Today ends the 3rd week of what I call my "daylight road running" phase, or more fancily, my "1/2 marathon training." It has gone a lot more smoothly than I thought it would. I'd been worried about dealing with stuff like sun/heat, cars, and just you know, leaving the safety of my little nest.
The first day was about 5 miles, which I'd probably come close to while running driveway circles at 5 AM. And I'd just run 6 point whatever miles when I did the 10K... but the whole
actual distance thing really blew my mind. Like just visually/conceptually. I mean, on that first morning, I ran to my kids' school and back. It's a route I drive twice a day and it takes like 3 min by car, so it's not crazy faraway, but I'd never thought I'd be walk/running there 3 times a week.
Over these past few weeks I've run on almost every road within a 4 mile mostly northeastern radius from our house.
Now practically everywhere I drive I'm turning on Trip Odometer, scoping out terrain and the condition of the shoulders. Because the width of shoulders is a valuable asset. Many of the roads around here are narrow, with some spots only having like a 12" shoulder between the road and a tangled mess of who-knows-what. I run against the traffic and dart into the shoulder as far as possible when cars are coming, so there have been a few times I've had to leap over who-knows-what, onto the edges of uncultivated cotton fields. Or slow to a walk before my intervals podcast tells me too, carefully picking my steps in knee high weeds, littered with trash. Needless to say, I've gained a newfound appreciation for homeowners and/or crews-of-inmates who keep road shoulders mowed and the trash picked up.
Other aspects are fairly pleasant. Laughing at being scared of culvert-living bullfrogs. The scent of honeysuckle. Cool breezes at your back. Starting out fretting about how funny you look and how slow you feel like you are going, but then around mile 3 hitting your stride and feeling like you could go forever. Having a car pass you going one direction, and then 30 min later, same car passes you further out, on their way back. Getting on the scale when you get home and being like 2 lb lighter. Just being out there, doing something.
New running gear helps too. We recently bought
Buffs, inspired by the one my sister wore last year for their 1/2 marathon. I tried mine out this morning and it really cut down on the whole OMG THE SWEAT DRIPPING INTO MY EYES thing. Plus Stew had bought a water belt that I'd used a few times before he bought me one of my very own. Having water, chapstick, my phone and ID handy cuts down on
I'm-how-far-from-home? anxiety levels considerably. All I need now is a canister of mace, or a gnarly knife/grenade combo and I'll feel just like Lara Croft. Also lately I've been rocking a racer-back running dress that I found, nearly new, for $3 at Salvation Army. It just happens to be blue and orange, to match my shoes.
I'm following a modified Hal Higdon training plan, so I'm doing about 5-6 miles on M & W and then a longer run on Friday. This morning my pedometer said I ran 9.18 miles. Basically I did all of the little roads I'd run previously, all strung together into one funny looking route when charted on Google maps.
I'd started out telling myself maybe I should just do a 6 mile route, since the the training plan says to do a 10K race this week (I think as a way to check your pace?). Plus I needed to be home in time to make it to a "luncheon" Milo's Preschool was hosting. I got the kids to school a few minutes early and was out on the road by 8:30. Once I got a few miles under way, I figured I'd run an hour out, then turn around and come back, leaving me about 45 min to get showered and dressed. Then right about when I turned around to start back, I started feeling like I needed to pee. Only doing 6 miles seemed like a great plan then. Except by the time I'd made it to the intersection where I could turn left for a more direct way home, I'd already restarted my podcast and had discovered that my urge to pee went away when I was running. Why not keep running and take the longer way back?
Forty or so minutes later, having just passed the kids' school, I checked my pedometer and saw that I was just barely over 6 miles, I figured I might as well go at least 7 miles, and that 30 mins would be enough time to shower and get ready. However once I was on the home stretch, just over 7 miles done, and not feeling like I was about to keel over or anything, I began berating myself for not doing the 9 I'd originally hoped I could squeeze in. Wouldn't 15 min be enough time to shower?
Calling on the impressive powers of my Kegel muscles, I ran right past the house, up the road a ways further. Threw in a few deadends for good measure and finally my pedometer rolled over into 9.18 territory. I duckwalked my way into the house and by the time I'd peeled off my sweaty stuff I only had 10 min to shower and dress. Make that 15, if I broke a few speed limits...
So who ran 9 miles 10+ miles (google route says!) this morning AND made it right-on-time / on-the-edge-of-fashionably-late to a preschool-function luncheon at the local country club? Me baby. Me.
It's amazing how much easier it is to not sweat the small stuff when you actually do big stuff that makes you sweat.
