destruction

I will not be running the marathon this year. Shoot me now. I'm going nuts. Literally, my mind is not together. You know what would help me? Going for a run. You want to know what I can't do? Go running.

You know what else would help me? Going home and smashing every single plate, bowl, glass, or breakable material against my concrete floors. That's the kind of frustration I feel right now. I think that with each smash, I would feel as if I was releasing some of the rage, the pure rage, I feel inside.

I am craving endorphins. I am craving sweat. I am craving rhythm. I am craving having my hair back in a ponytail. I am craving the evening breeze. I am craving the first few and last few steps. I am craving the look people give me when they recognize that I am a runner. That I am someone who is able to run for hours.

Six to eight weeks is the time. I am going to go bat-shit crazy, so help me god.

And, you want to know what the biggest irony of all is? The greatest rub, the greatest "I told you so", the greatest revenge of all time? I did this to myself. No one else and nothing else did this to me. It was just me. I'm the cause of this.

I have either a stress fracture or a pulled ligament or tendon in my left foot. It's swimming, biking, and the gym for me. No running.

whee!

Things I've Done:
Registered for my third L.A. Marthon
Cleaned the floors in apt.
Watered plants
Took down Christmas
Lot's of work for work
Hung new curtains
Bought new rugs
Made all returns and purchases
Gym once a week
Dropped pants off to be hemmed
Have seen friends more often
Dentist appointments
Made eye appointment

Things to Do:
Get ready for typography class
Register for gardening program already
Start helping M with our garden
Laundry
Update computer so I can use the new nano
Get new pedicure
Research things in New York
Job hunt options

So far, all in all, a successful year. Things are chugging away smoothly. Almost too smoothly. I think I've decided to take the dive into the L.A. County Common Grounds Gardening Program. It starts the day before the marathon and continues through the end of May.

This means every Saturday from March 1 - May 31st is given up from 9:00am to 4:00pm. It seems like a giant committment, on top of my typography class and SMPS volunteer duties. BUT - at least I will not have to worry about training runs. I have a feeling that come June 1st I may have to plan a massive party to celebrate that I'll have my Saturday's back. Perhaps that massive party should take place on Catalina Island followed by those damn surf lessons.

I have the application on my desk today and am going to fill it out; this reminds me to check in with F, a lovely lady I met at a party who was also planning on doing this. I've hung out with her twice now and I think she'll make the program a really great experience to go through; we'll at least have each other, plus I'll probably meet a lot of other people.

This program will also require community service after it is done, so that is good - I've been meaning to start working that in to my life, so this is perfect.

Okay - well here goes! Gardening, I am making you a priority once again!

three

I officially started my third year of L.A. Leggers last Saturday. Had a whole 2 mile run with the group. It was short, but man, did it feel good. I felt energized. Rejuivinated.

I spent all last week not running at all. Just swimming. I've been having a pain, twinge, and twitch in my right leg. The area just below my knee (not on my knee, but below my knee, on the upper shin area to the left). Hmm. It had me worried so I took last week off, hence all of the swimming.

But this just made me realize that I need to keep swimming as a complement to the running. I'll go tonight. I had a good run last night - the pain was there for the first third of the run and then went away. I'll go swimming tonight to rest it, and then run tomorrow.

So, I'll be back in the run of things officially. For some reason, being part of leggers again re-validates all of the running I do mid-week. I'll also hopefully loose that 5 pounds I gain in the four months I have off from the club. :)

But...my Friday nights will once again start to be compromised. Oh well.

recovery

ahhhh, the marathon. how come it feels like it happened over a month ago but it was really just three days ago? three days ago at this time i was winding my way through hollywood, feeling great. wow. now my only real reminder is my bib sitting on my desk, the medal, and my sore quadriceps.

the race - the race was overall very good. my time was 4:51. that's 43 minutes faster than last year! i am really proud of that. altho i have to admit that i am unsure i will ever have that dramatic of a time decrease ever again. oh well, at least i can enjoy it now!

things were great up till around mile 18. up till then i was doing my 8:1 splits just fine, and was doing them at a very good pace - probably on pace to get in between 4:15 - 4:20. it was a very warm day though, and once in downtown proper the heat started getting to me. up till that point i made sure to drink a few glasses of water and gatorade, dump a few waters on my head, and run through every fire hydrant shower that L.A. City firemen let loose (ahhh, that was wonderful).

mile 19-21 had me taking more walk breaks - for 30 seconds at a time. then i got to mile 21, thinking "5 miles left! 5 miles left!" and that's when i realized i was not sweating anymore. uh-oh. my muscles starting fatiguing really quickly - and I was went to perhaps a 3:1 interval. at mile 23, with three miles to go, it was 4:20. in order to meet my sub-5 goal i had to run three miles in 40 minutes. this sounded easy enough - but then it got even warmer, and my quads tightened up even more.

by this point, people were dropping like flies. it wasn't pretty. people who when you might see them on the street make you think "DAMN that guy is in perfect athletic shape". there they were - shaking, pale, trying to throw up. i felt so sad for them - really, only 2 miles left. i really hope they were able to get things together and make it to the end.

anyway, from mile 24 onward, it was stop and go. it was really hard, folks. really hard. i felt like i was tearing my muscle from the bones. i had so much lactic acid built up, my muscles were literally bulging, and i really needed some salt. electrolytes just were not doing it for me.

but, i did manage to rally for the last .4 miles or so, and i finished with a 4:51.

so, i'm happy.

yay! onto the next race!

registered

I finally registered my ass for the marathon. took me long enough to do it. i am looking forward to finding out my number; i liked mine last year (12050, i think, off the top of my head). C got something like 15151...that's fun.

now i just to register for the wild miles run.

hmm, what is this thing called "labels". i shall type some things in and we'll find out.