Runnin' with the Devil

Listen to this while you read the rest of the post...


I made it. I ran 7 days' straight, starting last Saturday. Kicked it off with 2 brick runs; capped it off with a 14-miler today. 49 miles total. Last night I thought I was going to die, I was so fucking tired. But I stretched and worked on my legs for :35, ate a good dinner, and went to sleep early. Got up at 4AM (still 8 hours of sleep), and felt like total crap. Like I've got a cold coming on or something.

Cleaned the garage for the most part, monkeyed with my training schedule, did some weeding, gassed up my car, picked up the check for the proceeds from the sale of my Dad's house (FUCKING YEAH!!), went to the bank to deposit said check, went to the post office to get some $.01 stamps (first class postage goes up on Monday--this public service announcement brought to you by Beck's beer, which I am drinking right now), came home, railed on the lawyer I started with for the estate process but fired (asshole), spent some time online chatting with a new friend, and had to decide if I was going to give running a go.

I figured I could probably do it, I mean, what's so hard about running for 2 hours? NOTHING. Not compared to what I've been doing the last 9 weeks, not compared to what I saw my Dad go through last fall, not compared to a woman I saw at the Y yesterday who could barely walk. So I proceeded to take in a 12-oz. can of Ultra Violence, and my body told me it needed to do something with it. So I suited up and the brain went into "we are going to work out mode."

I drove to Waterfall Glen on a very pretty day. Cloudy and cool. Perfect for a long run. As I began running, I really didn't feel too bad at all, considering. I even wanted to run up the hills! I was shocked. I guess I am getting stronger. My quads didn't hurt, so I must have worked on them really well last night. I planned on doing 2 out-and-back loops, only I didn't know how long each loop would be. That's always an "in progress" decision. I figured I could do 8 miles with the small bottle of Gatorade that I had, as I had chugged the Ultra Violence not long ago, so I certainly had the calories in me already. But when I got to 4 miles out, then I looked at my watch and had to decide whether to run an even 2 hours or to go for a mileage target. I settled on 14 miles, what the hell. I only slowed down for the last 4 miles, but that was also because the section of the trail I took is hillier than the section I did for the first 9!

I just got a massage, so all is well with the world. I think I can fight off whatever seems to be afflicting me, because I'm going up to Madison tomorrow to ride 80 miles (2 loops of the Ironman course) that are nice and hilly. No running tomorrow, but Sunday I ride again and do a brick run, so this is, indeed, a very good week. I may be fucking tired, but I'm happy! Next week's training will be a piece of cake compared to this week and last week, and oh what the hell, the last 9 weeks altogether! I'm feeling pretty ready for Triple T, and really looking forward to letting loose there. The whole idea is to make the race seem easy, right?

Snippet of lyrics--sound like anybody you know???

I live my life like there's no tomorrow
and all I've got, I had to steal
Least I don't need to beg or borrow
Yes I'm livin' at a pace that kills

Oooh, yeah
(Ahh!) Runnin' with the devil (Ahh-hah! Yeah!)
(Woo-hoo-oo!) Runnin' with the devil
I'm gonna tell ya all about it

I found the simple life ain't so simple
When I jumped out, on that road
I got no love, no love you'd call real
Ain't got nobody, waitin' at home