Sunday, June 27, 2010

Getting Ready

This entry comes to you from the comfort of the Bolt Bus from New York to DC after an amazing night in the city to celebrate Jenny’s 23rd birthday with its “No empty glasses” splendor. Seeing everyone, wearing a pretty dress, drinking champagne, enjoying a delicious meal, and singing “Don’t Stop Believing” in a bar made an excellent evening! (Side note: I realized last night that I'm still conditioned to wait for "Livin' on a Prayer" and start gathering my things after "Don't Stop Believing." Thank you, Toads!)

I spent most of the trip up desperately trying to stream the US-Ghana game. I had pretty consistent radio until we hit the middle of the New Jersey turnpike. (One more reason why New Jersey is a terrible, terrible place.) Then, I relied on ESPN Game Cast and the accompanying commentary for score updates. I was really counting on sweet, sweet revenge for Ghana’s triumph in ’06, but I’m looking forward to 2014.

I also created a training schedule on the way to the city: a colorful, week-by-week Excel spreadsheet with everything that I’ll need to do to be ready for this thing in October. I used my total mileage for the week of June 21 as my base week and will proceed from there. I ran two miles each day Monday through Thursday and topped off the week with six miles on Saturday for a total of 15 miles. Aside from dodging tourists near the Washington Monument and the White House, Saturday's run was amazing. Today is going to be a recovery day, and I have a hot date with a stationary bike once I get back to DC.

Week 1 will start easy: stationary bike on Monday, three miles on Tuesday, stationary bike on Wednesday, three miles on Thursday, and Friday off. Saturday will be my first challenge: eight miles. Sunday will be an (easy) three.

Total for the week: 17 miles.

I’ll be calling my physician later this week to schedule an appointment. It’s not time for my yearly, but I imagine chatting with her before I start running long distances is the responsible thing to do. Plus, I want to talk to her about nutrition during this process – you know, the right about of protein, carbohydrates, and all that jazz. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this right.

Now, onto making a kick-ass running playlist…

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I like this blog! Post your running playlist. Am always in a bind when it comes to pump-up music.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I like this blog! Post your running playlist. Am always in a bind when it comes to pump-up music.

    ReplyDelete