got into the 2012 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler!

dang, got into the 2012 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.  that means i seriously need to start training.

“the hills never get better, you only get stronger”

i think that a lot of athletics are 75% mental and 25% physical.  that ratio will probably shift slightly when you are talking about competitive athletics that requires specific training and goal setting.  but for the average untrained person, being able to physically do something slightly athletic is more mental than physical.  if you mentally tell yourself to keep going, somehow your body will respond, or your brain will just shut down the portion that transmits the sensation of pain.  the image that comes to mind when is read pain are hills.  yes, hills, the bane of many athlete’s existence.  either running or cycling, the thought of hills evokes a kind of negative reaction.

the one thing that i have learned through this whole running/cycling semi-masochistic experience is to never trust someone who tells you that that was the last ‘hill’.  Ever.  because they are probably wrong.  one of my first Sunday morning shop rides, when we were winding our way back from the suburbs of Maryland, a fellow rider enthusiastically chirped “last hill” for about a quarter mile until they finally gave up.  mentally, when you hear “last hill”, you grit your teeth a little harder and dig deep for that last bit of reserved energy to make it up that last incline.  and then your mind revolts when you see before you another looming hill of pain.

this was the story of the B-CC Turkey Chase 10k 2011.  my friend who had run the course before had given me pointers; “it’s not too bad, there’s only a hill”.  now i am not much of a stickler for words, nor am i a strict grammarian.  i find lolcats to have an intriguing grammatical structure.  anyway, when someone says “hill”, in my mind that means one, une, uno.  there is an “s” in the alphabet for a reason.  to denote multiples.  going into the race, my plans of running at least once in between the Veterans 10k and the Turkey Chase 10k were disastrously ruined by work. so the mere thought of a hill was painful enough.  i am used to flat, easy courses.

thanksgiving morning, bright and early i actually get to the race with enough time to warm up.  the run itself actually was really nice.  it felt good, and my quads didn’t hurt like during the Veterans 10k.  the one thing that threw me off were the hills.  I was expecting a hill per my friends advice, but a small roller turned into two rollers.  not too bad, if it was all relatively flat from here on out i’d be good.  then came the stretches of road that seemed to go on forever.  the long slow inclines for a good 3/4 mile.  just slight enough so that you can’t really complain.  but then there were two.  what started out as a chilly morning, by the second long incline brought the sun and it ended up being really warm in an under armor thermal shirt underneath a running shirt and long leggings.

i was mentally ready for one hill, i had prepped myself to wait for the hill and then deal with it when the time came.  but by the last incline, my mental game was hanging by a thread.  bouncing around in my mind i was wondering if i was wrong about one hill that turned into four, there could be more; because there are always more.  i wondered if i should try to dig deeper now, or save my energy for the next hill that might be coming up.

overall i managed to shave two minutes off my Veteran’s 1ok time even with the hills.  but my mental race was awful.  if i hadn’t been so naive and truly believed that there was only one hill in he race, maybe my mental game would have been better.

I actually got this about a month ago.  4 hours in the chair.  Surprisingly it didn’t hurt that much.  It’s healed, and already I forget that I have a tattoo on my left side…

Veteran’s 10k 2011.  i hadn’t done an actual running race since Jingle All the Way back in 2008. i guess i started getting into cycling hard core in 2009 and then transitioned into multisport, never returning to pure runing until now.  sure i ran outside, and then on treadmills while also training on the bike.  but to do a pure running race again was nice. 

so a quick recap of the race:  first, i ended up at the wrong end of Potomac Park, which is quite large and several miles wide.  so when i thought i would have enough time to register and get in line ended up watching as the first line of runners started and then frantically running to registration, stabbing myself with pins while getting to the startline and very ungracefully launching myself over the timing strip.  and then it hit me, all i saw ahead of me was near empty road; and it was only the beginning of the race.  but darn it i could at least still record my time.  so i just started running.  with the adrenaline from rushing at the start still pumping through my veins, i actually made it up to the last few stragglers from the mass start that had already started walking (well before the one mile mark).  through the power walkers and casual walkers to the joggers i told myself that i would be ok if i got up to the main group that started.  mile one down and i started to feel alright, i could do this, i felt my body relax into a steady rhythm.  maybe i was in better shape than i thought because i expected my lungs to be on fire, but surprisingly they didnt hurt. however, between mile 2 and 3 i started to feel my quads.  at first it was the small twinge of feeling the muscle being pulled.  by mile 4, i was all too aware of both my quads.  by this point i was solidly in the middle back, i had managed to get myself back up to the mass start of runners and was passing people with each stride.  by mile 5 my quads were definitely hurting, i could feel them tensing up.  i wanted to stop and walk so badly i could taste it.  but i had run five miles easily without stopping on the treadmill earlier this summer.  HTFU, jaemie, you can do this i kept telling myself.  I did walk twice, for 30 seconds each.  the first time i thought this would help with the pain in my quads.  wrong.  the second time i thought my legs were just going to stop so i slowed to a walk.  by the time i came to the bridge where mile 6 was just up ahead, i just wanted the race to be over.  i could see the finishline a ways ahead.  for some reason i fixed my mind on the white finishline banner.  white was all i could see, white was all i was thinking about.  white meant the end, white meant home.  as i could see more and more of the white finishline, my mind went blank. 

when my mind went blank, i could feel a wave of nothingness wash over me.  everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.  my quads didnt hurt anymore, my legs didnt hurt, my heart didnt hurt.  there was nothing at the last 500 yards but me and the white banner.  nothing mattered more to me than getting to that banner.  my stride lengthened, my muscles relaxed, i was flying past the other runners.  i honestly don’t know where i got that last burst of energy, because i seriously felt like i was going to collapse before the 6 mile marker.

i guess it is true, the mind is stronger than the body.

an extra hour of sleep in the morning means getting out when it’s dark outside.  definitely trainer season.  hopefully my team can swing unofficial spinning classes in the off season- cuz i will be needing some extra motivation for the gran fondos this summer. 

spent 40 minutes on the trainer last night which felt surprisingly good considering i have been slacking off recently.  i guess i unconsiously needed some extra adreneline in my system because i ended up finally unpacking my books which made me clean the floors thus creating much more space in the living room.  motivated by my domesticity, i  also went grocery shopping since eating white rice was getting old.  sadly, this is the most productive i have been on a monday night in awhile.   

so treadmills are the human hamster wheels of endless, mindless running in place.  maybe this is why i am kind of hesitant to try out the treadmills in my new building.  the treadmills at myold place; i knew how it logged the miles, the time, even the pace.  each treadmill system is different- a 6 minute mile on one machine is not that same as  a 6 minute mile on another.  some mark your progress continually, others in quarters. i actually really liked the treadmills at my old place- to the point where i wanted to go run.  there was some small satifiscation of completing that 45 minutes and knowing that the machine read somewhere in the 5 mile range.  just like i liked knowing i could do my 8 mile run with my eyes closed and not get lost. 

 i have yet to navigate around my new neighborhood for an actual run around the city.  it gets tougher to navigate and i am less willing to get lost for hours in the cold than in the warmth of spring. 

change leaves a lot up to the unknown.  it is not constant, reliable or even soothing.  its filled with fear of failure.  but change is necessary.