How Theodora Got Her Groove Back

(Or something.)

I’ve been feeling really off the past few weeks with my stomach. After pushing through a bunch of awful, no-good runs, I decided to take last week’s long run off. My impromptu visit to NJ this week meant I took a few more days off from working out. This meant this weekend’s workouts were either going to rock, or I’d want to kill myself. 

Yesterday’s bridge run (over the Brooklyn, over the Manhattan, back over Manhattan, back over Brooklyn) wasn’t terribly fun—I had a bit of rumbly tummy and was racing against the clock so I could get to the beach.

After a few drinks on the beach yesterday and a pulled pork sandwich (see below) that made me sick to my stomach afterwards, I didn’t have great expectations for today.

But despite getting back from the beach after 11pm last night, I woke up before 7 this morning (earlier than I even wake up for work) and took the subway up to Columbus Circle and ran a mile to meet Katie and Erica. 

We met at 72nd and West End Ave and ran up about four miles before we turned around. Katie and Erica are both training for the Philly Marathon but are at different points in their training, so Erica was doing 7 and Katie was doing 9, while I had 13 on my schedule. We left Erica after we’d finished 7, and Katie and I did about 2 more miles together—for a total of close to 10 for her. I continued on another three miles and ran down to 14th Street, where I hobbled onto the subway after ingesting inhaling a lemon-lime Gatorade. (That’s the kind they’re going to have at the marathon, so that’s what I’m trying to drink when I drink Gatorade. Which I only do after double-digit runs.) I had a Luna bar and banana before, a Gu with caffeine during, and almond butter on a bagel thin afterwards, to make sure I’d had enough to recover. 

My run should have sucked. I took Immodium last night to quiet down my stomach. I had a few beers and some fries. (Yeah, yeah, no wonder my stomach bothered me…) I hadn’t had enough water to drink last night and I had sucked hard at my training schedule this week. But, I took a new-for-me route (I usually run starting at the bottom of the West Side Highway path) and I was running with friends. After my run in Chicago, I decided that I really don’t want to do any run more than 10 miles solo ever again. Having friends to chat with/commiserate with makes things go SO MUCH FASTER. 

I definitely had runner’s high today. I’m still smiling.