Saturday, November 3, 2012

everything counts a little more than we think...


Hello My Friends!

Let's jump right in, shall we?  Happy hello's to you from Boston!  Temps are supposed to dip into the high 20s tomorrow night and my AC is still in my window. i should really remove it but i live in a studio apartment and the rear on this sucker is huge:)  i guess i could take it out if i need an extra chair at my next dinner party... *sigh* 

anyway, for now, i’ve neatly rolled a few hand towels up along the window sill to prevent the cold winds from whipping through.  but yeah, i need to get this cooling machine out soon. Mother Nature is making sure Summer has left for good.  

In the meantime, it’s flannel shirts and slippers. I love that anyway - I’m from Maine! Of course I love flannel and cold weather!

So today was eventful. Today I ran 30:01 straight!!  in a row!!  without stopping!!
“Why does that matter, Kay?” you might ask. “You just freaking ran a marathon less 2 months ago? Right?”

And I would say: Yes of course you’re right, but out of all the running-your-first-marathon-advice I had absorbed I forgot to remember that recovery time is the real deal blue steel. It’s actually no joke.  It actually means: Put your feet up for a few days and do things other than running that make you happy. And by the time I remembered, I was on my 6th set of hill repeats three weeks after the 26.2 when my hip flexor seized. More specifically, my left adductor and pectinous muscles. It was super fun.

But let me back up and say the marathon was GREAT.  AMAZING. I LOVED IT. I smiled pretty much the entire way. I felt great. I got a little emotional lining up at the start (yes, this race was small enough that I actually could walk right to the front and wait for the gun.  It was awesome.)  The Lehigh Valley Marathon is 85% on trail and relatively flat, so it definitely provided awesome green scenery - and shade! - for an end of Summer race.  But we already had perfect weather - 65 at the start. Gorgeous. Being on trail was awesome, although since we were in the woods/by a river for so much of the race, you really only saw people when we’d pop out of the trail every 5 miles or so.  

pre-race pix! probably 5am. about to drive to the start.
And, since it’s a fairly small race, I found there weren’t a lot of people around me.  Which meant all you really had was, well, You.  So, in addition to keeping pace with some very awesome jams via headphones (which a lot of racers had - I presume they all knew this particular course) I was very much in by brain. I felt like i’d come full circle -  I mean, I’d trained with this brain for 14 weeks, I knew what to expect.  But those last few miles were surreal.  Surreal. I can’t explain it.  But we did it;  my head, heart, legs, lungs.  We turned into town on that last mile stretch that seemed to go on forever and my eyes locked in on three very special humans in my life. I ran towards them, high-fived them, and begged for the finish line.  As the bod started to shut down under the final moments of duress, the blue banner was there and i went through it and I was a marathoner. I finished!  Spent, cramped, but so extremely happy. It was very real, and simple, and yet very surreal.

But now, with the race far gone, and the injury having pulled me out of my rhythm n’ rhyme, I let things slide a bit.   I’m out of shape, I sleep in until 7am now since I haven’t had to run in the mornings post marathon.  I eat what I want, when I want. I enjoy more wine.  It’s been 4 weeks since the official injury and today was my 2nd run back. It felt good, it was hard to be conservative, but it felt good. I’ve tasted the sweet nectar again. It makes me want to be back where I was.  I want the peak fitness and the confidence that comes with it.  I want to start the cycle again.  But like all good things, I gotta work hard for it. And I know this. 

I know ebb and flow serves an important purpose.  They happen because they must. Because we can’t summit every mountain peak without first climbing down.   I suppose it makes the top that much sweeter.  So now it’s back to planning, and scoping out the Spring races!!  

In the meantime, I’ll take the Winter on.  Take the AC out.  And look ahead.

xxkay

my wall slowly filled up over the weeks of training. positive reinforcements, things friends said to me, Bible verses, etc!  Such an encouragement to me throughout the process.  and they are still on my wall:)