Monday, May 2, 2011

Ever the Run(plan)ner...

So, can't wait for the muddy pictures from Warrior Dash to be posted! Grateful in the meantime to Th James for taking some great 'before's :)
(altho, this is actually 'after', having been hosed down and changed, as you can tell from Mah Medal)

It was hilarious and I can't wait to do another one!  Especially as James n I sort-of-on-purpose blew the curve by walking most of the way between obstacles; should be easy to set a PR now that there's a (very low) bar to compare it to! I was surprised and gratified by how not-foreign it felt to clamber over stuff and fling myself through obstacles; aside from the running, as soon as it was over I wanted to do it again.  Apparently, my life doesn't contain enough things for me to climb...

The comparative un-success of the running part was a bit eye-opening tho: San Diego is a month away!  Half the time I glance at seven shiny medals on my wall I think, "no brainer! Just show up!"-- the other half I look and think, "who the hell ran 91 miles for those?! Bc I wouldn't get up right now for a donut."

So I'm thinking, I might train.  Like I said I would last post.  With the five weeks I have left!
Apart from total Sloth, I think the biggest thing that's been in my way is not having a clear plan.  I know I grabbed the marathon plan quickly enough, but as far as halfs my big question is how to get faster--and I hate all the complex vo2max crap and vocab-driven calculations everyone suggests.  Fartleks, I guess I could handle...intervals, yeah...tempo pace, speed runs...FUCK! Shut up already, I'm tired just filling out my calendar.  I got here because the plan was excuse-shatteringly simple, and methinks that might be the key to lasting success: "run 5, walk 2".  Got it.  I've had this idea before, going back to Bud Coates and just adding a faster pace guideline to the miraculously simple plan, and hopefully that means it's worth investigating.  Any case, I've pencilled in a date with the treadmill tomorrow morning to test my theory!  With any luck (read: abatement of my blogging-ADD), I'll let you know how it goes!

OH ps- as we were shambling along between the straw bales and rickety balance beam (and cracking up at the eventual Quote of the Day: "I can't believe the waiver for this was only one page!"), a fellow (slow) runner overheard us talking about the similar Spartan series of obstacle races.  He said a guy from his gym ran one recently, and as it turned out, the fire he expected to leap over rather than being two feet tall as implied actually turned out to be a six-foot wall of flame which singed most of his hair off.  And just to add a little intrigue, stationed on the other side were volunteers dressed as spartans who beat him with sticks! Perhaps this shouldn't fill me with glee- but it does.

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