Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thursday Thoughts: Adrift

  • I think I have that post-marathon funk I've heard about. All that training and planning and working for four months, and now it's...just...over. What the hell do I do now? I'm totally unstructured. I can do whatever I want, and that kind of scares me, because I thrived on my schedule. There was no question about what I was going to do each day. Now everything is a big random mish-mash. I need to come up with some kind of routine.
  • But on the other hand, my ankle/fibula region feels fantastic!
  • I picked up my last share of vegetables from my CSA farm yesterday. Five months of delicious fresh organic veggies is over. I have enough of some things (potatoes, squash) to last for a while but I will have to cook and freeze some of the more perishable stuff for use during the winter. I'm cringing at the thought of buying produce from the grocery store.
  • My new song obsession of the moment: Rogue Wave, "Lake Michigan." (Except the video was shot in California. I can spot those bleached blonde hills and live oaks from 2,500 miles away. O land of my childhood, I miss thee!) I heard it on the radio (not "regular" radio-- yeah right-- but Sirius' "Left of Center" station) a couple of days ago and instantly fell in love.
  • This is closely followed by the Olympic Symphonium's "Intentions Alone."
  • We had a fitness fair at work the other day and I had my body composition measured with one of those electrical current impedance devices. It said I have 26% body fat. I was kind of like, "WTF?" because at 157-ish pounds and just having run a marathon I really thought I would have less body fat than that. It's within the "average" range for a woman but I don't wanna be "average," I wanna be in the "athletic" category!
  • On the other hand, I dropped 1.4 lbs at my weigh-in so I shouldn't complain too much. My final goal weight is out there, waiting. I'm going to get there this time.
  • I'm giving blood this morning. I have been donating blood since I was in high school. I've donated so much I've lost count of how many gallons it is. I donate every time I'm eligible which works out to about four times per year. I'm the least philanthropic person this side of Sccrooge so this is my only act of kindness toward my fellow man.*UPDATE*: I was DENIED! The iron count (hemoglobin) in my blood was too low. It was only 12.1 g/dL and they want it to be at least 12.5 g/dL. I haven't been deferred for low iron in years. It's odd, considering the vast quantities of dark green leafy vegetables I eat. Speaking of which, last night I whirled up another enormous batch (at least a gallon) of the famous kale-banana smoothie. This time I threw in more blueberries, strawberries, and an entire quart of nonfat yogurt. I LOVE the K-B-B-S-Y smoothie (aka "green slime" to the more squeamish members of the household).
  • Cat + marathon = awesome.
  • Good luck to my fellow run-bloggers TK of Pigtails Flying and the Running Laminator as they tackle the mighty New York Marathon on Sunday!
  • And, finally, cats on a treadmill. I laughed so hard I cried.

12 comments:

BeachRunner said...

Good luck adjusting to the new, post-marathon reality. To help you adjust, you might want to put together a new training plan. It might help to pretend you will be running a race in the next few months (10k, Half, etc) and train for it. Pick a date for this "event" and develop and plan around it. This will provide structure and focus to your workouts.

B. Kramer said...

Thanks for the music links. You strike me as someone who would like the Great Lake Swimmers.

If you haven't heard them, here are a couple YouTubes:

Moving Pictures, Silent Films

Your Rocky Spine

Enjoy!

Unknown said...

Time to sign up for another race!!! Awesome that you are giving blood. It's free and you're helping out!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Post-marathon blues, eh? How's your precious TiVo helping you cope with that, huh? Too bad it doesn't LOVE YOU BACK!!

KIDDING!! I know TiVo-holics would gladly cross state lines to viciously kill anyone who dissed TiVo. You people just can't live without your Tivo-hol.

Man, if I were you, I'd still be thinking: I ran a marathon in under 4 hours. I should be assumed straight into Heaven ahead of these so-called 'saints'. But that's just me.

Perhaps Viper's strategy was the best. Just keep running marathons one after the other ...

Sun Runner said...

Viper-- You nailed it, dude-- I actually know of and deeply love GLS. "Moving Pictures" is one of my absolute favorite songs and Ongiara was the first album I bought for my new iPod.

And on that note, have you listened to Fleet Foxes? They're pretty awesome, too. "Ragged Wood" is a great song.

Sun Runner said...

Oh and the other Rogue Wave song I'm obsessed with is Chicago X 12. Listen to that one, too (or download it here).

chia said...

I decided without a plan I'm screwed. So I've taken to going to the gym every day even if it's to stand on the elliptical trainer and watch all the real runners go by on the track.

Nitmos said...

I know what you mean about lack of schedule...but I revel in the post marathon freedom. It's a good time to reconnect to 'just for fun' running and play around with smaller goals.

Laura said...

Mmm, I absolutely LOVE kale smoothies!

Unknown said...

Take some time, relax..your motivation and time to get back into serious training is right around the corner...or be an idiot like me and just keep plugging away.

Anonymous said...

-I know how you feel about being unstructured. I had the same feelings after my wedding. And after every semester at school. It's hard to adjust from going full speed ahead to having nothing to do.

-Your goal fitness weight? You look great, if you don't make it there I wouldn't worry. You've already accomplished so much! And it's about being fit and feeling good, not the number on the scale.

-Cats on a treadmill? HILARIOUS!

Midwest said...

I'm a little late to the game, but you might want to have your iron levels checked again. I was surprised to learn that I am anemic, then learned from Dr. Google that iron deficiency anemia is common among... female endurance athletes.