My marathon training program has finally reached it's "taper period." By this, it means I am no longer running longer runs each week, capping with last week's 20 miler. Running from my place to E. 47th on the South side was awesome by the way. I did it in 3:18. The true moment of glory last week was doing my next 5 miler at a pace of 8.18/mile. This week's 12 miler did not seem to be anything of great difficulty by comparison. However, it was one of those runs that just felt like work. Additionally, during the run I started to get pains on my left knee, very much like the ones on my right knee back in May. Those were IT band irritations that sidelined me for 2 weeks. This pain is not nearly as sharp, but enough for me to cancel my run today and take the next couple days as they come.
I am also still smoking. That is frustrating as it is satisfying. On one hand I want to be free of the dependency and not think about it any more. Sadly, having given this a few good efforts before, I know the mental obsession over cigarettes are not over when I finally stop thinking about quitting. Then it becomes a 24/7 process of reminding myself any given minute will not be better if I had one. I also have this perverse pride in running the way I am right now while doing something I shouldn't. I realize it's a lot like shooting oneself to show you can survive the bullet, but it's still there. My folks are coming out for the marathon in couple weeks and I think it may be foolish to even try with them coming. They are both pretty resolved smokers.
I know as long as I keep wanting to quit, it will happen. Plus, barring a catastrophe, I want to keep running marathons. I've got a list of cities I want to run and a tattoo already in mind. That also does not promote continuing to light up. For now though I am relatively content with my mid-level insanity.
My marathon training program has finally reached it's "taper period." By this, it means I am no longer running longer runs each week, capping with last week's 20 miler. Running from my place to E. 47th on the South side was awesome by the way. I did it in 3:18. The true moment of glory last week was doing my next 5 miler at a pace of 8.18/mile. This week's 12 miler did not seem to be anything of great difficulty by comparison. However, it was one of those runs that just felt like work. Additionally, during the run I started to get pains on my left knee, very much like the ones on my right knee back in May. Those were IT band irritations that sidelined me for 2 weeks. This pain is not nearly as sharp, but enough for me to cancel my run today and take the next couple days as they come. 
I am also still smoking. That is frustrating as it is satisfying. On one hand I want to be free of the dependency and not think about it any more. Sadly, having given this a few good efforts before, I know the mental obsession over cigarettes are not over when I finally stop thinking about quitting. Then it becomes a 24/7 process of reminding myself any given minute will not be better if I had one. I also have this perverse pride in running the way I am right now while doing something I shouldn't. I realize it's a lot like shooting oneself to show you can survive the bullet, but it's still there. My folks are coming out for the marathon in couple weeks and I think it may be foolish to even try with them coming. They are both pretty resolved smokers. 
I know as long as I keep wanting to quit, it will happen. Plus, barring a catastrophe, I want to keep running marathons. I've got a list of cities I want to run and a tattoo already in mind. That also does not promote continuing to light up. For now though I am relatively content with my mid-level insanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment