some days are so good you can taste them
Today I woke up at 5 AM and my first thought was "Oh man I have to do a long run". Then I got mad at myself and said "dammit you will do it and you WILL like it". The power of suggestion - you can laugh if you want but it works for me and sometimes if you act the way you want to feel (another tidbit from the Happiness Project book), you will soon feel that way.
Anyway I got up, got on my ready running clothes that were nicely splayed on the bathroom floor, made coffee, let Jack out, gave him milk bones and ate my chia seed roll (home made by me) with peanut butter on it. Then I sat on my little blue rocking chair with the heating pad nicely warming up my stiff lumbar spine and waited for round one of my 21 mile adventure. "Yay I GET to run 21 miles today" I told my dubious self. My imaginary friend Jennifer sat in the background saying "Oh that will be so hard. And you don't even have makeup on. Are you going to wear those shorts?"
Becky came and the Jack alarm went off. We went out to meet her in the dark 5:45 AM fall air. I carefully stepped over the divot in the driveway that caused me to break my leg 18 months ago. Jack got his usual milkbone from Becky. Becky had to go to work and would run the first four with me and Suzanne and Jack. Jack the dog, who is almost 12 years old would go all of the 21 miles if I let him, but his age and the groans he emits when he gets up and down lead me to believe that is not a good idea.
There is a "rule of the road" that we adhere to or at least try to "Never comment on how good or bad you feel until you run 3 miles or 30 minutes - whatever comes first". But after we met Suzanne by the church up the street from her house and we ran a bit, I could see that this was going to be a good run. All three of us, and Jack, seemed to be in sync. The Karma was positive and the conversation was light and friendly - we all kept up with each other both the speed of our legs and our mouths.
We ran the 4 mile loop, commenting on how much we liked fall, how dark it was and how the trees haven't started to change much and in no time at all we were at my house. We said goodbye to Becky and I put Jack in the house - leaving him to listen to NPR and keep tabs on the stock market while Suzanne and I headed off to the second loop which would be about 13 or 14 more miles - some of it on the beautiful Bonneville Shoreline trail where we could see all of the people in their cars heading to work - I was so glad to no longer be one of them. This trail dumped us into a neighborhood where we continued through less traveled streets of beautiful homes and people waking up to their newspapers - and coffee if their God permitted it. It was uphill most of the way until we got past the zoo and headed down a steep hill, back to the shoreline trail. A smartly dressed man in the usual uniform of business men was getting in his Lexus and I could not help myself from saying smugly "Have a nice day at the office". He said, in what I read as an envious voice "yeah. sure".
I was amazed at how good I felt and Suzanne seemed to be on the same wavelength. The miles seemed to go by fast. I love my new Nike Free shoes and the way they seemed to get me up the hills and how they were so light on my feet, and their bright green and pink color. I kept envisioning the chocolate milk and coffee on ice, and the newspaper and Jack waiting for me when I got home. Oh and the heating pad. Suzanne had had a colonoscopy the day before and decided a bowel cleanout might be just the thing prior to going on a long run....no risk of having to make a dash to the porta potty! We chewed on sports jelly beans and drank our watered down gateraide and felt lucky to be out there on this beautiful day - and lucky to be healthy.
We got back to the start of the trail and headed for loop three which would give us another 6 or so miles - it's not an exact science. I mentioned something about "we could go to 45th south" knowing full well that my saying that would make it so. More power of suggestion. We had planned to go just past 39th South but the park on 45th had a drinking fountain which was a plus.
I checked my watch when we stopped at our original turn around point and we decided on the 45th south distance - I knew we would do this. Our conversation turned to how running was so much a head game. Sure you needed to train, but all of the fancy training programs with increased mileage, speed work and hill work did not improve either of our times. A person just learns to do what feels good for them...and what works. Carb loading doesn't work for many of us but peanut butter and a bagel or muffin does. So you have to do what feels good for you. Running is a personal sport - and kind of a lonely sport too at times because no one experiences it the same way. I guess that is how life in general is too. We all experience it differently. Suzanne and I both have done so many marathons that we have the training down to a fine art. We pretty much run all the time and our training for marathons consists only of adding on the long runs. I am not bragging - we do it because it gives us a goal and a person must always have goals.
As we came up the hill to my house, I felt so good and accomplished. Not all runs feel this good. They are rare anymore and when you get one you savor it for sure. Last week during our 20 mile run, I was nauseated and the last 4 miles just about killed me.
