running: the dawn

This past weekend I attended the wedding of one of my close friends from college.  He and I worked together for 4 years and shared the same circle of friends.  It was SOOO much fun to be at the wedding for the weekend.  I got to see and catch up with people that I haven’t seen in years.  People are married, some have kids, others are living in exotic places.  I’m always amazed with my instant regression back to childish behavior when I’m around my childhood friends.  (In this case “childhood” being college.)  It really does feel like a former life, but the moment I am surrounded with the people from that time period, I feel like the same person I was back then.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…aside from a few non-awesome dating experiences…I had an awesome college experience!

The weird thing was that I spent the whole weekend not talking about running or marathons at all.  It’s definitely one of the biggest parts of my life these days, but for some reason I never found the opportunity to mention it at all.  I’m not sure if I avoided it on purpose or if it just never came up.  Part of me gets shy around people I know that won’t understand.  It’s either “Oh my!  You’re downright crazy!” or “How far is a marathon?” or “4 hours?  That’s long…”  None of which are responses that I care to deal with.  So I just choose to omit my training from polite conversation.

Am I ashamed of my obsession with running?  No.  I’m just trying to not become like those people who can talk of nothing but their dog/cat/baby/collection of twine.  I know that I’m overly obsessed with running, but I like to think that I have the social graces to know when and where to show my true colors.

All in all, it was a fabulous Labor Day weekend.  And horror of all horrors, I did not run one step.  Instead I remembered what late nights and early mornings feel like when its more about people than pavement.

6 weeks?  Oh be still my beating heart.  We are way to close to this marathon.  I know that I’ve been making progress lately, but I don’t ever feel like its enough.  But ready or not…here it comes…

This week’s workouts:
Sunday–18 quick miles, felt fabulous during and after
Monday–5 recovery miles & Jazzercise
Tuesday–Jazzercise
Wednesday–12 miles with 4 at marathon pace
Thursday–10 with 5x1km intervals (see note below)
Friday–6 recovery miles

Total mileage: 51.  Hellooooo 50′s!

So, yeah, about that little interval workout that I did yesterday.  Lesson learned: working out in the morning is IMPARATIVE!  Not only does it get it out of the way so that I can continue with my day, but it’s safer and cooler in the mornings.  Days like yesterday seem to have a cloud over them all day because I didn’t do my run in the morning, I kept trying to figure out when I was going to fit it in.  I kept thinking, “oh, I should go running now.”  But then there were a million other things to do…

So I didn’t start til late.  We’ll call that mistake #1.

The Mr. and I ate a wonderful meal of corn on the cob and zucchini and squash with apples and peanut butter for dessert.  Of course I know better than to go running right after I eat, so I decided to finish the laundry before starting the run. 

I’m going to call running after a full meal mistake #2.

I started my run on the treadmill.  Mostly because I wanted to try it out for the first time .  It had been pretty hot and muggy in the afternoon and I figured I’d do my warm up on the treadmill in the cool of my basement before heading out to do the intervals. 

I’m not exactly sure when I made fatal mistake #3.  Did I drink too much water?  Did I push myself too hard (doubtful, since I was off on my pace for all but the first interval)?  Was it just too muggy?  Am I ill and don’t really know it?

Cause I definitely threw up after my last kilometer interval.  Twice. 

I don’t ever throw up.  Especially when I’m not sick.  And, I’m NOT one that pushes myself to the limits.  I recognize pain and usually stay on this side of that threshold. 

So…yeah.  Not sure what pushed me over the top…Any ideas?

Thanks to the magic of social networks, and my fabulous husband, I am the proud owner of a treadmill .  No, this is not going to replace all my outdoor running.  I see it as supplemental.  I am so excited to have the option of exercising at home when being outside is not safe (i.e. tomorrow’s predicted thunderstorm).

Mr. Dawn suggested that we make a day of it since the friends who were selling us the treadmill live in “town” 45 minutes away.  We went out for a late lunch, ran some errands, and loaded up our newest family member.  We got her all settled in her new home today.  I’m not totally sure when I’ll take her for a test drive, but I can’t wait!