Day One
…is a bit of a misnomer considering I’ve been training for this training for more than a month. According to my nonrunner’s bible, the amount of weeks needed to rev up to the real training schedule depends on your current level of fitness. I tentatively started where I thought I should, with 10 minutes of running, 5 minutes fast walking, and then a repeat of both. As I escalated to what should have been my final two weeks of 30 straight minutes running, I realized there were a few spare weeks in my calendar between my current week and when real training should begin, 16 weeks before the event.
So for two weeks, I ran my 30 minutes 3 X and squeezed in Tuesday boxing classes at my gym, which I’d missed dearly in my few weeks without. I explained to my instructor that I’d soon be MIA; if I saw him at all it’d be en route to a treadmill in the upstairs gym floor on bad weather days.
Which we had in NY last week, and forced me on that whirring machine 3 of my 4 running days. Saturday, after a lovely day of lying out on a pier on the Hudson River and a short Mexican dinner with friends where I avoided the temptations of a margarita menu, I hurried back home just before nightfall to enjoy my first outdoor run in a while. It was so invigorating, especially as the moon peeked out, lamps illuminating empty stretches of the near-isolated track before me.
Of course, my reward for abstaining from alcohol that afternoon (and sorta the night before—only two vodka sodas) was to go out and get plastered. If not during my pre-training, then when?
So today I embarked on the first day on-the-record, documented in my book and feared in my stomach, actual training. It wasn’t a crazy adjustment to run 3 miles, considering my usual pace during all those weeks of 30 minutes had already brought me very close to that distance. And I feel my pace getting faster all the time.
But I look ahead to the longer distances. Last week on the treadmill, I ran through some persistent side cramps, on multiple occasions. I had no choice but to continue stomping away and they eventually, though reluctantly, subsided. And today, my stomach was a little heavy. I definitely need to look into eating tips, because while I generally eat pretty healthy, scheduling is going to become really critical.
But, after my first real day… I feel proud. Happy. Always scared. But most of that good-feeling stuff. Endorphins all up in my brain.
