Going Long

Next weekend is the Boston Marathon. And for the first time in eight years I'm not going or running it. That makes me a little sad. My teammate Sonja just won the Moab 100. Go watch her video, it's awesome. But watching that video has made me sad and envious. I just want to run. I miss "just" running.

Monday I had a long run on the schedule. Although there were prescribed heart rate zones, most of this run was "just run." I was so excited to do this workout. But as I stepped out in just the first mile I knew things were going to be rough. My HR was already flying, I couldn't catch my breath, and I just didn't feel normal. With only a few minutes left in my long warm up I thought about bagging it. I even turned around and started running back to my starting point, but I said to myself, "no, Meredith, you can do this." Once I got to the "just run" portion of my workout, I did feel better, although only somewhat. My heart rate was really high and I was only doing 9 min/miles. A year ago I ran the Boston Marathon at an 8:00 pace and I couldn't even run a 9:00 when I was allowed to get my heart rate up? How could I feel so out of shape with all of this training? I had hoped to run around 13 miles or so, but finished just short of 11. Freakin' 11!

Luckily Tuesday brought around a new workout: a swim. This one was also long including a single set of straight 1000 meters. I love to swim straight, long sets. And it went so well. Just like running, I just catch a rhythm and let my thoughts go and somehow pick up pace along the way.

This morning was yet another long workout. I had to bike for an hour and a half on the trainer with lots of high heart rate zones. I thought I would struggle because of fatigue from Monday and the last couple weeks, but the bike actually went really well. I kept a pretty good pace, heart rate zones were exact, and the time flew. Two great workouts in a row.

Last week I had a ton of workouts: 3 swim, 3 bike, 4 runs, and a strength workout. Needless to say, I didn't get everything done and felt like crap the whole week and during all workouts. This week I don't have as many workouts but the time is equal to last week. I feel soooo much better this week. The workouts are long and just as hard as they've been, but I like going long. I get lost in going long. This week there are positive thoughts and excitement again.