Fidgety Friday
Still have a little post-Yasso muscle stiffness. Cancelled my speed workout with the Half-Marathon Clinic but went for the lecture and promptly forgot that I had suggested that the run come before the talk because the sun is setting so quickly these days. The last two workouts we had this week ended at eight and it was pitch black on the way home. Not the safest way to run injury-free and with a marathon only weeks away.
Fall is here. Beautiful and sunny, crisp and cold, summer is a fading memory. I did two very, very easy runs of thirty minutes each, today and yesterday, mostly just to get the blood flowing. I have been eating a little more and I seem to be less tired as a result. My weight had dropped as low as 177, but is back up to 178. I am working long days - not finishing until nearly Midnight for the past couple of weeks - and hope we have a couple of projects put to bed by the end of this month. I really want to take it easy the whole week before the marathon, so October 1st sounds like a good cut-off for a marathon on October 9th.
I am fidgety as all get out these days. Hadn't realized how bone-tired I have been. Sometimes, late in the evening, I find myself tripping over my own feet. Just too dog tired to lift them out of the way. I have even felt very light headed at times. A quick shot or snack of carbs seems to help, so it may be low blood sugar. I do not want to get too carried away with my diet at this stage of my training and fitness. Thank God I am not doing any ladder work this week!
Feel keen to tangle with the marathon and another part of me just wants the whole damn thing to be over with. This attempt to qualify for Boston, my BQing, so to speak, has taken up more of my resources and attention than I had initially thought it would. Isn't that the way with every project in life? You get halfway through renovating the kitchen and the spare bathroom and then look at the bills and the time and the sawdust and the mess and the paint and wonder what the Hell did I get myself into? And you're half way there and there is no turning back so you just grit your teeth, shake your head and hope it all works out in the end.
The betting of bottles of wine and betting period has gotten a little out of hand. I'm up to 14 bottles of wine and a few hundred dollar side bets. This could drive me into personal bankruptcy all over again. Ahh, what the Hell! A few people who made bets early on are starting to getting a little worried. But these tend to be the folks who made, what were not so much bets, as pledges, as in, Vince, if you qualify for Boston, I'll give up smoking, or if - and there are three people who actually said this to me - Vince, if you qualify for Boston, I'll run a marathon myself. These pledges were made in the spirit of the moment when BQing was just a twinkle in my eye last year over the Christmas Holidays, when I was just recently unemployed, looking for work and needing a new challenge. Now, when it looks as if I am within reach of my goal, a few people are realizing they may actually have to run a damn marathon in the near future if they are to maintain even a shred of their honour and dignity!
And not a few folks would probably happily part with a bottle of wine just to put an end to this thing and have me shut up! Frankly, I am one of those people.
Have to say, in all honesty, over the course of this little odyssey, the hardest thing was not forsaking red wine this summer, but sticking to the diet week in and week out for the first few months. After a while it became rote and routine, but not in the beginning. The weight loss was a long grind. But I am so glad I did it. I feel great, and the difference in my running has been night and day. Better yet, I recover so much more quickly. And it is nice to get the compliments about how I look ten years younger and just better, healthier. It is nice to be faster and to feel faster. I am proud of myself for pulling that one out of my bag of tricks.
Now is just the long fidget until Race Day. Nerves, nerves, nerves... Gotta love it.
Fall is here. Beautiful and sunny, crisp and cold, summer is a fading memory. I did two very, very easy runs of thirty minutes each, today and yesterday, mostly just to get the blood flowing. I have been eating a little more and I seem to be less tired as a result. My weight had dropped as low as 177, but is back up to 178. I am working long days - not finishing until nearly Midnight for the past couple of weeks - and hope we have a couple of projects put to bed by the end of this month. I really want to take it easy the whole week before the marathon, so October 1st sounds like a good cut-off for a marathon on October 9th.
I am fidgety as all get out these days. Hadn't realized how bone-tired I have been. Sometimes, late in the evening, I find myself tripping over my own feet. Just too dog tired to lift them out of the way. I have even felt very light headed at times. A quick shot or snack of carbs seems to help, so it may be low blood sugar. I do not want to get too carried away with my diet at this stage of my training and fitness. Thank God I am not doing any ladder work this week!
Feel keen to tangle with the marathon and another part of me just wants the whole damn thing to be over with. This attempt to qualify for Boston, my BQing, so to speak, has taken up more of my resources and attention than I had initially thought it would. Isn't that the way with every project in life? You get halfway through renovating the kitchen and the spare bathroom and then look at the bills and the time and the sawdust and the mess and the paint and wonder what the Hell did I get myself into? And you're half way there and there is no turning back so you just grit your teeth, shake your head and hope it all works out in the end.
The betting of bottles of wine and betting period has gotten a little out of hand. I'm up to 14 bottles of wine and a few hundred dollar side bets. This could drive me into personal bankruptcy all over again. Ahh, what the Hell! A few people who made bets early on are starting to getting a little worried. But these tend to be the folks who made, what were not so much bets, as pledges, as in, Vince, if you qualify for Boston, I'll give up smoking, or if - and there are three people who actually said this to me - Vince, if you qualify for Boston, I'll run a marathon myself. These pledges were made in the spirit of the moment when BQing was just a twinkle in my eye last year over the Christmas Holidays, when I was just recently unemployed, looking for work and needing a new challenge. Now, when it looks as if I am within reach of my goal, a few people are realizing they may actually have to run a damn marathon in the near future if they are to maintain even a shred of their honour and dignity!
And not a few folks would probably happily part with a bottle of wine just to put an end to this thing and have me shut up! Frankly, I am one of those people.
Have to say, in all honesty, over the course of this little odyssey, the hardest thing was not forsaking red wine this summer, but sticking to the diet week in and week out for the first few months. After a while it became rote and routine, but not in the beginning. The weight loss was a long grind. But I am so glad I did it. I feel great, and the difference in my running has been night and day. Better yet, I recover so much more quickly. And it is nice to get the compliments about how I look ten years younger and just better, healthier. It is nice to be faster and to feel faster. I am proud of myself for pulling that one out of my bag of tricks.
Now is just the long fidget until Race Day. Nerves, nerves, nerves... Gotta love it.
posted by Vince Hemingson at 5:08 PM
2 Comments:
"This attempt to qualify for Boston.." - the hay is in the barn. This is no longer an attempt. Barring illness or stupidity, it's a done deal. You do realize that you are going to be the coach of choice for those "if you make it I'll run a marathon" people. (Maybe your new employment?...probably no.)
Ahhh, Scooter it was inevitable. For anyone born on the 8th of August, that is. The veneer of civility is finally stripped away, the facade of political correctness, dropped. The cats tell it like it is.
Yes, the only way for me NOT to qualify is injury or stupidity on my part, or, God Forbid, weather and/or some other natural disaster on the day of the marathon.
As for training people for marathons and ultramarathons, under the right circumstances, it holds tremendous appeal. But let me BQ first!
Coach Vince
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