Many bloggers don’t bother with Saturday posts. Readership goes down on the weekends, so we skip the writing until Monday. I’ve decided that I’ll reserve Saturdays for writing about boring stuff or things I want to get off my chest, but really don’t want you to know about me. Today, I give you boring.
Since I keep myself “trained up” all year long to be able to complete a half marathon with short notice, I’ve decided to start building my mileage base in advance of March, when it will be time to begin training for my first full marathon. I’ve selected the Air Force Marathon which takes place on September 17, 2011. Why the Air Force? The event occurs the day after I turn 50…the event occurs on what would have been my dad’s birthday…and my dad was a proud member of the Army Air Corp which became the Air Force. In other words, I picked that race for sentimental reasons.
I currently consider anything above eight miles to be a long run. Today I decided to run nine miles. I plan to add two miles a week to my weekly long runs until I get to 15 miles. Then I’ll play with 10-12-14-16 mile rotations until March. I hope that by doing this, eight miles will seem like a short run.
Typically, after running any distance longer than eight miles, I spend the rest of the day limping around and feeling very geriatric. Last week I only ran seven miles and afterward you would have thought I should use a walker to get from Point A to Point B.
But today’s post-run experience feels different. Yes, I can tell I worked out hard. Yes, my feet and legs are tired.
But. I. Don’t. Hurt.
Not at all. Perhaps all the training is paying off. Maybe I’m starting to get in shape. I know that once I really start taking my mileage to (for me) high levels, I’ll again experience extreme muscle soreness afterward. But at this moment, I feel pretty fantastic.
And that’s OK with me.
482gr8 