Thursday Track Workout

This week has been good so far, really getting motivated to exercise and keep myself in marathon running shape. Yesterday I had a really good cardio workout and then followed it with a solid core and weight lifting routine. It’s amazing how much exercise can be accomplished in 90 minutes. I was able to spin for 35 or so minutes, do all my abs, and work out my chest, back and shoulders.

The rest of Wednesday I spent reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which is an incredible book and I highly suggest it to anybody. I’m going to finish it tonight, it’s really hard to put down after the first 5 words of starting. In addition, last night I biked a few miles and held a batting practice which was fairly productive. Came home absolutely exhausted and had one of the best night’s sleep of my life. I was completely physically drained from intense exercise, and mentally drained from various activities and reading for a few hours.

I woke up this morning and couldn’t wait to get my day on the move. I’ve begun playing tennis on Thursdays for about 2 hours. It’s a really good workout and is still a struggle to be consistent, but since I started about a month ago I have improved a great deal. After tennis I read TBWLOOW (book listed above) and did some other activities until our baseball game. I brought my track workout apparel because I needed to leave the game early and get over to Stanford.

This was the first track workout I have attended in the last 3 weeks, conflicts and lethargy. It was really good and was a bit harder than previous workouts. We worked on pacing ourselves and I really got myself to slow down. On the half miles and mile that we ran I got myself up to about a 10 minute mile which is about how fast I want to run the marathon, per mile that is. Somebody asked me what my goal for this marathon was, and I responded that I wanted to finish and have a good time for the entire day, and not be immobilized through overachieving.

After the workout, I got a ride over to a “hang with the gang,” where we basically hang out with the other team in training participants, mentors and captains and have some food, talk and well, hang out. It was cool, I got to know a couple of the people just kick back and enjoy an hour or so. It’s awesome how different the participants are and how all the various personas and stories all coalesce into a team of very encouraging people.

Tomorrow should be a very relaxing day, hopefully I’ll get a little bit of exercise, but I don’t really want to use my legs at all due to the run on Saturday (14 miles) and then a lovely dip into the freezing water, which will probably really suck for the first minute before the body goes completely numb, and then it will be incredible for recovery. I am definitely looking forward to it because it will be my longest run to date, passing 2 weeks ago on the 12 miler.

I’m not sure when I’ll write again, probably after the run on Saturday, so until then, have an awesome rest of the night and a great Friday.

Ryan