Running By Moonlight

Ugghhh...I don't wanna! I had the mentality of a 3 year old for this morning's Gazelle workout. Honestly, it wasn't even one that I was dreading until I got to Runtex at 5:45am and no one was in the parking lot. Immediately, I started stressing out. Did they change the meeting place? What workout am I doing? Why am I here? What time is it? Holy shit the moon is bright. I told myself I was going to give Amy 5 minutes to show up. If she didn't, I was going home and going to bed. Damn. She pulled in as I was getting my hopes up to start a pot of coffee and snuggle with my cat for an hour. Slowly, people started to trickle in the parking lot. It turns out that Gilbert sent an email to be there at 6am and not 5:45am. I tried to check my email last night, but couldn't hop on the server for some reason. For whatever reason, that minor mishap set the tone for my workout. At that hour, an extra 15 minutes would be like heaven. Plus, I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of my fellow Gazelles who are in full taper mode this week. Of course, I have to remember that they are also running a marathon in 6 days and I'm not. In fact, I'm training for the Boston freakin' Marathon--the Boston Freakin' Marathon!! Who am I to complain about anything?!?!

Alright, alright...Anne, Amy and I set off for the 1.4 mile warmup to Zilker Park. Today's workout: 8 x 1000s with a couple of minute recovery in between. I've done this workout before and it's not bad. It's actually one of my favorites. For whatever reason, I just didn't have it this morning. Saturday's 14 miler had beat me up pretty bad and I know I desperately need a massage. My body is definitely out of whack. Plus, I had a swim workout yesterday morning. It was 28 degrees and we were in an outdoor pool. Yes, the water temperature was 82 degrees, but getting in and out of the water was brutal. After that, I hopped on my windtrainer at my house and did an hour of interval work--2 min fast spin/2 min recovery...no hard gears, just some quick cadence work.

From the first interval, I fell behind Anne and Amy. Anne is definitely the rabbit and Amy and I are the greyhounds trying to catch her. Today, however, I didn't have the chase in me. I just told myself to be happy with what I can do today and don't push it. We did the first 4 repeats in the dark. Actually, the moon was incredibly bright. Normally, I'd bask in the beauty of running in such a serene setting. Today, it felt like the moon was taunting me. "You could be in bed like the rest of the city," It seemed to say. "I know. Bite me," was about all I could muster back. By that point the rest of the Gazelles were also doing their very slow repeats and the sun began to creep over the horizon.

Two more...I can do this. And just like that, the other Gazelles had already come and gone. Ughh...I'm jealous...No I'm not...Yes I am...We finished #7 and were walking back to start #8. Gilbert stopped us. Enough for today. You've got a 20-miler on Saturday. Thanks for the reminder Gilbert :-) I have to say that I'm proud I didn't wuss out after 5 or 6 repeats and I'm a little disappointed that he stopped us with one more to go. Did I want to do it? No--but I wanted to look up to the sky, flip off the moon and prove that I lasted longer than it did this morning.

7 repeats--between 3:53 and 4:20 for all of them. I think we cut the first couple short since we couldn't freaking see and Gilbert hadn't arrived yet to stake his car at the finish point.

Wednesday is a 4-mile tempo run. In the simplest of terms, I refer to it as "the run, but don't puke workout. " You basically sprint for four miles and just try to hang on. It will be tough with so few of us.

Here's a link to a video of Gilbert and his gazelles in action: http://www.statesman.com/news/mplayer/m/2640


6p-7p: Core Workout--squats and lunges with my new 18 lb body bar, arms, and and abs. Feeling a little tougher and tighter every day.

Nutrition

5:25am Balance Bar
8:30am Kashi Go Lean Crunh with yogurt and blueberries...MMMMM...heat it up for about 20 seconds and it's like a cobbler. small Apple
11:45am Freescale Marathon luncheon: combo of chicken/steak fajita meat, about 1/3 cup of rice/beans, salad with Salsa...3 bites of flan, cinnamon pastry, green tea
1:30p 1/2 Clif Bar
5:00pm piece of Whole wheat bread with PBand J
8:00pm tuna salad, sweet potato and sauteed spinach, 2 oz of red wine