So despite the obligatory new year's resolution to lose a few pounds, my weight has been fairly constant since New Year's Day -- constantly about 2-3 pounds higher than it was that day. Except lately on Sundays of course; even if I drink a lot of water during a run, going 18 miles in 78 degreees and 85% relative humidity means I'm going to lose at least a few pounds, but those few pounds are always back by Monday or Tuesday. But it seems the last few days now I've regularly been seeing my NYD weight or just below that. Strangely enough, I've also eaten tons of sweets the last few days. I'd say I am generally a healthy eater but I also eat A LOT. But Sunday I had caramel brownies, alcohol, and 2 cupcakes. Yesterday, 2 more cupcakes. Today, 1 cupcake so far but it's not even 11 a.m. yet. Isn't it weird how that works?
Anyway, it was only 74 this morning apparently when we started our run and it was awesome to feel what a difference 5 degrees can make! We had our first race pace run after a warm-up, which meant I ran alone more than I usually do. It was me and 4 others this morning. We warmed up together to about 1.5 and then started race pace. Tom and Bandana-man were out front, David and Tony behind them, and me behind them, but only by a minute or so. I u-turned about half a block early, which meant David and Tony caught up to me at the water stop just past the u-turn and I ran most of the way to the next water stop with them. They started to pull ahead but a woman in one of the groups we were passing completely wiped out in front of them and they stopped to make sure she was okay. It was at one of those points where we'd crossed a street so the pavement had kind of a slope and then rise after we cleared the intersection and she must have hit it wrong because she went down face-first. Her group stopped as well and she said she was okay. Anyway, when David, Tony and I got to the water stop, Tom and Bandana-man were just getting there as well from an extra little courtesy loop they did to wait for us. On the run back I mostly ran with Tom and he was talking about the Chi Running book that he'd also mentioned last year. He was focusing on the part about imagining a string running from a fixed point in front of you to your heart and feeling it pull. Similar to the Galloway bit about the rubber band imagery, but I couldn't get into it today. I tried for a minute and then asked Tom how you could keep looking at the fixed point without worrying about tripping over the slackened string, and I said I couldn't imagine a bungee cord or something because that would pull on my heart too much. He laughed but I hope I didn't destroy that running strategy for him permanently...
Today's run really felt good though, despite the lack of conversation for about half an hour. With water stops and my shortened route, I still did about 6.8 at about an 8:40 pace average. The other really good part today was that my new Sunday-chafing spot (under my right arm, about an inch below my armpit, 1-1.5 inch square) finally seems to be pain-free. It just keeps getting better and better!
Houston marathon lottery opens today. I'm not signing up but part of me wonders if I should. It might seriously be my best shot at Boston, if only there wasn't a major vacation right before taper-time (and if only that vacation didn't involve my eating about 100 Christmas cookies!). It's too hard for me to train after mid-December I think, though I've never actually tried. It seems hard enough to be in training for White Rock, which was always mid-December and often meant missing out on drinks at holiday parties. This year WR is a year earlier than normal, Dec. 5, so there will be more time for holiday fun for people who don't have to worry about Houston.
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