StellaTortoise's blog

So obviously I've sucked at keeping up with this blog. Heck, the last time I wrote anything was back on August 3rd - about 3 1/2 months ago.

The good news is that at least my running has been consistent. I did manage to finish my first marathon (the Marine Corp Marathon) in 4:22:19. I also managed to take a minute off of my timed 1600 over the summer. Granted, I'm still one of the slower runners in our group, but that's okay. Someone has to be the caboose. Plus, I've got plenty of people to inspire me and it's nice to know that I'll (hopefully) continue to see progress.

It’s hot. And I don’t mean "hot" in the Paris Hilton I-Like-Your-Shoes kind of way. It’s been 95+ degrees most of the week and it’s not over yet. Despite the heat, I’ve managed to complete all my planned runs this week.

Monday’s easy run was just that – easy. I started out around 5:30 am to beat the heat and quickly found that I’d have to dodge the many dog walkers who also wanted to take care of business before the sun got too high.

It’s been a while since my last posting (kinda reminds of the “Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it’s been n months since my last confession…” days of my Catholic childhood.) The reason I haven’t written anything is not entirely because I’ve been a complete slacker (although I did have a few rough days when I couldn’t get going in the morning), but more because I’ve been lost in my own head. If I ran as much as my mind wandered lately, I’m sure I would have made it around the world at least once by now.

I remember setting the alarm and turning it on. Heck, I think even remember turning it off at 4:30 and telling myself to get dressed and head to the gym so that I could get back for a quick run. What felt like 5 minutes turned out to be 180 minutes because the next time I looked at the clock it was 7:00.

Thursdays are interval workout days at the high school track for the running club that I belong to. Yesterday was no different. After a 1 mile warmup, our workout consisted of:
* 1600 meters at threshold
* 6 x 400 meters at slightly faster than threshold
* 1600 meters at threshold

As the coaches have been drilling into our heads, the purpose of these workouts is not to do an all-out effort, but to learn to pace yourself. Sounds good - but although my brain understands definition of threshold, my body is a whole different story.

So here it. My very first blog entry EVER. What took me so long? Well, lets just say that I'm a private person and am more of a listener than a talker. But after years of tossing around the idea to run a marathon, I finally decided that this was the year. I signed up to run the Marine Corp Marathon this October.