Skip to main content

Treadmill Wars Versus Mycroft Holmes

My top three obsessions in life at the moment are (in order of importance):

  1. Training to run a half marathon in under 2 hours.
  2. Sherlock.
  3. Training for my first sprint triathlon.
Which is an interesting order, because what will happen is (in chronological order):
  1. I'll run out of Sherlock to watch.
  2. My first sprint triathlon is in October.
  3. My next half marathon is in November.
Today was the first tempo/pace related run of the training plan, and the easiest way I thought I could accomplish this was to run it at home, after work, on the treadmill.  The plan called for 8 miles:  2 slow miles, 4 miles at an 8:50-9:10 pace, and 2 slow cool down miles.  Running on the treadmill can be pretty daunting, so what to do to pass the time?  Watch Sherlock, Season 3, Episode 2 during my run.

What a great episode.  Dr. John Watson is getting married!  Sherlock is the best man!  I have 2 miles under my belt, then 3 miles, then 3.3 miles...  and I had to stop.  A 9:10 pace for me is ridiculous.  But I catch my breath, drink some water for a minute or two, and start again.  I'm back into it for another half mile or so, and I had to stop.  Ugh, I'm going to have to do this for like 13.1 miles all at once to get under 2 hours?!  Maybe the 2 hour half isn't for me.

But, I still have more Sherlock to watch, at least for the time being.  I press on.  Shortly thereafter, I see Mycroft on the treadmill.   

Yeah!  I'm on the treadmill.  Mycroft is on the treadmill.  I'm cool.  We're cool.  We both like running!  But...  he looks like he's moving a lot slower than I am.  And he has better legs than me.  Damn you, Mycroft.  


And who does THAT?  A dismount and he sticks the landing?  I can feel my blood pressure going through the roof, so I stop again.  Know what happens when I stop the treadmill?  Not a graceful, gymnastics-style landing.  Butters shows up.


All right, Mycroft.  You win that one.  During the episode, I probably stopped 4 or 5 more times during the 4 mile insanity portion.  I know I won't want to do that on race day.  But, I got it done, and there's still plenty of more ground to cover between now and then.

I'm not sure what I'll do when I run out of Sherlock, though.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up!

I think I have finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up.  In this case, "growing up" means finally figuring out what I should be doing in my career at age 32 (almost 33), post-college, post-MBA, and post-working-in-a-professional-capacity since about 2003. I want to be a race director.  A race director specifically for races you can do with your dog.   Yes, I am being serious. When I started training for my first 5k, I was training for a race I could do with Kano.  I would joke that if anything went wrong, at least he'd be there to drag me to the finish.  But honestly, it was one of the best things we've ever done together.  And there is a very strong possibility I might not have done it without him.  I just wasn't that into running at the time.  (Now I guess I kind of am.  I signed up for my first ultramarathon this summer - 6 hour race!  Not with Kano, though, unfortunately!)  Just like dogs that love the walk, Kan...
3 comments
Read more

Countdown to Ragnar McDowell Mountain

If I had to sum up how my training went this summer, it would be...  "Hrmph." Or, insert your own onomatopoeia of disgust. If you know me in real life, or read any of my other recent posts, you know that my running has gone downhill (pun intended); not only in my actual ability but in my love of doing it. I don't know if I can use it as my sole excuse, but I did find out I was hypothyroid back in July and was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in September.  I do think these new-to-me medical issues have played a big part in my weight gain, my inability to "run it off", my feelings of lethargy and my discouragement with any type of physical activity.  As of right now I am still working on how to live well with this, but I haven't found a solution that makes me feel great yet.  There are far worse things I could be dealing with, but it's hard to be patient with your own health. As for that dreaded physical activity I was talking about, I ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Identity Crisis

It has come to my attention that whilst my van was running away at Ragnar Del Sol, my best friend and her sister-in-law (both in the other van) decided to set the goal of completing Ironman in 2016. Apparently it is expected that I participate in these shenanigans with them. A couple of weeks have passed and I find myself just as indecisive about the whole thing as when I first heard about it.  Why am I waffling?  I think there are good arguments to do it and good arguments to hold off, or to just be a great spectator.  It's been a weird feeling for me though.  I'm pretty sure if I committed to it, and was able to train for it, I could finish.  So, for the first time, I'm not sitting around worried that I just can't accomplish something, and that's a pretty great feeling.  I was also kinda-sorta worried that I might somehow lose my identity as a "runner".  I've been making some small but incremental progress this year and I don't want to lose m...
Post a Comment
Read more