O'er the Hills

My friend from the acting world, Elizabeth Corkum, called me up the other day expressing an interest in running in Central Park together this weekend. We’d talked about this before, but it finally was going to happen!

And it couldn’t have happened in a nicer clime. Not a cloud in the sky showed up for our run. It was 41 degrees and a lot of people were already in the park by the time we hit it around 10:30am. Elizabeth is pretty in-shape and she was a great running partner, especially at so early in my return to running. She was a stride ahead of me throughout much the first half of the run. She had a great pace herself (8:08s) and she’s going to get better and faster as she trains.

Myself, I was on the slow side, though I already improved my time from the run two days ago (8:06s today as opposed to 8:13s over a shorter distance two days ago). I was really having a tough time talking and running in the beginning of the run, but my breathing calmed down later in the run.

When we started off, we were kinda headed toward taking the 102nd St. Transverse to do 5.4 miles, but I left it up to Elizabeth to determine later in the run if we’d also see Great Hill. When the time came to decide, she wanted to try it, and try it we did. She seemed to do a bit better than me on the hill, though I am trying to guard against burnout, and hills and showboating are occasions that can trigger burnout in me, so I didn’t push myself that hard. No worries, though, because Great Hills pushed me.

Within the last couple miles, I challenged Elizabeth to a couple of lamppost-to-lamppost sprints at 80% full speed. I weathered them pretty well, feeling strong in them. In the final leg of the course, I also got into my mechanical “robot sprint” and finished strong. Today’s run was not all that fast for me, but if you read my prior post, you know I’m not demanding much of myself. But even despite not demanding much of myself, today was a considerable improvement over the prior run, in terms of pace and distance. Plus, it felt great.

Cheers!
Ben 🙂

I’m a bit hesitant to call this my inaugural run back into running mode, so I’ll let that be determined. Yesterday, in a moment of dire flabbiness, I committed to going for a run in Central Park this morning. And it felt good to be back.

I missed Central Park. And I wanted to be back there. I’ve done nearly no exercise since the November 22nd marathon in Philadelphia. Then I ran a 3:07:32 marathon, which qualified me for Boston. Today, I ran an 8:13 mile. Ha! I didn’t think I was that slow, but it’s not that offensive to me. It’s just a testament to my being out of shape.

Nonetheless, I was not passed, and I even passed some people without having to push myself. I did my shorter route (taking the 102nd St. transverse) so I didn’t do reactive running and just did something that would get me back into it. At around mile 1, I was already trying to psyche myself out, but I overcame that pretty easily and wasn’t attacked again with rival thoughts. (It’s not that uncommon to try to psyche myself out around that same place.)

I’m daring not step on a scale right now. While I haven’t changed pants sizes, I have gotten bigger, and I’ve gotten flabbier. Nothing I’m too, too worried about because in the grand scheme of things, I’m going to run and get trimmer, but it’s more a cause for concern because I may be up for roles this morning for which my slimmer size might be an advantage.

Today’s run was without the aid of any caffeine pills or supplements. Just myself and the road. I wanted to get a sense of what I was like without any modifications. I felt good. I know I’ll get faster, but the theme I put in my head for this run and insisted upon was “casual, Ben.” Whenever I wanted to pass or chase someone, I decided to just stay casual and if I passed them casual, then that’s how I’d pass them.

I’m starting to strategize getting running back into my life. It’s been on my to-do list to plan my running, and reincorporate it into my life. Since November 22nd, I’ve been quite busy, and since December 18th, I’ve been seated for so much of those days, and when not seated, then not very active. This is not to say I haven’t been productive, which is perhaps the statement of the year because I’ve gotten so much done since December 18th it’s so astounding it’s laughable. I still have a sizeable to-do list, and that may rival my running a bit, but I hope I can incorporate it into my life again without going insane.

Cheers for now,
Ben