Running [My Mouth]: Streak, Boston, Holidays (and a Partridge in the Pear Tree)

Here we are again. My last post was about 65,000 years ago. Pretty sure it was about the melting of the polar ice caps and the coming of a frightening new era of global climate change, the obliteration of many species of animal and plant, and stuff like that. Ha ha ha. Which is hilarious, right? Since clearly that will never happen now.

#clearsthroat #climatedeniersannoyme #thisiswhathappenswheniblogafteraglassor2ofwine #hashtagsdonotbelonginblogs

Anyway, now that we've cleared out the science-averse, let's catch up. What the hell am I doing starting up again after so much time? I dunno. It might have something to do with the need to feel accountable again. Or maybe it's yet another ill-conceived New Years idea.

My real New Years resolution is to stop freaking out on my 2-year-old when he is freaking out on me. His latest hilarious/infuriating habit:G: I love you, Mom.
Me: I love you, too, Gabe.
G: (With authentic-looking and -sounding anger) "NO! I love YOU!"
He can literally argue with you for telling you that you love him. Siiiigggh.... Anyway, about ll-conceived notions.... But it's a goal).

But backing up a bit, I had this crazy notion that I wanted to do a holiday running streak from Thanksgiving to Christmas. There was no rhyme or reason, no motivating website or #hashtag . Just me thinking 'Hey, Seussical is over, Boston training doesn't start for awhile, NOT running would be so easy to do....' So, I decided to run everyday between Thanksgiving to Christmas. This turned into everyday beginning on Thanksgiving Eve since my BRF was in town that day. I didn't set any official rules for myself beyond 'run every day' but I did sort of feel like my runs had to be legit. I wanted each one to be at least 3 miles... but beyond that, pace was irrelevant.

About 1/2 way through the streak I was running with my Wednesday night "running group" (which generally ends up being just me and my PT/pal, Kevin, who graciously and generously slows his roll to Old Lady Pace for the first 3 or so miles...). Kevin asked me, "So, what have you learned from The Streak?" It's an obvious question. It's a GOOD question. And it's a question for which I honestly had no good answer. I don't even remember what I said to him. And I don't even know what I can say about it now. It really DOES feel mildly like a challenge from which a gal oughtta learn a thing or two. But I don't know. Rather than lessons, I guess I can share some observations:

I like my rest days. And I miss them when they are not around.
I like to eat a lot. And when I run every day, no matter how few miles on any given day, I like to eat a LOT-LOT-LOT.
Running 9+ miles on a treadmill makes my toenails start to fall off.
My legs feel stronger and look, if I may say, pretty good.
My hips and hamstrings and back are (were) total. complete, utter cement blocks.
"Don't Think, Just Go" really really really works.
I didn't get injured. Ka-CHING!

So, that's it. I didn't break any mileage records on the streak. And I definitely didn't break any land speed records. But I can be certain that I blew away any other run-every-day streak I ever had. I MAY have run 6 days in a row in my life, but I doubt it. So, that's pretty cool.

As of December 22nd I am meant to be "officially" training for the 2015 Boston Marathon. This was good timing since I only had to stumble through 3 more days of The Streak to call it good. I managed to do a wee bit of interval training on a couple of those runs. All things considered, I was pretty happy with how it felt. Not being injured (cross fingers) is a good place to start this journey. I have done a couple of amaaayyyzing hip-centric YouTube yoga videos since the streak ended and I am already feeling much, much better in that arena. If you are a runner - or a human - I highly recommend them!

My first official long run was yesterday. Twelve miles. It was fine. I started out at 6AM. I knew I was fairly dehydrated (fa la la la... wine and beer for the holidays) but figured that 12 would not kill me whether or not I was 'dry'. I had two water bottles in my hydration belt and a couple of Honey Stingers (my new go-to gels). I knew I just had to trot for the first ten miles and I was going to try to get race pace-ish for the final two-ish. (I am training at a 3:45 pace, BTW. My PR is 3:40 and I just know that trying to hit those splits at **THEEE** Boston Marathon would be too much pressure. I want to enjoy the race, not focus on gunning for a crazy finish time). I did pretty well with that, hitting mile 10 at 8:21, mile 11 at 8:27 and mile 12 at 8:32.

So, that's where I am with running. I had a hair cut today, too. Like, a SERIOUS chop. It has been a lot of years since my last complete shorning and as of this moment, I am digging it. It feels like the haircut of a woman who is serious about training for Boston. Given that I got it at Supercuts (literally) and that I have an allergy to actually styling my hair (figuratively) we'll see how I feel about it in a week or so. My Spousal Unit, at least, was wise enough to say he thought it was adorable. I'm 40 years old. I'll take adorable any freakin' day!