Primordial Chaos

Song by K-os.

Lately my stress/emotional relief has been running. (see, the title is relevant. :P) However, I am straight terrible at doing it regularly. 6 miles in a week is an overachiever week for me, not because I can't, I just don't. But I've been running more and more to clear my head and relieve stress, and I've been averaging about 30-40 miles a week. Yay for exercise and being healthy! (if I wasn't stressed out though, I wouldn't be running as much, so it's not REALLY for being healthy...)

So I was talking to a friend of mine, who I will refer to by his nickname (well abbreviation of the nickname he has for his nickname, don't ask) of P. So me and P were talking for HOURS all day Wednesday, and running came up. I was talking about how I love to run, to push myself physically, the mental benefits and curiosities I experience while running, when P tells me to shut up. (More people should do this.) Said he has a great idea, I should train for a marathon! I've been mulling it over for well over 24 hours, and I've decided to do it!

So I'm really excited about this, which will last maybe a month until I get sore and sick of running. :P Kidding. I am going to follow through and run in a marathon spring/summer of 2010. I haven't picked a marathon or a date yet, but I'll start training regardless! It'll give me something to write about, my ups, downs, injuries, frustration, excitement, etc.

Yes I know I need to cross train, and I will be doing strength training as well. But my major other workout is going to be swimming. This surprises no one, I bet. My affinity for water is pretty blatant. Plus I get to use UNM's pools for free. You know the pools they have in the basement of a gym. (Seriously.) I also get to use the fitness center at no cost, so might as well take advantage of that too for weights, cardio machines when I'm sick of running, etc. I have quite a few large spaces of time between classes during the week, so hell, I'll do something productive.

Here's what sucks though. I live in high altitude (over a mile above sea level), dry climate, and I live in an area called Paradise Hills...cause there's lots of fucking steep ass hills! So going running close to home will be a bit intense. So I'll have to adjust to extended periods of intense exercise in that setting. Also, learning to drive a manual on steep ass hills: NOT FUN. AT ALL. That was probably the worst and most frustrating part of learning a stick was learning how to drive on steep ass hills without rolling down backwards to the bottom or into the car behind you.

I just need to drink lots of water and/or coconut water. I've become addicted to coconut water, the liquid from inside a green coconut, as my choice for hydration. Mostly because it is isotonic (that is, it has the same balance of electrolytes and the like) as the human body. Drink a lot of just water, you die of water overdose (technically electrolyte imbalance, but I'm trying to not get too scientific here). Drink a lot of sports drinks, they're slightly hypertonic for the most part, so too many electrolytes, on top of all the damn sugar and food dye. I'll pass.

ALMOST tempted to make a separate blog just about the marathon training. Thinking about it, anyways. Looking around online for ideas about a training schedule, how many miles what days, etc., to use as a guideline. I probably even need to step back a bit and train myself into a regular habit/schedule of running. I'm always pushing my mental limits, might as well push my physical ones too. I need to know what I can and can't do in all regards. What am I really made of? (It's not evil and sarcasm, by the way.)

Going to go research some marathons and find one I want to run at!

~A.