Day One Hundred Forty-Six: A Zombie's Best Friend
I am a zombie now. The walking dead. I might not move around as fluidly as I used to, but the only thing that can stop me is a bullet to the brain or someone lopping off my head. So unless there are any zombie hunters out in Phoenix, I'm going to finish this marathon. Zombie style.
That's my new mantra.
Along with my new mantra, I have a new best friend. You might remember him as he used to be one of my greatest adversaries. Funny how in times like this we begin to see our enemies in a new light, because as of last week the treadmill has become a trusted ally. In fact, the treadmill is directly responsible for The Resurrection. Well, the treadmill and the voodoo queen that sticks needles in my leg.
With my knee injury I need to run on flat surfaces. Any kind of hill, up or down, has been bringing with it some ridiculous pain on the outside of my left knee. The only way I can really describe it is that it feels as if there is something in there bouncing around that doesn't belong in there. Either that or someone is jabbing me with a pencil or a nail as I run and moving it around. Ironic that being jabbed with needles appears to be the solution to this problem, no?
You may not know this but Manhattan is actually very hilly terrain. I'm not basing that on any sort of research beyond the 200 some odd miles I've run in the city since August, so you'll forgive me if I ask you take my word on this one. Seriously, there are hills everywhere, especially in the damn park. Even at the Resevoir where the run is relatively flat you run into some slopes, especially now that there is a detour for some maintenance. Trust me, I tried it. About the flattest spot I could find to run was around The Great Lawn which is surrounded with a sidewalk and is about .52 miles around. Unfortunately, it's not the most convenient place to get to. I suppose I could have looked for a track at a local college or high school, but in the interest of time I decided to try out the old treadmill here at the gym where I work. Plus, I'm paying 25 bucks a month to use the damn thing, I might as well get my money's worth.
I have never liked training on a treadmill. It's boring and it makes me feel a little loopy afterwards. Like I'm on rollerskates or something. But sometimes you just do what you gotta do when you find yourself wandering the earth as a member of the undead and you excercise like a Jetson.
The ten miles I ran on the treadmill last week was extremely difficult. For starters, I hadn't run any kind of real distance in a month. Secondly, and I can't mention this enough - running on a treadmill is boring. Nothing changes. Nothing happens. Every once in a while someone new gets on the treadmill next to you, but that's about it. I couldn't wear my headphones because they don't sit right in my ears when I run without strapping them in with a headband, so it was just me and ten miles in the same place. But I did it. And I did it because of the treadmill. That's right. No hills on that sumbitch.
A ha. There's the secret.
After the wild success of Ten Mile Tuesday I decided to stick with what worked and head back to the treadmill for another run on Thursday. We're getting awful close to the run at this point though, and in the interest of tapering I was going to have to live with the ten miles being my last long run and now just concentrate on keeping my body moving (hopefully without much complaining coming from my left knee). I was sore from an accupuncture appointment the day before (shit feels like a charlie horse for two days afterwards) and from the 10 miles on Tuesday, but better to run through that soreness than totally tighten up in Phoenix leading to a major league crash and burn. So I set the speed for a 10:54 mile and started running. And because it was a treadmill nothing happened of any note until I stopped running. But on the bright side, it felt good and my knee had no complaints to register.
Another 5 miles in the books thanks to my new best friend.
But sometimes you've gotta do things on your own and you can't bring your best friends along with you.
Which is exactly what happened last Saturday when I went back to Central Park for my last weekend group run around the 6 mile loop in Central Park...
DAY 146
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 5
TOTAL MILEAGE: 296.37
That's my new mantra.
Along with my new mantra, I have a new best friend. You might remember him as he used to be one of my greatest adversaries. Funny how in times like this we begin to see our enemies in a new light, because as of last week the treadmill has become a trusted ally. In fact, the treadmill is directly responsible for The Resurrection. Well, the treadmill and the voodoo queen that sticks needles in my leg.
With my knee injury I need to run on flat surfaces. Any kind of hill, up or down, has been bringing with it some ridiculous pain on the outside of my left knee. The only way I can really describe it is that it feels as if there is something in there bouncing around that doesn't belong in there. Either that or someone is jabbing me with a pencil or a nail as I run and moving it around. Ironic that being jabbed with needles appears to be the solution to this problem, no?
You may not know this but Manhattan is actually very hilly terrain. I'm not basing that on any sort of research beyond the 200 some odd miles I've run in the city since August, so you'll forgive me if I ask you take my word on this one. Seriously, there are hills everywhere, especially in the damn park. Even at the Resevoir where the run is relatively flat you run into some slopes, especially now that there is a detour for some maintenance. Trust me, I tried it. About the flattest spot I could find to run was around The Great Lawn which is surrounded with a sidewalk and is about .52 miles around. Unfortunately, it's not the most convenient place to get to. I suppose I could have looked for a track at a local college or high school, but in the interest of time I decided to try out the old treadmill here at the gym where I work. Plus, I'm paying 25 bucks a month to use the damn thing, I might as well get my money's worth.
I have never liked training on a treadmill. It's boring and it makes me feel a little loopy afterwards. Like I'm on rollerskates or something. But sometimes you just do what you gotta do when you find yourself wandering the earth as a member of the undead and you excercise like a Jetson.
The ten miles I ran on the treadmill last week was extremely difficult. For starters, I hadn't run any kind of real distance in a month. Secondly, and I can't mention this enough - running on a treadmill is boring. Nothing changes. Nothing happens. Every once in a while someone new gets on the treadmill next to you, but that's about it. I couldn't wear my headphones because they don't sit right in my ears when I run without strapping them in with a headband, so it was just me and ten miles in the same place. But I did it. And I did it because of the treadmill. That's right. No hills on that sumbitch.
A ha. There's the secret.
After the wild success of Ten Mile Tuesday I decided to stick with what worked and head back to the treadmill for another run on Thursday. We're getting awful close to the run at this point though, and in the interest of tapering I was going to have to live with the ten miles being my last long run and now just concentrate on keeping my body moving (hopefully without much complaining coming from my left knee). I was sore from an accupuncture appointment the day before (shit feels like a charlie horse for two days afterwards) and from the 10 miles on Tuesday, but better to run through that soreness than totally tighten up in Phoenix leading to a major league crash and burn. So I set the speed for a 10:54 mile and started running. And because it was a treadmill nothing happened of any note until I stopped running. But on the bright side, it felt good and my knee had no complaints to register.
Another 5 miles in the books thanks to my new best friend.
But sometimes you've gotta do things on your own and you can't bring your best friends along with you.
Which is exactly what happened last Saturday when I went back to Central Park for my last weekend group run around the 6 mile loop in Central Park...
DAY 146
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 5
TOTAL MILEAGE: 296.37
posted by Demps at 9:07 AM
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