Exercise on the road

Marathon training continued this weekend, 13.06 miles from Factoria, through the rollers on Mercer Island and across I-90 to touch Seattle and come back. Despite having very sore hamstrings from M.C., the run actually felt good. I don't want to jinx myself but I'm feeling stronger, and faster than when I trained for Seattle 2 years ago.

The difference, and I hate to say it, is Mountain Conditioning. As much as I complain about it, the class kicks my ass, makes the weekly running schedule really tough and makes me get up at 4:45 am twice a week, but I'm much stronger than before. And even better, I think it's helping prevent the IT band/hip flexor injury I had before. I spent the day on two flights today (Seattle to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to NY) and came off not too sore. A little stiff in the hips, but nothing considered we had run almost a half marathon!

I remember doing this exact run two years ago and the difference is incredible. The hills are much less painful, the distance is easier to tackle, and I'm actually having more fun. Again, I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I am starting to believe that I might have a 4:15 marathon in me somewhere (at some point in the future).

I'd love to take it easy next month and not sign up for the class, get a couple of days a week to sleep in, do a much easier upper body workout, leave the leg training mainly to running... but I can't. I know it's making me a better runner. Did I mention that I could sleep in? But I committed to running this race, and I set a goal time. I don't want to get hurt, and if I'm going to bother to put in the miles, I might as well go balls out.

So I'm signing up again... and if you hear me complaining about it or thinking about changing my mind, point me to this post. I will listen to my body and make sure to take it easier on days that I need it, but I like the consistency and push in the class... and seeing Allison and Carl at 5:30 am is a bonus. :-)

I'm staying in NY until Wednesday and then flying to Atlanta through Saturday. Since I flew today, tomorrow is officially my recovery run. I'm about a mile and a half from Central Park so I think that's the plan for tomorrow morning. Oh, WHAT is with the heat and humidity on the East Coast? I keep forgetting what the heat felt like... Kirk, I have NO idea how you go out for afternoon runs in this stuff... it's so heavy it's actually hard to breathe!