What I think about while running.....

My training is coming along nicely and with just over 2 weeks to go I feel relatively comfortable with my current state of fitness.

This has been such a completely wackadoo winter that I am still hesitant to throw down an estimate of my Boston finishing time. Per the norm, in the past week alone I have firmly concluded that I am a PR worthy top finisher, and also have decided that I will be lucky to cross the finish line in less than 24 hours. My emotions really are all over the place...

In reality with the glaring exception of a fairly horrid 13 mile long run/speed work expedition last weekend (in which I still hit my goal paces but wanted to throw myself into traffic the whole way) things have finally (and I DO mean FINALLY) been falling into place.

Going into Boston last year I felt great. I am feeling like despite the shat winter we had, and the struggle I had with my butt/hamstring/piriformis/whateverthefuck I'm about at the same point that I was a year ago. I feel better than before Smuttynose last October because I have thusfar managed not to have any long runs that have finished on one leg.
I feel that this is probably a good improvement.

Anyway! I actually don't intend for this post to contain endless paragraphs of me waxing poetic. We shall save that for next week when I am tapering, begining to feel especially emotional, and getting excessively verbose.

For now I want to reminise about all the amazing things that I have had the opportunity to mull over while running hundreds of miles by myself over the past few months.
You know how down in the Boston area there are thousands of runners out and about, congregating in the midst of their final long runs? So many people that extra traffic police are called in to allow the runners to seamlessly glide thru traffic?
Well. Here in my neck of the woods I am the ONLY runner. Needless to say, traffic control is easy. In the absence of other humans I need to entertain myself with my thoughts, and here they are.

1: THAT PLANE
Yeah, now they think that they might have heard its black box pinging. BUT. I had it stuck in an alternate reality- a super exciting scifi hybrid of Lost an Dr. Who.
Too bad that didn't work out. Since the plane isn't stuck on an island of hotties in a parallel universe I'm just sad about the whole thing...

Not these planes. But I love them... I'm 6 :-)

2: Thigh Gap
I am not sure if I am ashamed or proud to admit that I did not think "thigh gap" was a real thing. I was honestly sure that #mindthegap was a reference to being fearful of falling on the tracks and being struck by a train (logical)
Who the ever loving fuck has a thigh gap.....? (not me) People actually CARE about this- for real?
I am upset on a lot of levels. I refuse to stand in a knock-kneed-duck-toed-ass-popping way to improve my faulty thigh gap.
Actually.... I refuse to think of it as faulty. Thigh gap is the biggest bullshit I have ever heard of.
I have spent quite a few miles mulling this over and feeling frustrated about how society/fashion/photoshop make people feel than an unattainable body is desirable.
Can your body do awesome things? That should be the main objective.
(and more disturbingly, this trend is not just in the 13 year old demographic. Grown ass women are perpetuating it. Barf.) Rant over. (almost!)
There is a lot of *helpful* info on the internet about how to get a thigh gap like this ....Awesome..... which I would like to rename "how to be disordered."
Rant really over.

3: Cookies, Beer and Steak.
Because, running.
Want to have me over for dinner????

Beer is good for ya.

 4: How hard it is to run 30 minutes at Marathon Pace
 ......and yet somehow I run 3.5 hours at MP day on Marathon day. HOW. HOWWWWWWW??

5: I think about how 45 degrees is my perfect running weather. Not to mention that after the winter we had 45 is perfect for shorts and tank tops!
Then I think about how bad it would be to get an 80 degree marathon day and I get a bit scared.
At that point I typically start thinking about thigh gap again, as it is better to be slightly disgusted than horribly, horribly terrified!

6: The HILLS. OMG.

Woof (pic not current- our snowbanks are still 10' or more...)

 

 

 That's it for now. My internet silence has been astonishing lately, mostly due to very long work hours and silly things like marathon training which seems to take hours a day...
Taper is here as of Monday! so....... Maybe more time for internetting?