I think I told myself that I was going to at LEAST try to post once a week, but let's face it, I post when I feel like it/have time and ONLY when I feel like it/have time...I don't understand how people have time to post 3 times a day or even once a day and I will just never be that person. But I'm still around. Yup.
Running has been going satisfyingly well. I've been hitting solid 40+ weeks pretty consistently, aside from the one week where I fell off the bus because my PT friends and I decided to spend the weekends drinking like undergrads...which makes it difficult to run an adequate amount when you are NOT in fact an undergrad anymore and thus cannot recover like one. I remember powering through long runs after track club parties back in the day, but let me tell you those days are long gone. Anyway, I've been pretty impressed with hanging around in the 40s despite talking 1 day off a week and not doing any long runs (unless you count 8-9 miles as long, which I do not). Just consistently getting out there and putting in 6-9 miles every day. I think this current scheme is pretty nice for just building a base, obviously things are going to change dramatically in 5 weeks when I start marathon training again (5. weeks. oh. god.) But for now, it's nice.
Speaking of running, I ran a race over Halloween weekend...if you could call it a "race". It was a dinky thing put on by the 3rd years in my PT program, billed as a 5K but more like 2.9 miles in reality, no timing or anything, and I was basically planning on running it as a tempo and (ideally) winning, since I was assuming there wouldn't be a whole lot of competition. And then I saw the girl doing strides in XC spikes. CRAP DIGGITY. Let's be serious, I was wearing a football jersey:
and was not exactly in racing mode. I didn't warm up. I didn't do strides. Because I was planning on this just being an excuse for me to get my run in for the day and potentially win some swag. Now I was going to actually have to attempt to race the thing? Sigh.
The bad news is that I didn't win. I was second woman, 3rd overall (the dude dressed as Prefontaine - complete with moustache, amazin g- was a legit runner). The girl in the flats beat me handily, I was about 20 seconds back from her almost instantly and never had anything to try to catch her with. The good news is I ran 19:34 for the 2.9 miles, or 6:45 pace...in a football jersey, without a warmup, with exactly zero racing mindset (and people dodging/street crossings...this was not a closed course by any means). And that? Is a good thing. I've gotta say, I was more than a little impressed with my ability to run the equivalent of a sub-21 5K on the amount of speedwork (read: none) that I've been doing lately. Taking this in combination with the 20:39 I ran on a similarly low level of training earlier in the summer, I'm forced to the conclusion that I can be, and SHOULD be, able to race faster than I'm running right now. Really, there is no reason that I should not be able to run sub-20 5Ks if I put in the work. I just haven't. You would think that consistently running times that aren't too far off from my PR would motivate me to work harder, but in reality I still get so excited when I see 20:xx on the clock that I hardly care. Which is dumb. STOP SETTLING AUDREY.
Now granted the 5K isn't my focus right now, since there's this little thing called Boston that I have to start training for in...oh...6 weeks? (GAH.) But really, the same thing applies there. I have moments of doubt on runs when I'm like "god, 8 miles feels hard, how am I going to get back to 26.2? Let alone run a PR at 26.2?" But I seriously can't sell myself short like that. Yeah, this year has sucked running-wise, my miles and racing schedule and speedwork haven't been what I feel like they "should" have been. But? I can still come within 30 seconds of my 5K road PR. So why shouldn't I be able to run a faster marathon? Why am I acting like I lost sooooo much fitness when obviously that isn't true? I do NOT think Baystate was a fluke. I think I am stronger at the longer distances and that's where I have a chance to excel. I need to put in the work, trust it, and see what happens, and I think that the timing has worked out so I'm being able to build a sufficient base before the real training begins.
In other news I finally got up the guts to do hill reps on Summit Ave, which is 0.4 miles of 9-11% graded HELL. It makes Heartbreak look like nothing. And I just have the feeling that since its located less than a mile from my house, it will be calling me to break myself upon it over and over again this winter.
And because this post has (again) taken a dive into philosophical territory (apologies, to the 3 of you still reading) here's a picture of my Halloween costume. Which was AWESOME.
