Thursday, January 15, 2015

Three Things Thursday - January 15

My weekend always ends the same way - lamenting that it's over and I have to go to work the next day. I'm not sure why, because the week just seems to fly by! How is it already Thursday?!


There's not too much to report from the home front that's not running related. The good news is we finally got a replacement for a team member who quit at work (yay!), but HR still has not delivered his computer (boo!). On top of that, the person his job supports has yet to be replaced, so there's currently zero people taking care of that area.

Half of the new guy's job is similar to mine, so I imagine this will largely become My Problem at month end. I'm not trying to sound whiny - I honestly think it's pretty funny just because it's so absurd. (Like even the camera broke when the new person tried to get his ID badge made.)


I've also realized what a small world it is. I live in a relatively small town (about 40,000 people), but I somehow sit next to someone I went to high school with, and the new guy is someone I worked with at my internship (at a completely different company). It gets crazier because my high school had 6200 people, so I actually know very few people that went there with me. (I didn't sit by a single person I knew at graduation.) My internship was also at one of that firm's smaller offices, so it's also quite the happenstance that I know our new team member. I certainly don't go out of my way to burn bridges, but every day is now a reminder never to do that.

I know, none of that is related to the actual topic of my blog - but it was just so funny and strange I had to share! Anyway, let's talk about three other things.

1. I'm back to running!

I did do six miles, I just don't have my watch calibrated correctly.
I'm so so so excited about this one. So excited, in fact, that it should be all three things on this list. After three weeks of rest, my peroneal tendonitis seemed to be pretty well healed. Walking and climbing stairs were no longer painful, and I could do a pretty intense self-massage without pain. (Before, any pressure was practically unbearable.)

I also did some yoga on Monday since I couldn't make it to the pool, and I could sit in hero's pose pain-free. (Okay, that's a lie, I can only do it for about a minute because my quads are so tight, but before, my bodyweight put so much pressure on my tendons that I almost cried trying to do the pose.)

It was super cold Tuesday after work - I think maybe the actual air temperature was about 5? - so I decided to hit the indoor track instead, for an easy six miles. There were some minor aches and pains in my soft tissue from disuse, but everything eventually evaporated (how's that for alliteration!) as I continued. The track has a concrete surface and is 12 laps to a mile, so I'm writing off the little bit of tenderness I had Wednesday to that.

It was a bit sad to note that my legs were tired when I finished and I had some soreness yesterday morning. I know my running ability will come back quickly, but it's at such odds with my self-identity. I'm a marathon runner, damnit, six easy miles shouldn't hurt!


2. I've adjusted my goal for Myrtle Beach.

My original goal was to run a 4:30, but I think that's a little bit out of reach at this point, with one more full week of training before taper starts. (This training cycle flew by!) I know the fitness I built is still in there, and I don't want to sell myself short out of fear, so my new goal is 4:45. I think this strikes a fair balance.

This would still be an 11 minute PR, plus there will be a 4:45 pace group. I edited the last few weeks of my training plan based on this pace, and I started getting really excited about running again! I wasn't not excited before, I just had a more challenging goal, which took a lot more mental energy to wrap my head around. We'll have to see how my tempo run goes later today, but these paces at least sound very doable. I'm not even freaking out about my long run any more!


I will admit making this adjustment was still pretty hard for me, even though I know it's the right thing to do. I've realized I get caught up in reading other running blogs and seeing how fast others can do marathons, and then self-imposed a lot of pressure to get to that level. I don't think I was consciously aware of this - I never feel bad about the paces I run in training, and I don't feel particularly jealous of faster runners. I want to emulate their success, sure, but I wasn't constantly thinking, "oh, I have to be as fast as them or I suck."

But I guess somewhere in the bowels of my Type A mind, my subconscious grabbed the wheel and went full speed ahead to injury land. I'm hoping to truly learn my lesson this time around. When I pick my next marathon time goal, I want to have a real reason why - "because I should be able to run that fast" does not count!


3. It is really freaking cold.

I'm trying really hard not to complain too much about this winter (but clearly failing), since November and December were so mild. However, yesterday was a little much: it was -17 (air temp, not even real feel) when I got up for work. My coworker had her condo at 65 degrees, and all her pipes still completely froze.

We also came in to find our coworker from Texas sitting in her winter jacket, hood up, with a scarf wrapped all around her head. I think she sat that way for at least another hour. (Just to be clear - we all poke fun at her about this, but she laughs about it too. I don't want any of this to come across as mean! She got to win her battles in the summer, when she'd comfortably wear jackets in 90 degree weather.)


It does lead to interesting cross-cultural discussions, ie the Texan thought putting your heat at 65 to sleep was far too cold. I polled my chiro from Florida, and he concurred. We also had to explain what a scraper was (and why she needed one), because her initial reaction was that scraping a car sounded like a bad thing. She now jokes she should start a Youtube channel to document learning about winter. I think it could honestly go viral because she is so genuine and funny.

The good news is the weather forecast is calling for a high of 40 on Saturday! I can't wait to hit the road with my favorite podcast again for a long run!

Have you ever experienced the small world effect?
What temperature do you consider to be absurdly cold?

2 comments:

  1. Yay for running again! Glad to hear you are back at it.

    Laughing at teaching about winter. I'm a northern by birth and I always find it amusing to watch southerners react to cold weather. Why do they buy so much bread??

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    1. I feel particularly bad for my coworkers because we got our first real snow while they were home for Christmas, so they came back and had to shovel their car out and drive on ice for the first time in the dark. It's so strange that something I take for granted is so foreign to other people!

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