Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Tuesday Torture...



Tuesdays are my days to do mile repeats. I do these on the dreadmill at the gym. When I think about this workout before I get to the gym, I don't think much about it. Then I get there and I get on the dreadmill and I think, oh gawd, this is going to be painful and boring. And today I was thinking, man, it is so nice outside, what am I doing in the gym on the dreadmill? I was feeling sluggish already even though I slept 10 hours last night, that's right, 10 hours. I was late for work. Even though I have no set schedule, I feel late if I am not there by 9 AM.

Anyway...I started out with a 15 minute warm up and then went into the first mile repeat. I do these miles at marathon race pace. Now, I have only run one road marathon so I don't really have a good idea of what a marathon race pace is for me, so I picked what time I wanted to do at Boston Marathon this year. Unfortunately, I was unable to go participate at Boston this year so who knows if this time I've set for myself is accurate. What I do know, is that my heart rate sure gets up there and I am hurtin' by then end. So, I get through the first mile and I can feel my left shin is tight and I was feeling a bit of pain. So I stopped and stretched. Then I started back up and got 1-1/2 minutes through the second one and I had to stop to stretch again. So while I was stretching, I thought of a plan B. Maybe I should just get on the bike and do some repeats. Yuk! I hate repeats on the bike. So, I just kept stretching and thought, well, I'll try one more time and if I feel pain, I'll get on the dreaded bike. So, I start the second mile repeat and I actually felt ok. Now one thing about running on a dreadmill for me is that I cannot look at the time that has gone by and the time I have left. I play all these little mind games with myself and sometimes the time goes by pretty quick and other times, I feel like time is going backwards. My thoughts go something like this: ok, don't look down at the time, listen to 2 songs on the iPOD and then look down. Oh look, I can see my knees in the window reflection, how weird. What if I could only see my bones, like the window is an x-ray machine, that would be interesting. Wow, look at the sun reflect off that building. It sort of looks like liquid. Yeah, like liquid like if I were in the desert and I thought I saw water. What a drag that would be in the desert and be so hot without water and then get lost, that would really suck. Look at all the people down below, just think, they have no idea that I can see them.

Ok, so the second mile goes by like this and I take a 3 minute recovery and start the 3rd mile. My thoughts are still all over the place. Sort of like this: wow, now I can see my quads in the reflection of the window, how weird. Oh right, b/c the sun is moving. I hope that I am not still on this dreadmill by the time the sun moves up to reflect my face b/c I don't want to see the grimace on my face. I'm sure I don't look happy right now. Oh no, don't look at the time, opps, oh man, 3-1/2 more minutes, um, I wonder how many babies will be born in these 3-1/2 minutes, oh, I like this song, it reminds me of the time.....blah blah blah. This is how I get through these mile repeats. Next thing I know, I've done 4 and it's time to stretch and do some core stuff. YAY! And now I don't have to think about this until next Tuesday when I torture myself again in the gym on the dreadmill.

1 comment:

gtach said...

it's true...the more you look at the clock, the slower it goes! in fact, if you stare at it long enough, it starts giving you negative minutes, with negative miles and negative calories burned. sigh i loved how you explained what goes on in your head! what would we do without music, right? i play those games too, like when there's 10 minutes left, i know that's 3 songs. so i just shut my eyes and get lost in the music and before i know it, it's over... except for those times when a random crappy song comes on [and i wonder how that ever got into my ipod!] or one that's just not motivating enough or fast enough and disrupts the whole flow. anyway, happy tapering! it'll be interesting to see how you handle it. it's called taper madness for a reason you know. : )