So tonight is Thursday night and that means running of the "Newton Hills" followed by beer and pizza at Crossroads pub! Since late November when I first learned about these runs, on most Thursdays I try to meet up and run with a group of runners (some DFMC teammates, some not) who take the T (the D-train nonetheless) out to the Woodland T stop which is the last stop before the end of the line at Riverside. The woodland stop is right on Washington st in West Newton which is directly on the Boston Marathon course, so it works out very nicely allowing you to run roughly the last 8.5-9miles of the actual race course, including the often referenced "Newton Hills", and the infamous "Heartbreak Hill". These hills actually aren't really all that bad in and of themselves, but what makes them revered is the point at which they come up on the course, essentially between the 16-21mile marks, after you've been mostly running downhill up until that point. In any event, as Marathon Monday draws closer, the number of people attending these Thursday night runs continually escalates. The runs don't actually go all the way to the finish line down by Copley, but instead take a slight detour as you come through Kenmore square, and break off onto Beacon st ending shortly thereafter at Crossroads pub. Crossroads serves up free pizza to all patrons on Thursday nights, so the crew usually gathers there to share stories and relax while enjoying a beer or two.
Because my apartment lies in between Crossroads pub and the Woodland stop, getting over to Crossroads ahead of time to drop off a dry set of clothes to change into after is often more trouble than it's worth, so on cold nights (which we've had our share of recently), for me it's often just easier to turn back at Kenmore square (as I did tonight), and head straight back to my apartment at the end of the run, rather than hanging around getting cold in sweaty running clothes. This also has the added benefit of adding an additional 2miles to my run. Hopefully as spring draws closer, the weather will warm up a bit, and allow me to attend more of the beer and pizza festivities after. I am looking forward to that.
Leaving my apartment, it's almost exactly 1.25miles to the reservoir stop, which is the closest point for me to pickup the D-train heading outbound to woodland. This works out nicely as a short easy warm up. A couple of times so far this winter, when I knew I wasn't going to be able to complete a long run over the weekend, I've actually run out to woodland, instead of catching the train, which adds roughly 7.25miles to the run, bringing the total distance round trip to approx. 17.5miles. A solid distance for a mid-week run at night in the middle of the winter for sure!
Tonights run was pretty good. It felt good to get a little bit of distance in finally, but it also definitely showed me that while I certainly feel a ton better, I'm still not 100% over my cold. While this might not make complete sense, I often feel like running helps me when I'm sick (obviously depending on the severity), but I feel like it helps get the blood flowing and just helps to get things moving around. I managed to somehow make it a bit of a lonely run tonight tho, as I think all of the rest recently had given me a little bit of anxiety, and when I got out there, even though I started off with a few people, I quickly decided to just go off on my own. I think it was what I needed tho, as really I just wanted to assess my current situation, and enjoy my run, which I was definitely able to do.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
I'm reminded why I run... (4.56mi)
Wow, that felt good. After spending the past 5 days resting, allowing my body to try and really make sure I've fully beaten this nasty sinus infection, I finally got out there tonight, even if it was only a short 4.5miles, for a run. And my god did it feel amazing. Now I expected that it would feel good as after having been held up for the past 5 days, I was somewhat antsy, and I've been itching to get out there and do something, but I guess it just really hit home to me as I started going, just how much an integrated part of me running has become. I never would have thought this would've happened to me, but I really do NEED to run. I can't imaging life without it. I'm fortunate enough to be blessed with a working mind, two able legs, and a situation that allows me to get out there and just do it. It's funny how we all too often don't realize how good something is, until we don't have it anymore. I run, because I can, and I hope I am able to enjoy it for the rest of my life.
