Saturday, September 30, 2006

Marathon Training: Weeks 9 and 10

Week 9 was so bad I couldn't even write about it last week. Here's the short version:

I completed 20 miles of running, culminating in a long run of 9 miles. Because of bad weather on Saturday (excessively humid in the morning and pouring rain with hail in the afternoon), I ran it on a treadmill. Which sucked. Not doing that again.

Week 10 was better, so I can even write about it already this morning!

I ran my long run of 10 miles this morning. It was so cool and comfortable outside that the run was exceptionally pleasant. I even found myself speeding up towards the end of the run, which was a really nice feeling.

Today's completed run puts me a third of the way through my training for the marathon in February. I have run 133 miles in 30.5 hours over the last ten weeks. I never imagined I would run anywhere close to that many miles in the same year even. "Amazing" is the only word I have for this.

In other news, I ran in different style clothes today. I have been running in running shorts and tight shirts. Since I run mostly in the early morning, I catch my shadow as cars drive by with their headlights on or from street lights along my route. I had noticed that my shadow really looked like my butt needed a sign on it that says "WIDE LOAD". I spent much time trying to figure out if this was true, or some kind of weird optical illusion. Today I ran in a loose shirt and a pair of tight spandex shorts. The shadows now looked proportional, the way I thought I looked. So, I've determined that my running clothes make my butt look big, and it's time to get some new ones. Oh, and there's the fact that my running shorts are all hand-me-downs, and are all too big, which might also be contributing to the wide load look. But whatever. The conclusion is the same.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nine miles on a treadmill is brutal. On the upside, you can't focus on your wide load shadow.

Anonymous said...

I like that so much of your run was spent analyzing your butt shadow.

On a similar note, when I was training for my half marathon last year I learned that baggy shorts, while great for working out at the gym, are not good for running. The crotch seems to suck in all of the extra fabric which is (needless to say) not so pretty.

Heather said...

But it's so fun to pull one's shorts out of one's crotch!

Kyle, I knew you could find the silver lining for me -- thanks!