Blog

Is this how most people live?

It’s Saturday and I’m not training. That’s right, it’s Saturday and I have the day off. I honestly cannot remember the last time I took a Saturday off. I’m doing my first race of the year tomorrow – The New York Colon Cancer Challenge 15K – and Coach John wanted me to be well rested so I could give it my best effort. So, this morning I got up early, took Charlie on a couple walks, went to the farmer’s market for apples, had some breakfast and read the paper while listening to some music. All that’s done and it’s just 11am. Now what? It’s raining outside, so that eliminates a lot of potential activities. Elizabeth’s in LA, so I don’t have her to entertain me. I guess I’ll run a few errands and maybe watch a DVD… or two. It’s relaxing to not have a four hour training session to do today, but it also makes me anxious, bored and a little lost. What do people do on Saturdays when they don’t have long exercise sessions? I mean, if you have kids, then sure you’ve got the day scheduled to the minute, but if you don’t? Maybe those people have plans and busy social lives… hmmm, maybe I should try to find one of those?! For now, I’ll just enjoy the quiet, but I’m sure before the afternoon’s over, I’ll have to do a few sets of push-ups and sit-ups and some good stretching just to calm myself down.

Boston is really close now (six weeks from Monday) and we want to use tomorrow’s race to test my legs and figure out my pacing for training runs over the next six weeks. I’m worried about Boston, and frankly, I should be. I certainly have the cardio base and strength and after training for, and running, the JFK50, this shouldn’t be too daunting, but I haven’t been doing long runs and I’m not sure how my legs and feet are going to react to 26.2 miles of pounding the pavement. On the other hand, I know that it’s not going to be easy and that I’m not going to get a PR. My plan is to go out there and take it easy and enjoy it. Not very many people get the opportunity to run Boston. I’m excited just by the prospect of being there.

If you can’t tell, I’m in a better mood today than I was when I wrote my last entry. I’ve still got those worries in the back of my mind, but my back did feel better this week and I had some good training sessions – a great run in the Park on Tuesday and three pretty strong efforts on the bike (indoors, unfortunately) during the week.

Strength – March 3

Yoga – March 3

Run – March 4
Distance: 10.75 miles
Time: 1:22
Average heart rate: 151
Course: West Side Highway, Central Park
Conditions: 55 degrees, partly cloudy, some wind

Indoor Bike – March 5
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 120

Swim – March 5
Distance: 1,750 yards
Time: 30 minutes

Indoor Bike – March 6
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: 122

Run – March 6
Distance: 5.75 miles
Time: 47 minutes
Average heart rate: 137
Course: West Side Highway
Conditions: 41 degrees, clear

Indoor Bike – March 7
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 117