Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Matt, a good friend of mine who is also going to be a fantastic doctor one day, informed me that there was a rumor going around that I would destroy the GRE and tow its mangled corpse behind me on my 15-mile run. I want to clear the air a bit and confirm that this rumor was, in fact, true.

Sort of.

Yesterday’s GRE went much better than expected. The problem with knowing that the test adjusts depending on how many questions you answer correctly can be a little demoralizing when you are faced with what looks to be an easy question. On the Quantitative section, this seemed to happen a lot but I guess I was actually okay. The Verbal Section, as predicted, was fine. Score wise, I’m close to or above the curve for most of the schools to which I plan to apply. The writing is the only section that I’m worried about (as it was the only section that I didn’t really practice) but we’ll see. I may surprise myself.

This is one of those things where I could be very happy with my score if I was not an overachiever or worried about being a competitive applicant in the Ivy League. I’m going to wait to get my writing score to decide if I want to be happy with my score or try the test again in late October or early November.

So anyway --

Steve and I ran 14 miles today…

Baller!

We started at Woodley Park and ran down to the Rock Creek Park Trails to the Capital Crescent Trail (or so we planned). Steve pointed out that we actually ended up on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National History Park Trail, which is parallel to the Capital Crescent Trail except until when we went up a bridge to go up to the street. This only caused minor confusion and we just went back the way we came. All in all, it’s not a huge deal because as Steve pointed out “We didn’t die or drown…and still ran 14.”

Running with someone whose company you enjoy is awesome. First, there’s someone to listen to your rambling. (Not that I rambled, and I’m pretty sure my internal monologue made a lot more sense this time around.) Second, it helps a lot with pacing. Both of us decided that we wanted to run slower than our race pace, and both of us made adjustments throughout the run to keep steady. Third, I definitely felt a lot safer on the trails with someone else. (But, that’s probably because I watch way too much Law and Order.)

The other awesome thing that happened was the downpour that started somewhere around mile six or seven. While this confirms that weather.com is a bloody liar, running in the rain is great – except for all of the puddles and mud. Even then, once you get home and you realize that you’re filthy, soaked, and just ran a shit ton, you feel amazing and proud of your accomplishment. Then, you run a warm bath and all is right in the world.

With Week 7 in the bag, I'm moving into Week 8. Whoa, we’re (almost) halfway there. Whoa-oa, livin’ on a prayer.

The plan:

Monday: Stationary bike and weights
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: 4 miles (temperature pending with running group)
Thursday: 4 miles and weights
Friday: Off
Saturday: 10 miles (special goal: beat time of last 10-miler)
Sunday: 3 miles and weights

With no GRE in my immediate future, I’m going to cook delicious dinners, pleasure read, work on my plan to become more bold (details later), and sleep like it’s going out of style.

Until next time…