I don't lie frequently, but I did today. I didn't do a 30 minute recovery run, just like I knew my husband wouldn't take it easy on his bike ride. I got running, I did warm up for an easy 4 minutes while I rearranged my molecules and got everything, Ipod, sunglasses, running belt with phone in it, set just so. Then I started to run. It was a glorious day to run, a beautiful 60 or so when I went out, and it smelled so good. Fresh and spring like for a day in February....I trotted along and kept catching my heartrate in the 190 range. I don't do that unless I am sprinting. I wished I had my husband's Garmin on, it tells you how fast you are pacing yourself, although it looks like a laptop computer on my chicken wrists. You know, no matter how heavy I ever got, my wrists and ankles were always teeny tiny, I digress. But I was like, how come I breathing like this? I sounded worse then an obscene phone call....But when I saw on my heart rate monitor that I was beating at 190+ a minute, I knew I was busting it too hard. By the time my 28 minute run was done, I had run a 5k. Including my 4 minute walk warm up, I'd say I was running like Paula Radcliff. One can dream...
I have one further musing, I think I have finally decided what to do with my racing this season. I had an epiphany, more out our necessity then anything, but why was I going to drive myself into the ground with racing races I couldn't get ready for? After I finally admitted out loud that the Half Iron wasn't something I felt like I could do with my lack of training, I felt liberated, I felt honest, it felt good, especially after lying like I did today. But here's the rub, does that make me less an athlete? I want to do a Half Iron someday, I want to do a full Iron someday, I might even be brave enough to get a the tattoo after that, but does it have to be a year after I started racing? Me thinks the answer is no, at least for me. Maybe someday if I can do a sprint in an hour and ten minutes, heck why not shoot for an hour and five, or an oly in 2 hours and a half, maybe then I should look at upping the ante. Maybe then I will need the challenge.
As for now, call me Short Distance Shirley. Someday, maybe when I'm 50, maybe when I'm 60, you can call me Long Course Louise. And maybe then, I'll even have a shot at placing....
1 comment:
Did I tell you about that wrinkly man my mom and I ran in to at the lake one day? This man was a good 70 years old and he had just gotten back from a marathon in ANTARTICA, and then stopped somewhere in South America and did another one, which he said was not a good thing to do ones like that back to back. He could barely stand still to talk to us, he kept looking at his clock...maybe he was thinking, LORD LADY, I only have 10 years left, let me run. But my mom said he had the highest average in races in their group. I was amazed, my kids, OTOH, were disgusted at his skin that hung on him because he was so old and it just sat there in lap after jiggling lap...but he was thin and fit. When I hit 50, you will be 51and we can do the Iron Man together, and then go get matching tats....I will even get ROB tattooed on my butt. Viva Robmigas Tres
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