NYC Marathon Training Week 15

Miles: 15.08     Deer, Snails, Bunnies Spotted: 5

I got an e-mail from the NYC Marathon today that reminded me that I will be standing in Staten Island in exactly 21 days. That’s just 3 weeks from today. H.O.L.Y. C.O.W. If I was pregnant (again), I would officially be the last trimester. You know, the uncomfortable, waiting, anticipating, freaking out stage. Yep.

Doesn’t help that I pretty much meh’d through the week. There was just something to do every.damn.night. for school, work, piano, scouts….ugh. After my esteem-building 20-miler last week, this week was very different. Sunday night I wasn’t feeling so hot – so I moved my Monday morning run to the evening. Even then, it was bleh. When my Garmin decided it would lose satellite signal on and off, I just sort of gave up fighting it. I had almost completed the loop in my neighborhood when it decided to tell me I had run 2 miles a 16:00/mile pace. I knew that was WAAAYYYY off (trust me, the loop, including 1 lap around the playground, is 3.29 miles….***every Monday for the last 15 weeks it has been 3.29 miles***….except this week….), so I just pitched the last 1/4 mile and walked it off.

Tuesday’s “fun workout” included 10 classes of teaching tempo (the speed of music) to elementary students using dancing, horse riding, and passing the ball games. Or, at least, that will have to count because I had to bail on my anticipated yoga class for yet another Girl Scout leader training. Yay me.

I was actually looking forward to the run on Thursday, even though it was a 6 miles with 4 miles at a high speed. I confess: I managed to squeeze out 1 mile at tempo pace, then just slogged through at my normal slowish pace. I flirted with speeding every other mile, but alas, it was only a tease.

Everyone in the family had been looking forward to this weekend, as it was our very first camping trip with Lane’s Cub Scout troop – and our very first camping trip with the family. Now, I’ve been an on and off camper for years. I have my own equipment, nothing hard core. I usually camp with somewhere near running water. Not so with the boy scouts! We were directed to the “primitive campground”. There was hellacious traffic, so we got there 3 hours later than expected and had to set up in the dark. Double yay! By the time we got to into the tent, with a half-inflated air mattress, it was nearly midnight. (about 3 hours past my normal bedtime these days.) I stared at the tent walls, I turned, I stared, I turned. I switched from one half inflated mattress to the other somewhere around 1:30 a.m. I stared. Dozed. Stared. Waited for the alarm.

5 a.m. I turned the alarm off and decided that my night was too awful to try to head out for a run. Stared. Turned. Rolled over. Stared some more. Finally, I just decided to get it over with and got up at 5:30 a.m. No breakfast — had a GU, filled my water bottle and took off. Saw the train pass through the park, ran to the other campsites, past the “gatorhole”, saw a snake on the road, rabbits in the field, deer, horses, five snails trying to cross the road, and a horde of zealous mountain bikers all lined up to get in the park at 7 a.m.

I took a minute to watch the sunrise over the scrub brush, and thought about just how few people get to see even one sunrise per year, and I have been blessed to see at least one sunrise for the last 15 weeks in a row. I was slow, but happy that I headed out, and much more grounded because of if. I eeked out 8-miles before having to get back to camp to start the Cub Scout activities. I knew there would be plenty of hiking involved during the day, so I wasn’t worried about being a little short.

We camped, and cooked, and hiked, and bird watched, and dip netted, and did all things Scout. Even though my long run was slow with no sleep, no fuel, and 15,000 mosquitoes, it got done. Hopefully, marathon day will be much easier.