Off-Plan Run 2

Date: 12/8/09
Time of Day: 6:00 AM
Location: Marriott Route

Conditions: 43 degrees F

Music: New Yorker Fiction Podcast
Clothing: Long sleeved wicking shirt, compression shorts, shorts
Shoes: Nike Air Pegasus 26+

 

Wow...it's been almost a week since I've run. I was actually extremely worried this morning that my fitness may have significantly deteriorated.

 

For the past week or so, I've used the temperature and the lateness as an excuse not to run. Slowly, the days continued to creep up on me. Finally, I decided to do something about it. I'm never doing anything at 5:30 AM besides sleeping, so why not do it then?

 

Oddly, after years of making plans like that and never sticking to them, it was actually extremely easy for me to get up this morning. It was still dark out...and I felt like Bart Simpson ("There's a 5:30 in the morning?!?!"). My cat, Lexie, is obviously very attuned to my schedule, as I actually woke up before her for once. In fact, once I got out of bed, she went and curled up on one of the blankets and went back to sleep...but I digress...

 

After taking my shower and brushing my teeth (I figured this would save time when I got back), I popped an energy gel (since I was on an empty stomach) and headed out the door.

 

My plan was to do some Gallowalking again and try to at least get to 30 minutes. I did have the slight issue of a time crunch, as I didn't get to my starting point until about 6:10, which means that when I do this Thursday, I'll be waking up about 15 minutes earlier.

 

The first half of the first four minute interval was fairly normal, no pain, a little bit of soreness, but the second half was a lot more difficult than I was expecting. When I hit the end and walked my minute, the soreness actually started to intensify.

 

I pushed my way through 2 minutes of the second interval and began to worry that I had managed to destroy everything I had built up. I could not push further, so I walked after the 2 minutes. Then after the brief walk, I managed another two minute run. This put me at 8 minutes of total running. By now, however, my legs were exploding. There was no way I was going to be able to run again in 1 minute.

 

So I didn't.

 

I walked from there for about 5 minutes. Finally the throbbing in my legs had subsided and I took off again, hoping for at least 2. When I got to around 1:30, I realized I could hit 4 minutes. Again, I walked untimed after this interval. I had run 12 minutes so far. Somehow, someway, I was going to have to fit in 8 more minutes of running. After about another 3 minutes of walking, I started running again.

 

And kept running.

 

And kept running.

 

And finally when I realized I was going to reach the end of my route before I ran out of gas, I turned around and ran the other way. Finally, I maxed out at 12 minutes...the longest I've ever run in one stint. It wasn't the 20 minutes that I'm trying to attain, but it was definitely uncharted waters. Part of it made me realize the benefit of the warm up. The other part made me realize that I'm probably a lot closer to that 20 than I thought. With a week off, I managed to put in my longest interval to date. I don't know the science behind that...but I like it.

 

Thursday morning, it's supposed to be in the low 20's...which means I will finally break out the tights.