Training Update

Don't want to leave you all hanging! Since my last blog post, the running has gotten back on track and today (drum roll please!), I ran 7 miles!

Annapolis Ten Mile Run 2010

Now it wasn't all sugar and spice and everything nice. My knees are hurting right now; evidence, I think, that I haven't been training perfectly consistently lately, but I'm okay with that because though my legs were nearing deadness, I think I could have run at least another mile. I'm running this race for the fun and fitness but also, for vindication. Why, you ask?

It's All Part of the Process

So I might have mentioned that I signed up to run the Army Ten Miler this October in Washington, DC. Training has been going fairly well for the past two months or so, I've been pretty diligent at following my workout schedule and have gotten to a peak of 5 mile runs. Let me take a moment to point out here that I am not a "runner." My body type doesn't scream runner, you know, long and lean, willowy yet strong. (Someone told me recently that he thinks I have the body type to be a really excellent weight lifter...this does not sit well with me, admittedly.) I'm not particularly fast, I'm more like the tortoise than the hare. I plod along at my comfortable 10:00 minute miles, putting one foot in front of the other, soldiering bravely through what is sometimes great and sometimes just plain awful. Today was the latter, boy, was it the latter.

I ended up taking a week off from running due to travel plans for a friend's wedding so today was my first day back since last Tuesday. I knew it was going to be a bad day. First, I can be a creature of habit so the fact that I was off for a week means bad news for my sense of motivation, meaning I had none, so it took Herculean strength to get me off the couch. Second, it's been a while so I had no idea what my legs, lungs, and stamina were going to be like. As I type this, I realize that I may have psyched myself out a bit. Running is such a mental game! Anyway, I got on the treadmill (on what feels like the hottest day of the year!), pressed the button for random so that I'd get a few hills on my way, and set off on my run with the goal of 5.5 miles. At mile one I'm thinking, hey, this isn't so bad! I'm not in pain and 10 minutes have already gone by! By mile 1.2 I started to rethink my newfound positive attitude as I started to feel hives develop on my legs. Hives you ask? Well, I've self-diagnosed myself as having an allergy to cool temperatures on my skin when my heart-rate is elevated. I have an exercise-induced cold allergy. Some people are so allergic to cold that they'll break out in hives when they touch ice to their skin. Fortunately, I'm not like that, plus, usually after a few weeks of exercise my body starts to acclimate and I no longer get so uncomfortable. But in the beginning stages it can be so terrible that I have to take antihistamines. Weird, I know. Anyway, now I have hives and the hills are starting to tax my quads, heart, and lungs. Did I mention the side stitch? Sigh. Anyway, I decided to throw in the towel at mile three. Double sigh.

I walked home pretty discouraged feeling like a bit of a failure, but as I cooled off in the blessed air conditioning in my apartment I reflected on the fact that I did manage to get up off the couch today, I will get my legs back under me, and that perhaps I'm missing part of the point of all this training. I've become so focused on the end-goal that I'm forgetting to appreciate the process. There's certainly no such thing as a steady rise to the top. Everyone has to hit road bumps along the way at some point, whether in exercise, career, or relationships. And sometimes it's the hiccups in the pattern that give the finished product its value and its unique quality. So here's to celebrating the victories, be they large or small, and viewing setbacks with perspective, compassion, humor, and a renewed sense of vigor.