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91. The Countdown Begins

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Wednesday’s workout: 1 hour spin 

Today:  Off

 

I like the feeling of my heart beating out of my chest.  On a spin bike last night I kept twisting the tension on the knob to see at what point I started breathing like it meant something.  One hard turn and I started panting.  Another, nothing.  Another, sweat stood out on my face.  Some more and my quads started screaming out of my legs.  Right there: the happiest I’ve been all week.

I’m weary with all this rest.  (If I were talking to my trainer Terry I would say: I’m not complaining.  I’m just making a statement.)  At our last meeting before the race Ron DeAngelo advised me to take off two to four weeks off running before I considered starting back.  Sunday makes two weeks since the marathon.  I know more rest would be good.  But even though I’m lifting and doing spin I miss the feeling of running.  Nothing else makes me feel that kind of good.  Just as much I miss the ritual: getting up early, mapping a course, stretching, setting out.  That first step out of a walk always feels like stepping through a door or behind a velvet rope into some cooler place – out into the world and inside my endorphin-addicted head.

I keep thinking about a moment in the early miles of the marathon – did this happen to you? – when the runners in my corral headed toward the Strip District and streaked beneath the bridge near the Greyhound station.  Everyone started whooping and the sound bounced everywhere and splashed its echo and made such a perfect soundtrack to that feeling at the start of a run.  Especially a run that big.  I'm counting down the days until I hear that echo again, if only in my own head.


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