I like being sore

I really enjoyed my easy week the week after the marathon and my medium easy week this week. So much so that they made the whole marathon worth it! I mean it only last 3 hours and 15 minutes and then you get to be sore and run easy for the next week and not feel guilty about it. But today I was back up to 2 hours and 15 minutes so I guess all good things must come to an end. Even as I'm writing this I'm reminded that I have to go do push ups and crunches and planks and all that stuff, though no wall sit thank goodness, so hold on.

After the marathon I was too sore to do push ups and crunches and planks, and jumps, and definitely burpees, shudder. I like being sore because I earned it. Being sore says- I worked really really hard, so hard that I can't work hard anymore. Sore means yesterday was hard and today will have to be easy because of it.  Unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to make me sore. Back in high school doing six miles could make me sore, or a workout at the  beginning of the season. My first 10k made me sore and after my first steeplechase I could hardly even walk. Now the half marathon doesn't make me sore not even a tiny bit. The marathon still does but less than last year. At least a good 30 mile time trial should do the job nicely. I'm looking forward to that in December. The being sore afterwards, though not the ice bath.

First Call Marathon

Once again I ran at the First Call Veteran's Day marathon, where I ran my first marathon and PR last year. It's a good marathon to do because the people who put it on are very nice and easy going and it's free which is always good when you are a runner as poor as I am as most marathons cost around seventy dollars at least.
I ran 3:15:58 and won overall for men and women which is a plus because when I run by a woman they will all cheer for me. Actually most everyone cheers for you and since the course is a double out and back I saw other racers pretty much the whole way. Last year I ran my half PR for the first half of the marathon- 91:30, this year I went out a little more conservatively - 94:20, though still quick but that was pretty much the difference between those two races as I ran the second half about the same on both this year and last year, 1:40-1:41. It was a good pacer for my 50k in March.
This year I was helped a lot by my friend Eric. I was surprised that after he decided not to run in the half marathon race at the same time he still wanted to come out just to watch me run at 8 am on a Saturday morning for 3+ hours. He not only watched my whole race but even got there early to warm up with me. Then ran about 7 miles of the race with me, carrying my water bottle and waiting around at a water stop for me while I did my out and backs to give me more water. Then he waited with me while I recovered enough to walk to the parking lot, not a short length of time, and let me sit in his car with a working heater for 40 minutes until my parents came to pick me up, only eating 3/4 of my chocolate muffin. There was a lot of free food there. I have a hard time eating after running even though you are supposed to but I ate a grilled cheese sandwich, fritos, a red vine, an orange, and 1/4 of a muffin. Eric was impressed with the buffet of food and expressed regret at not having raced the half after all. Will run for food!
I feel more sore than after the trail 50k. Maybe because I actually ran fast?
I am proud of my race and my running performances this far in my life but of course every runner wants to get faster over the year. I have a good future though because marathoners and 50kers are usually even older than me. I feel stronger and more experienced so even though it might look like I haven't improved I think I have. Now I just will convince the clock.

2 workouts

On Saturday I did a very hard workout at Lake Padden where I was supposed to run 13x 7 minute miles with a 2 minute 400 in between each one as the "rest". It was harder running at Lake Padden than I thought. I only did the flat side of the lake but there were still a few little hills including one right as I finished the mile and one side and started my rest, if you count running 8 minute mile pace up a hill resting. I don't! I thought that I would have an easy time of this workout for awhile but I was wrong. As the first mile I ran was already 7:05, I told myself that maybe that was the harder mile. Then I turned around and ran a 6:30 mile- or so I thought but it was really 7:04. And that direction was definitely the harder mile the rest of the workout. It even got as bad as 7:30 something before I stopped timing myself so I wouldn't cry. I was not feeling very positive at all. I was thinking about everything that was wrong with my life and making it everything that was wrong with my running. Thinking- not only am I lonely, and poor, and my coach has abandoned me ( whether true or not is up for debate,  but something I think a lot, especially when I am running), but I'm also freakin SLOW! 
The workout I did on Wednesday I tried not to think about all day but of course I did anyway. I ran it with Jessica at Cornwall park. We ran a 15k on the 1k trail loop there, so 15 trail loops each one supposed to be around 5 seconds faster than the loop before it. We got to start off slow, about my rest pace from above so the first loop was fun in 5 minutes, talking and giggly. Then I suck as a pacer because I make us run 4:46, and then go back up 4:48, then drop too much to 4:34 or something then into the 4:20s and then just stick to 4:17 s for a while. Basically I'm fired :D I tried not to think about anything when I was running, just let the laps flow by and only be semiconscious of them. And it sort of worked. I finished with a 4:12 and then a 4:11.