Road Bumps
So my training for Boston recently hit its first minor "road bump". I came down with a VISCIOUS bacterial sinus infection late last week, that really just took me out of commission. And trust me here, I do mean it when I say VISCIOUS. Now normally, and I really don't want to sound like I'm some kind of ridiculous bad ass here or anything, but the truth is I historically have been very good about making sure I get my run in, regardless of what kind of physical/mental condition I might actually be in. I'm usually pretty resilient, and have been very fortunate through the past 4-5 years of running, where I haven't come down with any real major injuries. Now don't get me completely wrong, I've had a couple of hangups here and there, but for the most part I've generally run with all sorts of different kinds of ailments, be it the all too common knee, leg, neck or back pains that runners are so often afflicted with, nasty blisters from running in wet shoes for too long, head colds, seasonal allergies, etc, I've been faced with all sorts of problems, and generally, I find if I just keep pushing, after a few miles, it eventually goes away. And even if it doesn't, you learn to just deal with it.
Regardless, whatever it was that took hold of me late Thursday evening last week, it came in with a grip that I have only encountered on a handful of occasions in my life. It took me out hard. On Wednesday night I had started to feel a little bit of irritation in my throat and as the day wore on on Thursday, it got progressively worse, so by the time I went out for my run with my friend Katie that night, my voice had become quite raspy. The plan was to do 8-10mi, as the Boston Prep 16 miler was coming up on Sunday, and this was to be the last real run of the week. Friday and Saturday would be pretty much rest days. As the run went on, I realized it was a little colder than I anticipated and was regretting opting to not bring a throw away set of hand warmers that I had been debating about before I headed out. My left hand had started to numb up on me, so by the time I got home, I had to spend 10-15 minutes sitting there waiting for my hand to warm up. I don't think this really helped my body in fighting off the attacking bacteria. I spent most of Thursday night awake, coughing, hacking, and emptying my sinuses out into the trash can. I fluctuated from being freakishly hot to icy cold all night long. The sinus pressure in my head built up so much I thought I was going to legitimately pass out every time I sat up to blow my nose. I barely had the strength to move, yet alone get out of bed. It really was an awful night. I normally never do this, but I actually decided to call my Dr. in the morning and see if I could get in to see him that day. Fortunately they had an opening at 10:45am. I laid in bed until 9:45am, at which point it honestly took about every ounce of strength I had to get up and get myself in the shower. I almost passed out standing up in the shower several times. After the shower, I had to lay down for another 5 minutes before I could muster the strength to get myself dressed. Getting myself too the hospital was almost as bad, but I managed to get through. My Dr. took my temperature and it was only ~99.6, so I did have a slight temperature, but he diagnosed me with just a bacterial sinus infection and prescribed me with some antibiotics, some good cough medicine with codine, and told me to take some Sudafed, drink plenty of fluids, and too rest. I had no problem with any of that. I took the drugs when I got home and spent the rest of Friday passing in and out of consciousness on my couch. With the codine laced cough medicine, I slept pretty well Friday night. I actually awoke on Saturday feeling much better, and my condition only continued to improve throughout the day. I actually was maintaining hanging onto a small thread of hope that I might still be able to participate in Sunday's race.
That was the real kicker for me. I had read about the Derry race back in 2006, when I still had ideas about trying to get in to the 2007 Boston marathon. The Derry Boston Prep 16 miler is typically regarded by most New England runners as a very difficult course. Therefore, it means it's a race I really wanted to do. When it came up amongst some of my DFMC teammates that they would be running it, I knew I had to sign up. I really wanted to kick this race's ass. They say it has big hills. I was very eager to find out just how big for myself. Now this sinus infection was looking to put an end to all of those hopes and dreams. For me to give up on this race and not participate was extremely hard. I hung onto the decision right up until the very end. On Sunday I had planned to make the trek up to Derry (regardless of whether or not I actually ran) to cheer on my good friend Katie and keep fellow DFMC teammate Fred, company. The weather changed from rain to snow as we traveled north toward Derry early in the morning. When we got up there, I actually changed into my running clothes and went out to run a short 1/2mile or so, in order to analyze my situation and make my final decision. I knew almost right away, as I made my way up slight incline on the snow covered sidewalk, that if I actually tried to complete this thing, it would have taken a great deal of energy out of me, and probably undo any of the recovery the past 2 days had allowed me from my sickness, and set me back another week. So in the end, I made the smart, but extremely tough, decision to stand this one out, and just support Katie (and her friend "Mo") in their race. They both did extremely well. I was very happy for both of them.
