Today was a MAJOR day for me. I learned three things:
- I despise getting out of bed at Half-Past-Ass-O’Clock in the morning to do a tempo run before a long day at work. Gah. Double Gah.
- I need to wake up even EARLIER than Half-Past-Ass to actually EAT something before undergoing such a heroic effort. Maybe I should just eat right before I go to “bed.” I might as well have been running in the middle of the goddamn night anyways.
- The bunny population in my neighborhood has experienced exponential growth. It was a long winter. Even for bunnies.
Throw some Hokas on her and call her Colby.
Yup. 3 Truths. I learned ’em this “morning” whilst sticking to my Hanson’s Marathon Training Plan. To be honest, one I knew. One was sort of a surprise. And the third was MIND BLOWING.
Transitioning from Night Owl to Early Bird is going to take some getting used to. This is how the next 16 Thursday’s will be for me. So SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP. Have goal, will wake up early. It’s not waking up at an ungodly hour, it’s waking up and RUNNING HARD. I felt like a baby giraffe. Limbs akimbo. Thankfully {insert sarcasm here}, my Hansons Method Training plan calls for a 1 to 3 mile warm up and cool down. On top of a 6 mile hard effort. At Zero Dark Bullshit. Before a long day at my lab bench. Brutal. BUT. In the spirit of Lemons Make Lemonade With A Shit Load of Sugar, once I was three or so miles in, I LOVED IT. Really loved it. I felt ALIVE! When everyone else was WASTING THE DAY. I’m being dramatic. It was 5:55am.
Here’s the surprise. I was flat out starving towards the end of this insanity. Rungry, rungry runner. I could barely string a few strides together, let alone chew something beforehand. That needs to change. I can get away with waking up, running an easy 5 with just a bottle of Skratch Labs, but over 8 with a big effort for 6? Yeah. Not happening for me. Not with all of this “cumulative fatigue” business. Cumulative HUNGER is more like it. Oh, I ran it all. (With negative splits I might add. WHO AM I?!?!) But my recovery miles were a blur. A Hypoglycemic Zombie Blur.
And the mind blowing part?!?! HOLY BUNNIES. I saw at least a dozen bunnies. A DOZEN. A few of those floozies looked like they were doing the hop of shame. Tramps. They were everywhere. Or so it seemed. Maybe it was just one really fast Bunny who was up far to early banging out her tempo run. 🙂
What kind of runner are you: Early Bird or Night Owl? What’s your early morning pre-run ritual? Whatcha eatin’?
It's A Marathon AND A Sprint 