Luxuriating and hidden treasures

It was nice to sleep until 7 this morning, I'm not going to lie. It won't be a habit any time soon since the next 6 days will be insanely early starts with long, long days. I'm glad I got my 2nd run in yesterday. I felt refreshed this morning because I got to spend a few extra minutes luxuriating in bed. Nice.

Today would have been a nice day to run though. It's the first day I can remember in at least the last month where it was cool and dry this morning. By the time Sunday comes and I'm back outside I'm sure it will be 9 million degrees again with 99% humidity. It's just going to make me stronger in the end, that's what I keep telling myself. I'm not the only one who holds tight to that belief -- I was reading some posts on the NYC Marathon FB page and so many people said they're out running in the heat and humidity because it will all be worth it on that nice cool November morning. I hope for everyone's sake that that's true. I hope the day is as idyllic as everyone pictures a November Sunday morning to be.

I was in the basement this morning before work since I had a few extra minutes and I was looking for a box that had my old work stuff in it to start transferring to my new office. I have some reference books and other stuff that would be nice to have. While I was looking for the box I stumbled upon 3 books that I didn't even know I had: Marathon: You Can Do It (Jeff Galloway), The Idiot's Guide to Marathons, and A Guide to the New York City Marathon. For a second, it was a rough reminder of where I had gotten to with running in 2003-2004 and how far I subsequently fell. As far as I remember, I had no plans at the time to run NYC -- the one I was training for was in Vermont. So it was an unexpected gift to find these books in my basement. I flipped through the Idiot's guide and it really is an idiot's guide but I'll still skim it.

The Jeff Galloway book is a good one except his plan is so different than what I'm following. He's a huge advocate of walk/run, which I do to some extent because I take timed water breaks. Drinking while running is a talent that I simply don't have. Besides, for the time it takes me to drink it provides just enough relief to my heart, lungs, and legs that I am refreshed to keep going. Also, as a side note, my uncle ran NYC and he told me that at one point the water he was taking in wasn't emptying out of his stomach so he felt like crap the last 7 miles. He threw up at the finish line and immediately felt better. That's why I like to drink while I'm walking because the few times I've tried it while running I feel like I take in more air than water. Back to Galloway, his program is more like run 2 minutes, walk 30 seconds. That's too much math for me, to be honest. Many, many people successfully follow his program. I've been behind armies of them in bigger races and trust me, when someone's watch goes off for their 30-second walk break, they take it whether you're right behind them or not. Since they seem to travel in packs it just makes a huge wall that I've crashed into plenty of times. I could be biased but I have never seen a Gallowalker (that's what they're referred to in running circles) look behind them, move to the right, and THEN walk. Rant over.

The other thing about Galloway's marathon program is that he has you doing a 26-miler as your long run -- even as a beginner. I don't know of any other expert that advocates that. In fact, I just read an article on runnersworld.com discussing if slower runners (ie, me) should split up their long runs because the body is at risk for injury after 2.5 hours. The article was interesting but I could never split up my long run. If I stop, I'm done. I just want to get it over with. But anyway, I have no intention of doing a 26-miler before the marathon. So I'll glean what I can from his book and see what I can incorporate into my own training.

I only glanced at the NYC book but I think there will probably be a total of 6 pages that will be helpful, and those concern the best way to get to the start line and away from the finish line. I have my entry, I have my hotel room, I have a training program so I can skip those parts. There's an article on the NYC marathon website which I'll be posting excerpts from in the coming weeks that details the course borough by borough. It's a scary read, let me tell you. The writer makes no bones about the difficulty of the course. This book may get into stuff like that but the article I already read was so thorough.

By the way, my hair -- that I switched today's run to yesterday for -- came out great. This whole experience of the marathon is priceless but, on a shallow note, so is having a good hair day.