I eat miles for breakfast: Runner's High

I have lost a ton of fitness. I can’t blame the toe. It’s life. It’s work. And I guess, it’s my amazing ability to overextend myself until I break.

After not running for 24 days, I raced to a 1:40:24 Brooklyn Half finish. A month prior, I was dreaming of a PR and sub 1:30 time. Instead I posted my worst solo half marathon time ever. So I step back now and look at the big picture and get even more freaked out. I’m not running a half marathon in August. I’m doing a bloody Ironman. And I feel like I’ve set myself back 2 months. I did set myself back two months- one lost and one to make it up.

Working hard at the end of the BK Half.

What have I been doing instead of training? I don’t really want to get into it here. Although I use this blog as a journal of sorts, it is still the internet. Plus I don’t want to whine anymore. So I’ll stop now. It was basically a mix of work and life.

One workout at a time. That’s what I have to do and all I can do. From experience I know that I can bounce back quickly. I have that going for me and I’m lucky. But there’s no wiggle room now. No more injuries and no more missing workouts. I have to escalate the priority of this training over all else.

Sounds selfish, eh? Yeah, I agree. But it’s true. I’ve said this to a few people, but I cannot imagine training for an Ironman and being a dad. Unless this stuff somehow gets easier (the way Syed can now rip off marathons, I guess), I would be a shitty dad trying to do this and be there for my kids. Ok, but it’s only a few months commitment and I don’t have any kids, so what am I talking about?

My funk. The Brooklyn Half helped snap me out of it. It was my first race since September 2011, my first run since April 25^th, and well, I just love running. I get no high from cycling. Is there a cyclist's high or a swimmer's high? If there is, I have yet to experience it. But I do know runner's high and I had been dearly missing the therapy running provides me. I needed this half, even if I wasn't ready to race.

I'm in San Diego now, waiting in a tiny commuter terminal at the airport using their free wifi. Lisa, who is training for the NYC Triathlon, suggested we swim in the ocean while we were here for our coaching gig. I found a spot while running and we ventured out together for my first ever swim in a wetsuit and second ever open water swim. It went quite well. No freakouts about giant squid. And I covered about a mile with alternate side breathing fairly comfortably. I still have things to work on, but I was happy with this outing. Brian, Casey, and Amanda joined us and documented the event thoroughly. It probably deserves its own post so I'll save the details for later.

Before the swim.

What else did I do in San Diego you ask? I just witnessed the TNT summer season team rip the Rock 'n Roll Marathon and Half a new one. They were awesome. I am so proud I can hardly contain myself. I love this time of the season, when every weekend is an event weekend. Buffalo, last weekend, was amazing fun-fest of wings, running, and mist. San Diego did not disappoint. And I only hope that after everyone crushes those hills in Lake Placid next weekend, I don't get so drunk that I lose my bag of elk jerky (again).

I love this team. Such great energy. And such great friends made. I'm one lucky dude.