Saturday, January 29, 2011

Running with Becky: The Week in Review

To the thrill of everyone who reads this blog (yours truly included), I will periodically be giving updates on my extreme athletic prowess, primarily for the purpose of making myself look good.

I recently began following the blog of fellow runner Anton, who gives a weekly update of his mileage, and he's all like, "Yeah, I went out and ran 14 miles this morning, and then I ate lunch and went back out and ran 20 more, and then I woke up the next day and ran 45 before breakfast and IT IS TOTALLY NORMAL FOR A PERSON TO RUN 200 MILES IN ONE WEEK."

In the spirit of Anton, here is my week:

Monday:  If I hadn't stayed out so damned late over my birthday weekend, I would have done this run when I was supposed to:  over the weekend.  But here I am, plodding my way through 8 miles, by myself, dodging morning commuters.  When I finish, I check my mileage and it turns out I only ran 7.25 miles.  Son of a bitch.

Tuesday:  Track workout, 3.5 miles.  When I first starting showing up to weekly speed training a few months ago, my pal Mason would always give me pep talks by waving his arms emphatically and yelling, "There's no reason why you can't run faster!!"  And now Mason's dropped off the face of the Earth and I'm showing up to do track workouts in the middle of freaking snowstorms (do you realize that most of my mascara was washed away by falling snowflakes tonight?!) and I still can't run faster than an 8:30 mile.

Wednesday:  I guess you're supposed to do cross-training or a "core workout" or some shit.  So...sit-ups and some arm curls.  Good enough.

Thursday:  4 miles with the Breakaway group, which is always like maneuvering through a mine field on account of all the social incest.  Five months ago, I was the absolute dead-last-slowest runner in this group, which drew unnecessary attention to both me and how much I sucked, but now I'm comfortably towards the end instead of at the end (10:27 pace tonight), and it is for this reason that showing up to run in the snow is good for something after all.

Friday:  Rest.  And more of the sit-ups and crap.

Saturday:  12 miles.  Homo sapiens evolved as a distanced runner, biologically optimized to run antelope and other game animals to death.  The ability to run was the difference between life and death. Telling myself this over and over for two hours did not make these 12 miles any easier.

Total weekly mileage:  26.75

Weeks until next half marathon:  4

How good that antelope meat is sounding about now:  Pretty damn.

7 comments:

  1. LOL! Really? Antelope? ;-)

    Anyway, I'm totally impressed!! This week, I started using the pedometer on my new iPod with the intent of doing at least 10 000 steps a day (I know, SO lame in comparisson, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. And also, my knees are not up for running (or at least so I tell myself to get off the hook)) but for how many days did I manage that? Embarrasingly enough - two!! T.W.O. I was gonna make up for it today, but... yeah... So, well, hrm... Well, good for you ;-D

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  2. Technically I guess sit ups are a core work out and curls are cross training but umm its a wee bit weak. I can hook you up with some core work out stuff next time Im down your way, if you would like. Anywho yeah 26 miles in a week damn I don't Ive ever done that. Maybe walking but not running. So seriously a weekly post?!?!?!?! I soo look forward to harassing you on a weekly basis.

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  3. 26 miles...amazing!! I am like ... wow! I think the most I ever ran in a week was about 20 miles. Way to go...where's the half Marathon? Had no idea you were training for one again.

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  4. Well.. you ran more in one week that i probably have in my whole life.

    4 weeks? Really?! WOW!!! :D

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  5. Now that I know "real" runners, I have to be careful about bragging...always... Case in point, I posted this entry on Facebook and up in my news feed was one of my running buddies talking about running 20 miles yesterday. And suddenly my 12 seemed a little wimpy! :D

    But YES!! The Oxford Half is the last weekend in December and I am THERE!!

    Thanks for all the encouragement (though I think I might round it up and say I did 27 this week ;)) and Alex, I look forward to your attempts to torment me. :) (And we'll talk cross training in a couple of weeks!)

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  6. Damn, PG, I am so impressed with your running 27 miles in a week! Sounds like you're definitely on target for your next half marathon. Hah, Sam said the same thing I thought. I've never run that many miles myself! Way to go!

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  7. Thank you, Vanessa. :) I'm paying for it, though! I've woken up the past two days and my legs have felt like lead!! I got Born to Run for Christmas and just finished reading it...it really inspired me in terms of tapping into my inner runner, but even as much as I run, I need to ease into these weeks where I run a marathon's worth (or more) or miles. Also, you would not believe how much I've eaten in the past two days! It's ridiculous. :D

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