2010 Is Going To Be.... What Rhymes With 2010?

There's been a lot of hub-bub on how exactly to refer to this year; is it two thousand and ten? twenty-ten? Or does Stephen Colbert have it with oh-ten? I think an even bigger problem that hasn't really been looked at is the lack of a clever rhyme that says 2010 is going to be a good year. In years past we've had some good ones: "2008 is looking great!"; "2009 is looking fine!" But now what? 2010 is looking...ken? fen? hen? den? I'm sure I'm limited by my small vocab and lack of patience so perhaps some of you more intelligent beings out there can come up with something perfect. If you do, let me know so I can finally get some sleep.

Despite the lack of an optimistic phrase, 2010 has kicked off for me exactly as it has in the past with a lengthy list of ambitious resolutions: stop procrastinating, be more productive at work (and not, say, post blogs in the middle of the day... ahem....), lose 30 lbs, be better with money, workout atleast 5 days/week, eat healthier, etc., etc., etc. Surprisingly, I've been fairly good about keeping up with most of my resolutions. However, as has been the fate of past resolutions, I suspect these resolutions will eventually be boxed up and stored away until 2011 when they are dusted off and made a focus once again.

It is possible to keep up at least some of these resolutions; I just have to continue to consciously keep the goal list in focus and not let it fade to the back of my mind when things start to get stressful. This is actually not that hard, especially since this month I have established some new habits that support the change. But, as the laws of entropy state, without work things will tend towards chaos; without active efforts to keep at new habits, I will easily, and readily, head back to old ways.

Fortunately for my running, I think my fitness and health goals are going to be the easiest to keep up. At this point, I feel ready to commit to running again and am definitely ready to slim down. This is in contrast to, say my goal to kick my procrastination habit, a habit that is very comfortable and one of which I'm still very fond, despite it nearly causing me to fail two courses last semester (no joke). Running, exercising, and eating well also make me feel good while doing work and homework just makes me cranky and stressed.

In prep for a successful year of consistent running and healthy eating, I have set up a new line of racing goals. Perhaps it's a bit premature since I've only stuck to the "be consistent with running/exercising" resolution for three weeks but what else am I going to do when I'm at work? Actual work? Nonsense!

I think this year's goals are a little more realistic than last years in that they don't have me trying to scramble to get mileage in to PR in a fall half marathon. This year, I'm hoping to instead PR in a fall 10K. This allows me to take building mileage a bit slower throughout the year which I think is something I need. A slower build also allows for more tweaking in case of injury or illness. I think a PR is definitely doable. Like the half, I've run a road 10K only once and clocked a 50:53 (~8:12/mile). I wouldn't be talking a crazy fast PR but something around 44:00-45:00 would be nice... Ok, so maybe that is "crazy fast" when you consider where I'm at now but I don't think it's impossible. To get even close to being able to run that, I plan to be running 4-5 times a week with weekly totals 25-30 miles/week, which includes one day for a workout, a few easy days, and a long run of 8-9 miles. I'd like to get to this point by Late-September/Early October which is more than doable, barring injury. As evident from my race calendar, I also plan to run a few 5Ks along the way which I'll hopefully be running faster than my fastest time since I returned to NH (22:51 in '08) by the fall.

Also thrown into the mix is the Bourbon Chase Relay in Kentucky, a 200-mile, 12 person relay. After a three-year hiatus from my favorite relay team, I will be returning as one of the 12 runners on the Steamed Muscles squad. Atleast I hope I will; the details are still in the works. These relay races are a ton of fun and even more fun when you do them with such a nerdy runner bunch as the Muscles. Whats a little concerning for me at this point is that there will be quite a bit of mileage to cover in 24 hours; almost 3 times what I'm clocking a week right now. This race isn't until late October though so, if all goes as planned, I should be fine.

Chalk full of fun races and realistic goals, I think 2010 is going to be good year in running for me. Now if only there was a clever way to say it... 2010 is looking... full of oxygen? Well, I tried.

Just To Get High

Before recently, I never bought into the "runner's high." I could not understand how running could make someone feel so great. I mean, sure, I felt "good" because I was being healthy and was fast and fit, but running never really made me feel euphoric. Instead, it always made me feel tired and sore, and, as a result, cranky. All those runners who wrote in Runner's World about how great their latest trip was after laying down a few miles were damn dirty liars. There was no high. Just heaviness everywhere; legs, eyes, head... everywhere.

But then I had my run on Saturday. Saturday was just a usual walk/run (the more recent 5:00 walk, 10:00 minute version) on the treadmill at 10:00/mile; nothing special, nothing fancy. But WOW did it feel good! I felt awake, loose, comfortable and, true to high symptoms, elated. It was awesome! I felt like I could have kept running for miles and miles. And this wasn't just a one time deal; I got high from my run yesterday too even despite some soreness from the weekend's skiing. I have finally seen what the others have seen. I am now a believer, and worshiper, of the runner's high.

So why now? Why did it it take me 13 years of running to feel the runner's high when it takes some days? My theory lies in my recent training. When I was running competitively in high school and college, I was running at such a high intensity level, that any sort of "high" that might have come out with running was drowned out by shear exhaustion from working so hard all the time. Post-collegiately, until recently, I had been fixated on training at that high level despite not having the fitness that I kept ending up injured and frustrated. What's been different in this latest stretch of running since Christmas from other points in my career is that I have been very careful to not push the pace (10:00/mile has been my clip the entire time) or distance regardless of how I've felt. I've progressed super slow from running 5:00 at a time to 10:00 and have kept all my runs to the flat treadmill. For the past two weeks I have been doing 2 sets of 5 minutes of walking, 10 of running, bringing my total run time up to 20 minutes. It isn't until next week that I will try to run for 20:00 at once. Considering I am now coming from years essentially off from running, such a progression is absolutely vital to my success down the road.

Despite all this feeling good, I don't think I'm totally over my peroneal tendon injury. My shmarmy orthopedic thinks differently considering he gave me the all clear a couple weeks ago at an appointment but some residual tightness and irritation along the outside of my lower leg suggests to me that I need to be careful. In the past few weeks I've been quite good about stretching out my calves on my quasi-newly-purchased wedge which, according to everyone I've seen about this issue, will help. It certainly can't hurt anyway. I've also been icing religiously which has also been helping. I'm just a bit nervous for the day that I begin to add hills and roads back into my routine which is where the problem really presented itself. I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we get there. Til' then, I'll keep on enjoying getting buzzed off my slow trots on the treadmill.