Regardless, whatever it was that took hold of me late Thursday evening last week, it came in with a grip that I have only encountered on a handful of occasions in my life. It took me out hard. On Wednesday night I had started to feel a little bit of irritation in my throat and as the day wore on on Thursday, it got progressively worse, so by the time I went out for my run with my friend Katie that night, my voice had become quite raspy. The plan was to do 8-10mi, as the Boston Prep 16 miler was coming up on Sunday, and this was to be the last real run of the week. Friday and Saturday would be pretty much rest days. As the run went on, I realized it was a little colder than I anticipated and was regretting opting to not bring a throw away set of hand warmers that I had been debating about before I headed out. My left hand had started to numb up on me, so by the time I got home, I had to spend 10-15 minutes sitting there waiting for my hand to warm up. I don't think this really helped my body in fighting off the attacking bacteria. I spent most of Thursday night awake, coughing, hacking, and emptying my sinuses out into the trash can. I fluctuated from being freakishly hot to icy cold all night long. The sinus pressure in my head built up so much I thought I was going to legitimately pass out every time I sat up to blow my nose. I barely had the strength to move, yet alone get out of bed. It really was an awful night. I normally never do this, but I actually decided to call my Dr. in the morning and see if I could get in to see him that day. Fortunately they had an opening at 10:45am. I laid in bed until 9:45am, at which point it honestly took about every ounce of strength I had to get up and get myself in the shower. I almost passed out standing up in the shower several times. After the shower, I had to lay down for another 5 minutes before I could muster the strength to get myself dressed. Getting myself too the hospital was almost as bad, but I managed to get through. My Dr. took my temperature and it was only ~99.6, so I did have a slight temperature, but he diagnosed me with just a bacterial sinus infection and prescribed me with some antibiotics, some good cough medicine with codine, and told me to take some Sudafed, drink plenty of fluids, and too rest. I had no problem with any of that. I took the drugs when I got home and spent the rest of Friday passing in and out of consciousness on my couch. With the codine laced cough medicine, I slept pretty well Friday night. I actually awoke on Saturday feeling much better, and my condition only continued to improve throughout the day. I actually was maintaining hanging onto a small thread of hope that I might still be able to participate in Sunday's race.
That was the real kicker for me. I had read about the Derry race back in 2006, when I still had ideas about trying to get in to the 2007 Boston marathon. The Derry Boston Prep 16 miler is typically regarded by most New England runners as a very difficult course. Therefore, it means it's a race I really wanted to do. When it came up amongst some of my DFMC teammates that they would be running it, I knew I had to sign up. I really wanted to kick this race's ass. They say it has big hills. I was very eager to find out just how big for myself. Now this sinus infection was looking to put an end to all of those hopes and dreams. For me to give up on this race and not participate was extremely hard. I hung onto the decision right up until the very end. On Sunday I had planned to make the trek up to Derry (regardless of whether or not I actually ran) to cheer on my good friend Katie and keep fellow DFMC teammate Fred, company. The weather changed from rain to snow as we traveled north toward Derry early in the morning. When we got up there, I actually changed into my running clothes and went out to run a short 1/2mile or so, in order to analyze my situation and make my final decision. I knew almost right away, as I made my way up slight incline on the snow covered sidewalk, that if I actually tried to complete this thing, it would have taken a great deal of energy out of me, and probably undo any of the recovery the past 2 days had allowed me from my sickness, and set me back another week. So in the end, I made the smart, but extremely tough, decision to stand this one out, and just support Katie (and her friend "Mo") in their race. They both did extremely well. I was very happy for both of them.
About time...
I've been wanting to get a blog going since I started this whole marathon training experience way back in October. Technically, it's something I've thought about doing just as a general running blog, several times in the past. In any event, so I know it's a little later than I'd have liked to actually get it started, but I guess better late than never, and you have to start somewhere. So here goes...
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