Marathon Redemption - Week 3

Only the wind can blow the answer,
and she cries to me when I'm asleep.
She says you know that you can go much faster,
I know that people's talk can be so cheap.
Yeah, yeah.
I got this voodoo child inveined on me,
I'm gonna use my power to ascend.
You know I got these burning heels to use,
sometimes there's no way to lose.
I was born to run,
I was built to last.
You'll never see my feet cause they move so fast.
Dance! Hey,
nothing left for me to do but...dance!
All these bad times that I'm going through-
just dance! Hey,
got canned heat in my heels tonight, baby.

Jamiroquai - "Canned Heat"

Running, we need to have a talk. You and I have been in relationship for a few years now. We've had highs, and we've had lows, but for the most part - it's been wonderful. You've taken me places I never thought I'd ever go, we've had amazing experiences, and we've made wonderful friends together. But Running, I have a confession to make...there's someone else in my life. It's Ballet. Yes, yes, I know - it's a little surprising. How long has this been going on? Oh, I would say about 6 months. But don't worry, Running - this isn't the end of us. I have no intention of leaving you or backing off of my marathon training. Because you see, Running, in our time together you've taught me that I'm capable of so much more than I ever thought. That I can tackle any challenge and succeed with the right amount of dedication and desire. So don't worry Running, there's plenty of room for both of you in my life.

Love,
Me

Well, this week has been only slightly less crazy than last week. I didn't have to go out of town, but I have been keeping myself wildly busy at work, and as you can see, have picked up a new hobby. I danced when I was younger - ballet, tap, jazz - that sort of thing, but ballet was always my absolute favorite. For years I toyed around with the idea of taking a ballet class, but something was always holding me back...couldn't afford it, didn't have time, was afraid I would be terrible, etc, etc. One day last fall I just decided to go for it and enrolled in an intermediate adult ballet class here in town. So I've been at that for awhile and love it...but, you see, I used to dance on pointe when I was younger. Some small part of me always wondered if I could dance on pointe again, given the fact that I'm now many MANY years older, several inches taller, and considerably heavier than I was back then. Then again, I am a distance runner so you know I have to be at least partially crazy. Which means that I now own a pair of these:

Pointe shoes! Aka, shiny evil foot torture devices. And yes, those are my (highly unattractive) feet in the above picture. This was my first week dancing on said pointe shoes, and it has gone far better than I ever expected...which is to say I'm not injured and haven't thrown the shoes away yet. I am wondering at what stage of my life I developed amnesia and forgot that learning to dance on these things hurts, but I'm enjoying the experience nevertheless. I think.

At any rate, I'm not backing off the marathon training at all, so it's a really good thing I've got the three run a week plan that allows me to work in a couple of ballet classes, among other things. Running this week was fairly uneventful, although I was really pleased that I took my tempo run outside on Friday evening and hit my pace even though it was fairly windy and completely dark by the time I went out. Today's song is actually very appropriate, because my 14 mile long run today might be one of the windiest runs I've ever had...and that's saying a lot, for Kansas. Except the wind here wasn't telling me I could go faster, it was telling me that I wanted to quit and that it was going to take me several hours to warm up when I finally got done. Oh well, it's Kansas - what do you expect?

Week 3 recap:

Run 1 - 4 miles easy

Run 2 - 1/2 mile warm; 3 miles in 27:43 (9:15 pace, I was supposed to hit 9:27); 1/2 mile cool (this one got cut a mile short because that's basically all the time I had to run that night)

Run 3 - 14 windy, windy miles

Next week is a rest week, which is great - and it means that next weekend I have the Groundhog 10k in Kansas City, a race that's run completely underground. That alone would be pretty great, but I also get to do the race with my favorite running group - the Running Dork, Running Worm, Running Chicken, and Running Sri Lankan. We make quite a group. Next week's rest also marks the start of the three week build-up to my first 20 mile run of this plan. Somewhere along the way I hope one of you will remind me why I thought it was a good idea to do a plan with three 20 milers on it.