Break Down. Shake Down. It's Busted.

Day 9

Today's post title is inspired by the song "Shakedown" from Beverly Hills Cop 2.  However, I'm not talking red Ferraris in the courtyard today -- instead I'm discussing the break down of a key item in my quest to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  My treadmill.

First off, I will admit that I wish all of my training came from the most realistic conditions possible -- outdoors.  But reality is a cruel mistress.  She reminds us that our wants and needs are often secondary to our responsibilities.  Leaving my house and driving to the closest running trails wastes about 30 minutes round trip.  I wake up at 515am to have enough time to even get in 40-50 minutes of running a day.  And so that 30 minutes represents a huge majority of my available workout time during the week. On the weekends I am all about being outdoors.  Half the reason I look forward to Saturday mornings, sadly enough, is because I get outdoors.  This is part of one of my favorite trails:

So while the long runs simulate race conditions well, the bulk of my running comes on the treadmill.  I can either see it as an instrument of torture (ever tried running in place for 10 miles?) or a savior to my busy schedule.  Monday I discovered that my savior's motor needs to be replaced, immediately.  And so, while I wait the estimated week and a half for the new motor to come and be installed, I am stuck exploring alternatives.  Yesterday morning I set my alarm for 515 and woke up to brave the blind curves and less than ideal terrain around my neighborhood - anyone in Southeastern PA knows that yesterday at 515 we experienced torrential downpours and flooding.  So I did core training with weights.  This morning I set the alarm for 515 again and this time awoke to a crisp summer morning.  I live in an extremely hilly neighborhood and so it was quite the run.  But it worked.  4 miles, keeping a sub 8:00 pace most of the time, climbing and descending 200 feet several times.  The best part was that slight burn you feel in your lungs when you are really pushing yourself and the air is a little cool.  It feels like -- accomplishment.

And so, for the next week and a half I'll be trying to figure out how to get in my miles and keep on track.  Today's hills felt better than ever.  Tomorrow I'm going to try the local park.  It has a 0.7 mile loop.  I'll have to run it many times - not exactly thrilling.  But then again, is it any worse than running in place for the same number of miles?  My goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Day 9: 4 miles, 32:28, 8:07 pace.