A Run in 3 Acts
Up for today was the BN loop. It would be done in 3 acts: 1) warm it up; 2) throw it down; 3) cool it off.
There was actually a preface this morning. I had to use every trick I knew to get myself out of bed. I just didn't want to get up. One part of me was thinking about other times today I could get the run in until the other part of me laid down the bottom line: I would run something this morning. Period. From there I bargained with myself: as far as I wanted to, I wouldn't have to go fast if I didn't want to, I would go fast but with the iPod. By this time I was moving and when I got out the door it was without iPod and intending to run the full BN loop.
Act 1: Mile 1 was a mess: my calves and my stomach were both in knots. Mile 2, through Penn campus and down to the river, is downhill and I felt a groove coming on so that by the time I hit the Schuylkill bike path I was cruising and started thinking about how fast I wanted to do the river miles. I got to MLK at a middlin' 27 minutes and took off at a fast but manageable pace.
Act 2: Keeping this pace, however, was work - not the joyful run fast for the joy of running stuff that I was getting attacks of last week. The quarter-mile hash passed in 1:30 - 6 minute pace, my target marathon pace. Perfect, I thought, lets see if I could hold it. And hold it I did, clicking off three neat 6-minute miles and then putting in a little extra to finish up the four miles at Falls River Bridge in 23:54. Then it was up BN hill. Object was to get anaerobic without killing myself. To my surprise I found a smooth stride going up it, a stride I've been catching myself in more and more lately. Its hard to describe, it feels longer and lighter than my usual hard stomp, and when I get this groove I get the sense of being fast, of mastery, and imagine myself almost Kenyan. It comes and goes, and has been coming more and more lately. I took this up the hill and passed the summit checkpoint in 8:57 - awesome time - and kept chugging to the plateau. Chamounix Road is a long straightaway and I got in that smooth stride again to where I knew I was going to do this stretch fast but it felt effortless. Sure enough, I hit the plateau with the watch saying that 16:42 had elapsed since the bridge. Again a time to be happy with. Again I am on a ladder downwards.
Act 3: The cooldown is in alot of ways the hardest act in this little play. Once I'm at the plateau I could theoretically walk the rest of the way in and I'd be happy. But there are still about four miles from here to home and I'm anxious to be done. Circling around the Plateau is on a downhill and I still have some residual adrenaline left to fuel my legs. But once I get to Belmont Ave. everything typically starts to hurt, and today was no exception. The closer I get to home, the slower I get. But time doesn't matter here. If anything, its good practice to run on very tired legs. And the high from a quality workout like today's is better than any painkiller in dulling the ache in my legs.
Totals are 13.5 miles in 94:10.
There was actually a preface this morning. I had to use every trick I knew to get myself out of bed. I just didn't want to get up. One part of me was thinking about other times today I could get the run in until the other part of me laid down the bottom line: I would run something this morning. Period. From there I bargained with myself: as far as I wanted to, I wouldn't have to go fast if I didn't want to, I would go fast but with the iPod. By this time I was moving and when I got out the door it was without iPod and intending to run the full BN loop.
Act 1: Mile 1 was a mess: my calves and my stomach were both in knots. Mile 2, through Penn campus and down to the river, is downhill and I felt a groove coming on so that by the time I hit the Schuylkill bike path I was cruising and started thinking about how fast I wanted to do the river miles. I got to MLK at a middlin' 27 minutes and took off at a fast but manageable pace.
Act 2: Keeping this pace, however, was work - not the joyful run fast for the joy of running stuff that I was getting attacks of last week. The quarter-mile hash passed in 1:30 - 6 minute pace, my target marathon pace. Perfect, I thought, lets see if I could hold it. And hold it I did, clicking off three neat 6-minute miles and then putting in a little extra to finish up the four miles at Falls River Bridge in 23:54. Then it was up BN hill. Object was to get anaerobic without killing myself. To my surprise I found a smooth stride going up it, a stride I've been catching myself in more and more lately. Its hard to describe, it feels longer and lighter than my usual hard stomp, and when I get this groove I get the sense of being fast, of mastery, and imagine myself almost Kenyan. It comes and goes, and has been coming more and more lately. I took this up the hill and passed the summit checkpoint in 8:57 - awesome time - and kept chugging to the plateau. Chamounix Road is a long straightaway and I got in that smooth stride again to where I knew I was going to do this stretch fast but it felt effortless. Sure enough, I hit the plateau with the watch saying that 16:42 had elapsed since the bridge. Again a time to be happy with. Again I am on a ladder downwards.
Act 3: The cooldown is in alot of ways the hardest act in this little play. Once I'm at the plateau I could theoretically walk the rest of the way in and I'd be happy. But there are still about four miles from here to home and I'm anxious to be done. Circling around the Plateau is on a downhill and I still have some residual adrenaline left to fuel my legs. But once I get to Belmont Ave. everything typically starts to hurt, and today was no exception. The closer I get to home, the slower I get. But time doesn't matter here. If anything, its good practice to run on very tired legs. And the high from a quality workout like today's is better than any painkiller in dulling the ache in my legs.
Totals are 13.5 miles in 94:10.
posted by seebo | 9:02 AM
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