Lucky Number Five

First run in eight days today.  Apparently when I go to Boston to see a marathon I don't actually need to run.  I can just let everyone else run for me.  I filled a travel bag with good intentions: running clothes for all weathers and I fully planned to run three times while away.  Well, life happens and sometimes running needs to take a back seat.

I'm not training for a race at the moment so that pressure was off.

Doug wasn't running either after his marathon so that motivation was gone too.

So I tossed any feelings of guilt into the ocean and enjoyed a week's vacation.

We walked a lot - does that count??

We left Cape Cod yesterday morning for the long drive back to Canada.  Ten hours it took to get home.  Just the right amount of time for legs to swell, feel full of lead and laugh hysterically at the very idea of running.

Runners' Edge at 8am helped get things back on track.  I had no idea what my legs would feel like but it was great to be back.  Great to see people, share Boston stories and feel that motivation that comes from running with friends.

The run went fairly well actually.  My blood sugar behaved which is pretty impressive after a week of not running.  My legs held up and my body persevered in spite of the incredible wind that had us almost standing still at certain points. It felt harder than I would have liked it to feel but is was fun!

I'm now in the process of slowly, very slowly, breaking in my Vibram Five Fingers.  My goal is to build up to being able to run 5k so that I can wear them for my two shorter runs during the marathon training clinic which starts in June.  So today I'm wearing them around the house for an hour or two as I putter with laundry and other post-trip tasks.  Pretty freakin' sexy if I do say so myself.

A strange, amphibious, alien-like kinda sexy.

Poor Doug - between my five fingers, recovery socks and recovery tights - he's a brave soul indeed.

Marathon training apparently requires that we run five times per week.  I've trained for half marathons and a 30k race only ever running 3 times per week plus a Sunday bike ride.  Seemed like enough for me plus I have other things to do and fitting in three runs was enough of a challenge.  FIVE??  Plus a bike ride?  Some quick mathematical calculations tell me that I will have one, count it, one day off per week.  For four months.  Is this crazy? It sure as hell feels crazy...

Then again, so has every other running challenge I've undertaken. I've learned to just keep running as the voices in my head tell me how crazy I am.  Carry on little soldier.

So I start this week with four runs and a bike ride.  And a bit of time each day walking around in my five fingers.  Maybe next week I'll try a ten minute five fingered run to see how it goes.  Then fifteen, twenty and, soon enough, I'll be up to 5k and five runs a week.

Just in time for marathon training to begin.

Absolutely freakin' crazy.