Vacation here has been lovely (if not a little bit ridiculous). Coming here can be like entering an alternate universe - there's more money, more gossip, and more nylon tracksuits than anywhere you could possibly find in New York City (save for maybe the 92nd Street Y). In between stuffing my face at the delicious restaurants Nana and Papa have secured reservations at (can we please talk about the Ocean Dragon at the Asian fusion palace downtown last night?), I've been keeping abreast of what's expected of the TnT-ers during this holiday week (and do look at the hyperlink when you've finished reading this entry...tee hee). I hit the road yesterday and banged out a nice 6 miler keeping up a steady 7:10 pace, which to my fellow elderly speed demons on the street must've looked like something out of The Fast and the Furious. Wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I needed about a mile or so to ease into the run; I think my body was somewhat shocked by the severe climate change and needed to adjust. Running along the intercoastal was fantastic and the experience was diminished only by the uneven sidewalk. Alas.
As tonight's group run is all about speed training, I wanted to have accurately timed intervals. Without the Garmin-wearing TnT teammates telling me when to pick up the pace and when to recover, I felt more comfortable on the treadmill, taking advantage of the exact timing/speed (and the cushiony surface). Since starting with Team in Training, I haven't once been on the machine and forgot what it feels like (a little piece of heaven compared to hilly Central Park). Armed with some headphones and a quality episode of Law and Order (SVU, obvi), I am happy to report that the hour-plus workout felt like nothing. By the time I'd finished eight rounds of 3 minutes hauling ass (even faster)/3 minutes recovering, Christopher Meloni had solved the case and looked mighty handsome doing it.
Having showered and eaten, I'm now enjoying the Floridian afternoon slump wherein you count down the hours to your evening dinner plans. Keeping up the running mindset, I've just downloaded Liz Robbins's A Race Like No Other to my Kindle and am very pleased with this new addition to the marathon book club (the first book being Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running). A journalist by trade, Robbins tracks seven or eight runners over the course of completing the 2007 New York City marathon. I'm only a few chapters in and am totally engrossed. Those she profiles include a 22 year old cancer survivor, elite runners like Paula Radcliffe, and a fiftysomething "glamorous grandma" on her 35th marathon. Robbins alternately highlights these individual racers and provides a fascinating, panoramic history of the race itself and the historic markers along the course. What I'm really taking away from the book is the idea that though Robbins has picked just several individuals, each runner has his own story likely worth documenting.I guess this blog is how I'm choosing to narrate my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment