight I enjoyed it with all the other locals.

A funny thing happened. I run with a breathe right strip. It looks funny but I’ve always said it helps despite the looks and side eyes from friends and family. Tonight I didn’t have a strip but thought “what the heck. Maybe it is all in my head” and ran anyways. Turns out I was right all along, I need the strip. When I breathe hard all that air flowing quickly through my tiny sinus passages vacuums my nose shut. I’m not kidding. It would have been hilarious if I wasn’t gasping for breath.

On top of that I learned something else tonight. Don’t dress for and run in late summer weather and then go into a Whole Foods produce section without a winter coat. You’ll freeze your arms right off. And then I’ll spill wine on you. Because you can’t lift your own glass. Because you have no arms. And we’re drinking wine. And we’re getting drunker. And let’s face it. Helping a person drink out of a wine glass sober would be hard, never mind drunk. Oh. Wait! Crazy straw. Problem solved. Feel free to enter cold places after a hot run. And be the girl drinking red wine from a crazy straw. Sounds kind of genius, doesn’t it. I might actually do it with my arms still attached. No more stains! I realize I’ve strayed quite a bit here. But I’m rocking my first runner’s high in two weeks and it’s nice. I’m also going to crash in 30 minutes and I’ve not finished dinner yet.

This week I’ve got another day of cross training, another 50 minute run, two rest days, and then it’s time to tackle the long run again. I’m nervous, but it’s gotta happen some time. I got close last week (5.5 out of 6 miles, though the last 2 were mostly walking). I just have to keep pushing ahead and hope that wall is turned to dust. Off to devour dinner, shower, and pass out. Yay sleep!

Hearts and this delicious panini from WF I’m eating for dinner because – um 50 minutes of running. In 78 degree hot sun. After gyming it at 6:30 this morning before work. Alone. Because I was stood up. (Still love you JP)

5 miles. What whaaaaat.

Fact: My half marathon is in 54 days.
Fact: I was sidelined waiting for my back to heal for 5 weeks
Fact: I’ve been not eating well and have been a little willy nilly with my training plan
Fact: My best friend got married this past weekend and and I had a bunch of other things to take care of last week and didn’t sleep enough. Instead of running I chose sleep a couple of times last week.
Fact: Tonight I ran 5 miles.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3rtyerfHZ1qir45xo1_500.gif

Sorry. Can’t help it. I love Ben Wyatt and I love that .gif!

The final tally was 5 miles. In 1 hour 13 minutes 24 seconds. I ran 6 bridges over the Charles. I ran into 1 co-worker. And I was attacked by 4 mosquitoes. This is the furthest I’ve run since March of 2012 when I ran a St. Patrick’s day race. And to be honest, it doesn’t really feel like I ran 5 miles. It feels like I ran 2.5.

In my rush to leave this morning I forgot to grab my Garmin. Before the run I bought myself a hand held water bottle. It’s still hot out in the evenings and I’ve been told by a coach that it’s better to run without holding anything. It had a pocket for my phone and car key. For my run I threw my phone in the pocket and started my plain old digital watch’s stop watch. I ran 4 minute intervals with 1 minute walking in between. Maybe it was just a really nice night for a run. Maybe the paths along the Charles are just that intoxicating. Or maybe for most of the run I was just running: no pressure for pace. I knew that it would take about an hour and 15 minutes to run 5 miles and so that’s what I asked of myself. And instead of seeing what little distance I covered every time I checked the time, I just ran what I could; what my body could handle.

Do I care that I’m still walking way more than I want to? Nope
Am I freaking out about adding a whole additional mile in just five days? A little
Am I going to be a little sore in the morning? Probably (though 45 minutes on the bike at 6:30 should shake that right out)
Does it feel awesome-sauce to look at my RunKeeper map and see 5 (five!!!) mile markers? Hell yes.

It’s the little things.

Hearts and Michelle Obama thumbs up! (PS Did you hear she’s coming out with a rap album to help get kids to get up and move?? I can’t decide if it’s awesome or will out shine Barack Obama’s dad jeans in the embarassing national parent category)

http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr03/2013/2/28/11/anigif_enhanced-buzz-15196-1362070613-0.gif

Bad gym morning. Pop tarts. And my lackluster Star Wars knowledge

I ran a whole mile and a half today. Walking some because I was on a treadmill, my treadmill buddy ditched to ride a bike ::side eye:: and my headphones and water bottle were in the car. Plus Girl Code was on MTV and though I hate that there are probably some teenage girls that don’t realize that it’s all a joke and that they shouldn’t really act out this “Girl Code”, it’s pretty funny. And funny is distracting. I just couldn’t get myself to get excited about running. Which is the pits because I’m supposed to be running 45 minutes 2x this week and then run 5 miles this weekend. This is also a bummer because I cross trained my butt off last night and felt awesomesauce! And then I celebrated a hoppy IPA day. (<3 beer holidays)
To sort of, a little bit, make up for not running the full 45 minutes I was supposed to, I hopped on the bike for 20 minutes. Will it help with getting my running fitness back up? Not as much as just running this morning would have been. But it did mean I could have a guilt free pop-tart this morning. Because it’s Friday, works projects are just all over the place and demanding all my attention, it’s raining, and I would like to still be in sweat pants, thank you very much. As it is, I’m in a zip up hoodie because it’s cold up in this joint but I don’t want the heat up because they’ll probably turn it from Hoth to whatever the opposite of Hoth is. The only Star Wars I’ve seen is Phantom Menace and whatever parts of Return of the Jedi were on TV. (Points for knowing Hoth??? It’s possible I know that from Angry Birds Star Wars. Don’t judge. I see you flinging that little Skywalker bird, too). It’s also possible I put the hood up too. It’s probably extremely unprofessional, but today I do not care. I’m grumpy. I’m at work. And my run this morning was a total Friday buzz kill. Not to mention I was at the gym at 6:45 twice this week. Apparently 1 morning workout a week is my limit. I was quite cheery and happy on Tuesday. Today I was:

Source: http://www.reactiongifs.com/im-dying/

Maybe I’ll go for a run in the rain after work. Hahahhahahahaahaha. I thought maybe you’d like to hear a joke. Although maybe it’s not a joke. I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure my couch is going to be pretty magnetic tonight. At least there’s beach time with my Mama tomorrow. And it’s August so we’ll just be in the water the whole day and it will be GLORIOUS.

Hope you didn’t come here for an uplifting post! Maybe this is funny. I don’t even know. But Leslie Knope always makes me feel a little better. I think I see a viewing of Love Actually in my future. You might say “But Liz, it’s a Christmas movie” and to that I say “Shut it. I just want to see Hugh Grant crab dance.”
Hearts and drink alllllllll the coooofffffeeeeeeeeeeeeeee