Mondays are generally slow news days, and when it’s a national holiday there’s even less information to absorb via online news sources while you’re bored at work waiting for the clock to strike seven o’clock. Eh…maybe that’s just me. The majority of the country didn’t have to work today. I swear I’m not bitter. Fuck you.
Pardon my self-absorption. I have nothing else to blog about so I’m going to spend a few minutes updating you on my life. Yes, again. Some of you are probably thinking, “Jesus Fucking Christ, I can’t escape this asshole. I click onto Swan Fungus to hear some cool music and it’s just some dude prattling on about his life as if anyone gives a fuck!” Trust me, I do the same thing every time I read back over what I’ve written. It’s like…doesn’t this guy want to talk about anything else? How much time does he think I have to read this shit? Yeah, I’m with you.
It was June 1st when I announced that I had paid my registration dues and entered myself in the Las Vegas Marathon. I’ve never run a marathon before. Rather than start a diary I thought it might be interesting to reflect on the training process online. Training commenced August 1st. So, how am I doing? Pretty good!
Saturday marked the completion of my 5th week of training. My program goes for 18 weeks, so I’m a shade over 1/4 of the way to preparing myself for a marathon. My body seems to be adapting well to the rhythm of the program. I was nervous about shifting from three days a week of long runs to four days a week of staggered runs.
Before I registered for Vegas people told me to be careful not to run myself down. If I ran three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) a typical week included runs of anywhere from 5-10 miles each day. Sometimes I’d try to stretch it to 10-15 but my knees would hurt, my shins or calves would hurt, or my quads would hurt. There was no real understanding of building up stamina or introducing new levels of intensity. I just ran. After five weeks I’m already seeing improvement in my run times, and I’ve yet to feel sore or overworked.
Week one included runs (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday) of 3, 3, 3, and 6 miles. Week two increased only the long run to 7 miles. Week three upped the Wednesday run to 4 miles but decreased the long run to 5 miles. I guess the purpose is to conserve energy for the impending increase in mileage that would come in the ensuing weeks. Week four (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday) was 3, 4, 5, and 9 miles. At work on Saturday after the 9 mile run I felt a little tinge in my knee, but it only lasted for 15 minutes and could have been psychosomatic. Week five, this past week, had me running 3, 5, 3 and 10 miles. I felt really good after the 10 mile run and haven’t noticed any after-effects since Saturday. This coming week, week 6, will consist of runs of 3, 5, 3 and 7 miles. Once again the Saturday long run has decreased in order to prepare me for the next jump (12 miles). In two weeks I will be running a half-marathon, 13.1 miles. That should give me a pretty good indication about what my expected time might be in a full marathon. I’m excited about that.
In general, I feel pretty good. A few people I know who have run marathons boasted to me about how they’ve never been in better shape than while training. I definitely feel stronger and healthier than I have in the past, but I don’t think my physique reflects the amount of work I’ve put in thus far. I think it’s because I haven’t taken seriously my promises to myself to eat better and stop drinking during the 16 week program. I’m still drinking way too much (I try to stick to nights before days of rest but I’m still fucking off and blacking out when I shouldn’t). At one point I told a friend that I’ve done more drugs since I started training than I had in the previous four years since I moved to Los Angeles. As punishment for these transgressions I’ve set a new goal that I will go stone-cold sober for the final 8 weeks of training. For serious. I will also make a greater effort to follow a the diet plan I’m ignoring now. It’s just…the thought of so much fruit scares me. Deep down inside I know it’s better for me and increases the odds I’ll attain my goal if I do better to feed myself properly. As the marathon draws closer I have no doubt I’ll freak myself into abstaining when I need to, and following closely whatever regimen is recommended. The last thing I want to do is fuck this up for myself. So if it comes down to success or booze, the choice is obvious. Hopefully my friends will understand. It’s just two months of boring Evan! Hell, most of ’em dealt with three years of boring Evan when I was in a relationship. What’s a mere two months?
Is there anything else that can be said? I’m making sure I alternate running shoes so as not to wear down my favorite pair too quickly. I’ve been spotted by at least a half-dozen friends and acquaintances running around town in my usual attire (little gay short-shorts and a bright orange headband). I figure if I’m going to take this hobby seriously I might as well have some fun with it. Waking up early sucks. Moving has screwed up my training a bit because the distances to different landmarks I use when running around town have changed. I was used to Sunset/Vine being exactly five miles from my front door, or Sunset/Western being exactly 4 miles, and Sunset/Normandie being exactly 3.5 miles away. Now it’s fractions of miles, like 4.2, 4.7, 5.4 miles. That means I have to do math when I run. And math is never fun. Especially when I’m trying to focus on my breathing and posture and rhythm. Hopefully on days with shorter runs I can figure out an easier system that won’t involve complex equations like “what’s 4.2 doubled?”
Fuck math. Running is rad. I’m retarded. Those are the three main points you should come away from this blog post with.
Magick Markers – Body Rot
Snowy Red – Deep Desire