I got in the house and Jack was happy to see me. I settled into the chair with my iced chocolate milk coffee. Life is so damn good! And as Goethe said "Nothing is more important than this day".
Anyway I got up, got on my ready running clothes that were nicely splayed on the bathroom floor, made coffee, let Jack out, gave him milk bones and ate my chia seed roll (home made by me) with peanut butter on it. Then I sat on my little blue rocking chair with the heating pad nicely warming up my stiff lumbar spine and waited for round one of my 21 mile adventure. "Yay I GET to run 21 miles today" I told my dubious self. My imaginary friend Jennifer sat in the background saying "Oh that will be so hard. And you don't even have makeup on. Are you going to wear those shorts?"
Becky came and the Jack alarm went off. We went out to meet her in the dark 5:45 AM fall air. I carefully stepped over the divot in the driveway that caused me to break my leg 18 months ago. Jack got his usual milkbone from Becky. Becky had to go to work and would run the first four with me and Suzanne and Jack. Jack the dog, who is almost 12 years old would go all of the 21 miles if I let him, but his age and the groans he emits when he gets up and down lead me to believe that is not a good idea.
There is a "rule of the road" that we adhere to or at least try to "Never comment on how good or bad you feel until you run 3 miles or 30 minutes - whatever comes first". But after we met Suzanne by the church up the street from her house and we ran a bit, I could see that this was going to be a good run. All three of us, and Jack, seemed to be in sync. The Karma was positive and the conversation was light and friendly - we all kept up with each other both the speed of our legs and our mouths.
We ran the 4 mile loop, commenting on how much we liked fall, how dark it was and how the trees haven't started to change much and in no time at all we were at my house. We said goodbye to Becky and I put Jack in the house - leaving him to listen to NPR and keep tabs on the stock market while Suzanne and I headed off to the second loop which would be about 13 or 14 more miles - some of it on the beautiful Bonneville Shoreline trail where we could see all of the people in their cars heading to work - I was so glad to no longer be one of them. This trail dumped us into a neighborhood where we continued through less traveled streets of beautiful homes and people waking up to their newspapers - and coffee if their God permitted it. It was uphill most of the way until we got past the zoo and headed down a steep hill, back to the shoreline trail. A smartly dressed man in the usual uniform of business men was getting in his Lexus and I could not help myself from saying smugly "Have a nice day at the office". He said, in what I read as an envious voice "yeah. sure".
I was amazed at how good I felt and Suzanne seemed to be on the same wavelength. The miles seemed to go by fast. I love my new Nike Free shoes and the way they seemed to get me up the hills and how they were so light on my feet, and their bright green and pink color. I kept envisioning the chocolate milk and coffee on ice, and the newspaper and Jack waiting for me when I got home. Oh and the heating pad. Suzanne had had a colonoscopy the day before and decided a bowel cleanout might be just the thing prior to going on a long run....no risk of having to make a dash to the porta potty! We chewed on sports jelly beans and drank our watered down gateraide and felt lucky to be out there on this beautiful day - and lucky to be healthy.
We got back to the start of the trail and headed for loop three which would give us another 6 or so miles - it's not an exact science. I mentioned something about "we could go to 45th south" knowing full well that my saying that would make it so. More power of suggestion. We had planned to go just past 39th South but the park on 45th had a drinking fountain which was a plus.
I checked my watch when we stopped at our original turn around point and we decided on the 45th south distance - I knew we would do this. Our conversation turned to how running was so much a head game. Sure you needed to train, but all of the fancy training programs with increased mileage, speed work and hill work did not improve either of our times. A person just learns to do what feels good for them...and what works. Carb loading doesn't work for many of us but peanut butter and a bagel or muffin does. So you have to do what feels good for you. Running is a personal sport - and kind of a lonely sport too at times because no one experiences it the same way. I guess that is how life in general is too. We all experience it differently. Suzanne and I both have done so many marathons that we have the training down to a fine art. We pretty much run all the time and our training for marathons consists only of adding on the long runs. I am not bragging - we do it because it gives us a goal and a person must always have goals.
As we came up the hill to my house, I felt so good and accomplished. Not all runs feel this good. They are rare anymore and when you get one you savor it for sure. Last week during our 20 mile run, I was nauseated and the last 4 miles just about killed me.
I got in the house and Jack was happy to see me. I settled into the chair with my iced chocolate milk coffee. Life is so damn good! And as Goethe said "Nothing is more important than this day".
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