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November 28, 2005

26

No, not 26.2, but twenty-six years-old. That is how old I am today. I have to admit that it suddenly feels weird to be inching toward 30. I used to be the young kid who did impressive things at a young age. Now I am not so young and whatever I choose to do will be met with an "it's about time" instead of a "wow! And to think you have so many years ahead of you . . . " Okay, so I am being a little dramatic, but I do - for the first time ever - feel old. I will get over it tomorrow.

I hired a coach. I completed my first week of the program, and I am pretty satisfied. I did not run mega-mileage - just 42. But the goal is to hit 80 while I hopefully focus on a spring marathon. I did mostly easy runs and even pulled out a heart rate monitor for my 10 miler yesterday. My heart rate stayed around 152 at 7:30 pace the entire time. I must admit that I am completely illiterate when it comes to heart rate training, but my friend Carrie has assured me that I might be in better shape than I think. She is my new training guru (she actually reads books about running and heart rates so I am relying on her intelligence to deconstruct all of this for me!).

Aside from the 10 miler, I had one good workout - my favorite, a progression run. I ran 6 miles starting at 7:30 pace and finishing the last quarter mile a hair under 6:20 pace. I felt like crap today and I did not want to run, but tradition says that I must run on my birthday. So I did, and I felt much better for it.

Life has been busy - I am working hard on our Chicago magazine that is set to launch in february, and I have been logging a lot of hours at the store. All the while I have been plotting to write something fantastic - a short story, maybe - but nothing has materialized yet. Sadly, the next great american novel will not flow from my fingers :( I have a meeting with my MA program on Thursday so contemplate my future as a student. I am worried about returning to school after hibernating for a semester, but I am eager to dive back in and crank out a thesis.

I am curious to see how my run goes tomorrow - I have an 8 miler planned. Not quite a tempo, but not easy either. I would like to ease into a 7 minute pace, but that seems out of reach right now. We'll see.

It's time to call it a night. Hopefully my 26th year will mark the year I actually do something noteworthy in the marathon.

Posted by bridget at 11:08 PM | Comments (6)

November 12, 2005

It's Time for a Coach

I grew up with a coach. My father has been a university basketball coach for over 30 years; while he does not smack or head-butt his players, he does prefer a more old-school approach to coaching. He does not care if a player can slam dunk like Michael Jordan or Dominique Wilkins; he cares about fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. Can they dribble, pass, shoot? Are they STUDENTS of the game? He writes out 25 page scouting reports for his players and he expects them to anticipate and know every play that the opposing team calls. He expects his players to be in the gym, stretched out and ready to roll at 6AM. He expects them to do well in the classroom and if they fail to make the grade, the only game action they will see is from the bench.

So why in the world am I sooooo afraid of a coach? After speaking with my best friend, Carrie, we decided that it was time to relinquish control of my running (not all control, but a lot) - and inquire about a coach. I prefer not to name my new coach, but I hope I can learn something from his training philosophy. Maybe I am afraid to fail and that is why I am so scared to hand over my training logs and even verbally express my lofty running goals to someone who lives outside of the walls of my head. Maybe I am afraid of hard work and pain because deep down inside I do not believe that I can be the runner that I desperately want to be. It's too late to psychoanalyze the situation, but I feel an odd mixture of ambivalence, fear and pure excitement about this decision.

In other running news, I have been focusing on the big "C" - consistency. I am trying to run everyday ("everyday" translates into 6 days/week in my running world), and run moderately. I am hovering around 40 miles - and should add another 10 or so after tomorrow's run.

Blogging should become obsessive and much more interesting for me going forward. Instead of reporting that I ran another run of 8 miles at 7:30 pace, I might actually say things like "speed," "marathon pace" and "hill repeats." The future looks bright and exciting.

I am committed to three months . . . yikes!

Posted by bridget at 09:43 PM | Comments (3)

November 07, 2005

I Need a Goal

My running has been extremely uneventful lately. Last week I posted an anemic 30 miles - with a long run of 10 miles. I am still struggling with my glutes, but it seems like I can get away with running anything less than 10 miles and I will still be able to run the next day. More than 10 miles and I need a rest day. Tomorrow I am FINALLY going to hunt down and speak with a personal trainer about a strength training program that will balance out my muscles and build my glutes and hamstrings (and well I am at it, I mise well go for some ripped arms - I have always wanted muscular arms, but I am not genetically predisposed to build muscle anywhere but in my legs).

I also need a goal. I travel back and forth between wanting a coach and a real schedule and not wanting a coach or a schedule. Part of me knows that I shrink away from a real coach because I am afraid of sharing my running with someone else and I am equally afraid of what that schedule might look like. I carry around a lot of self-doubts about my running. Can I really run a marathon at sub 6:50 pace someday? I think/know that deep down I can, but I have to work extremely hard to get there. I need to build my mileage and pay attention to other things like sleep, nutrition, stress - none of which I pay close attention to now.

I am still intrigued by the Hanson's marathon training program. I first learned about it from a Running Times article, and I recently read a heated debate about it on www.letsrun.com. They put less emphasis on the long run and more emphasis on the overall training (strength work, tempo runs, intervals, etc). Also, they look at the long run as a certain % of your weekly mileage - if you are running 60 miles/week, you would not run a 20 miler. I am up in the air on this, but my best marathon was run when I did one 20 miler with my older sister at 9 minute pace - everything else I did consisted of hard, quality miles. I honestly don't know what I think about the overall training philosophy, but I definitely want to give this plan a try for my next marathon (whenever that will be).

I ran 8 this morning just a shiver under 7:30 pace. My glutes are not disagreeing with the miles yet.

Posted by bridget at 11:59 AM | Comments (3)