Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Don't Think… Just Run

It's not always easy getting up at 4:25 AM to get in a run before work.
I'm out the door, on the street with the dog by 5:00.
This morning I found myself standing in the middle of the street with my dog Rocket thinking, "What am I doing?  I'm tired and I really don't feel like doing this."
So I look at Rocket to see if he really wanted to run.
This voice comes flooding into my head and overpowers all of those other voices.
"DON'T THINK - JUST RUN"
"It's cold."
"DON'T THINK - JUST RUN"
My feet start moving.
"You're sore."
"DON'T THINK - JUST RUN"
"Run tomorrow."
"DON'T THINK - JUST RUN"
"Just run one mile."
"DON'T THINK - JUST RUN"
"Ok… that's one mile, turn around and make it two miles"
"SCREW 2 MILES"
"SCREW 3 MILES"
"RUN 4 MILES"
And that's how the morning went.
All of that before 6:00AM, while most people were still sleeping.
I Ran Today.




Monday, October 6, 2014

13.1

Quick update since I can't seem to find the time to get things done.
In January I signed up for the Urban Cow half marathon.  It starts and finishes just a half mile from my front door.  Little did I know about all the events that would take place to get me to October 5th.
After I was able to run the Zero Prostate Cancer 5K in San Francisco two weeks ago I realized that I might really be able to finish a 13.1 mile half marathon.  I figured I might have to do a lot of walking, but hopefully I could finish, and if I didn't, there would be plenty more to come.

Fast forward to Sunday, October 5:
It was the 10th Cowtown / Urban Cow gathering at our house since it's so close to the race.  Friends bring their friends, and friends of friends… and this year was no different.  Great to have everyone over in the morning.  Going into the race I planned to run 5 minutes, then walk 1 minute, throughout the race.  I wasn't sure how far I would make it or how fast, or should I say slow, I would run.  Jon stuck with me the entire way and Jess joined us at the halfway relay point.  I was amazed I felt so good.  I had some energy left after mile 12 so I picked up the pace to the finish.

I finished in 2:22:49, way better than I would have ever thought I would do.  I thought my time was about the same for the SF marathon, first half, I ran three days before surgery.  It was… my time in SF was 2:22:27, just 22 seconds difference.  I took both races real easy with no time goal but it felt good to run the same pace pre and post surgery.  I feel good.  I wasn't sore after the race and I'm still not sore more than 24 hours later.

I'm not planning any other races for the rest of the year.  I'd just like to get back to doing at least 30 miles a week by the end of the year.  I'll wait until January before I really think about races for 2015.  I'd like to get in a marathon next year and maybe a 1/2 ironman.  I'm not going to push anything.