Thankful for Thanksgiving
Wow, life has been getting in the way of blogging this week. I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good one! Mine was much better than I thought it would be. First of all there was the Turkey Chase 10K. I was frankly dreading it; my last 10K, which was only three weeks ago, took a lot out of me. It took about 10 days to recover from that, and my runs during the week after the race, well, sucked. But I joined a new running group that uses the Galloway training method. Jeff Galloway is a proponent of the run/walk method. I’ve been doing this for the last few weeks, running 4 minutes and walking 1 minute. I used it in the race yesterday too, and I actually beat my 10K time from three weeks ago! And absolutely nothing hurts me today, there will be no recovery period at all this time. Another thing I noticed during the race was that I have had some really good training over the past 7 months. I noticed a lot of really strong runners who just couldn’t make it up the long (1.25 miles) hill which was during mile 4. But it really didn’t give me any trouble at all. I was psyched! My time was 1:03:42 – it’s not going to win me any medals, but for an old gal like me (who has only been running a little over a year) it’s darn good.
And then we spent Thanksgiving day with my husband’s family. I wasn’t looking forward to that either. I haven’t been in the mood to be with anyone lately, especially them. They can be difficult, in my opinion. But everyone was very friendly and on their best behavior, and there was plenty of wine and liquor which helped. And I think the endorphins from the race were flowing all day, so it was good.
And the food wasn’t as much of an issue as I thought it would be. I missed the brunch due to the race, which was the plan, so I just had my normal breakfast. I passed on the appetizers and had a spoonful of everything during dinner. And no dessert. It was a good food day. I hope you all had whatever kind of day that you wished for, and I’m thankful to all of my blog friends for your support and friendship.
Tags: drinking, eating, family, food, running
November 27th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I’m thankful for all your support
Glad you day went better than you thought it would be!
PS A friend runs marathons and always talks about the Galloway method–and how it has worked wonders for her!
November 28th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Congratulations on that AMAZING time! I think anyone who runs regardless of their times should be commended! It is so hard!
November 28th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Your commitment to yourself and your healh via running inspires me. Congrats on such a great run.
November 28th, 2009 at 9:36 am
It does sound like a good day
Isn’t it nice when the reality beats the expectations?
Re: Galloway method – when I recently bought my new shoes, the salesperson at the running store was talking about it, but didn’t give it a name. She is in her 60s and said that is now how she runs marathons and that her times are better than when she ran the whole time. There are interval watches that beep at the appropriate switch times.
I am thinking I may incorporate this into my master plan
– but mine would be walking three minutes and running for one minute. Did this on Thanksgiving morning – my 10 year old and I went out for a walk – when the sun was shining and the air was crisp – before the gray clouds rolled in.
November 28th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I used the Galloway method when training and running the marathon I ran in 2004. I just looked at my time (i couldn’t remember it) – finished 4:27 chip time… I also found the pictures that were taken on the course of me… I think I would have been in a much worse place if I hadn’t done 10:1s.
I really should get back into running… I miss it.
(ps: two posts I wrote on the subject: http://rblsc2006.blogspot.com/2008/10/bipolar-children-should-sports-be-first.html AND http://rblsc2006.blogspot.com/2008/01/keep-running.html)
R
November 28th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I guess lots of runners use the Galloway method – it is really a great way to run. I do 4 mins of running and 1 min of walking. I have a Garmin Forerunner 305 and I have it set to beep every time I switch from running to walking and back again.
Rach, I didn’t know you ran a marathon. Anyone who can do that is truly special. And that is a great time – amazing! I’m off to read your blog posts about running.
OLJ – you definitely need to be doing Galloway, you’ll feel great and you’ll be able to have much more endurance.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
It was my goal to run my first marathon before I graduated from High School – I did it the week of prom! It’s not something that I publicize so much, but as a high-schooler, it seemed to be the identity I adopted.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Rach – I think it is quite unusual for a high school student to want to run a marathon – and to actually do it. I was talking to someone in my running group a couple of months ago about how we see so many people over the age of 40 doing long distance running. She said she thinks it is because when you get to be that age you can tolerate more pain, you don’t give up as easily, and you realize that maybe you don’t have as many years left to do things like run a marathon. I don’t like to make generalizations, but I do see many many people over the age of 40 when I am out running. Not so many young ones – although maybe they sleep late and aren’t out there at 7am!
November 28th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
You’re right; I think in terms of young people, university/college students make up a large portion of the demographic of runners… More unstructured time and flexibility are amongst the reasons. I would say, though, that if you went and asked a team of high school cross-country runners about how many of them had run a long distance >10km race, I would bet that probably 50% had.
Your comment about not running at 7am is also valid; when I ran cross country in highschool there was always a much bigger group at the afternoon run than the morning run. Until last year I was very much a morning person, so you could find me running Saturday mornings by 8:00 or so.
Now… not so much!
November 29th, 2009 at 2:10 am
I just want to let you know that you have inspired me to start running again. I used to run/walk a few years ago but for some reason stopped. I have entered a New Years resolution race. I figured that would be a good time to start again.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
lostinamaze – yay for you to start running again! And a race is really good motivation to keep with it. We can run together in spirit.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Happy belated Thanksgiving, Harriet! And well done on the race and surviving the family get-together. Reading your post made me think I must start running again. I like the sound of the Galloway method. And now that I’m almost 40 maybe it will work for me as well! I was part of a running club 2 years ago but they weren’t that friendly. I think I must find a new one. (Oh, and I’m also grateful for my blog friends. They’ve become a great source of support.)