Welcome to the Monkey House
I'm not sure I have ever been as simultaneously scared and intrigued by a church as I was this morning, wending my way through the gigantic Peachtree Presbytarian church looking for the meeting room for the "Coach's Workshop" to start my training experience. This church scared me because it was so massive, and seemed to have so many types of things (gyms, cafeterias, fellowship rooms, classrooms, etc.) that I was half afraid I would be swallowed by the building. I swear you could live in this place, which is not what I want of a church. At the same time, it was so all-encompassing that I have to admit I'm now quite curious. What would it be like to go to a church like that? Presbytarianism is so main-stream, but... all I could think was CULT! it felt insidious... but maybe I just have a problem with all organized religion these days.
Anyway, today was my first team in training group training session. For about an hour and a half we had a "Coach's Workshop" where they talked to us about equipment, nutrition, hydration, running stride, etc. Since I've run before, it was kind of boring, and I found myself daydreaming about my bed and getting anxious about the run itself. Then we all went outside to warm-up and run with our teams. The Alaska team is smaller than the San Diego team so I'm not sure I made the right call, but I'm sure once I get to know my team I'll be happier with it.
Yesterday was beautiful, but today not so much. It was actually warmer when I woke up at 7 than it was when we started our run at 9:30. It wasn't really raining, but it was cold damp and windy. Our team went for four miles. We went out slow and stuck together more or less... which was kind of nice. I dropped my map very early and decided to go back for it, at which point I gave up on running with Su and her mentor (I felt like the third wheel there) and started running with this boy named Tedd. Tedd just moved here in November and has run a marathon before but he claims he is not a runner. I'm not really sure how that is possible, but he also claims that his marathon time was so bad that he was getting passed by walkers and he refused to tell me what his time was. Tedd had been hoping that we would run 3 miles, and I had been hoping we would run 5, so I decided to be his cheerleader of sorts. I ran with him the whole run and tried to be encouraging and distracting, and I think it worked for both of us. I stopped worrying about how much faster and longer I wanted to run and he was surprised at how easy the run felt. Though I did wonder if it was slightly emasculating for him...
So... as we were finishing our run, Tedd was running out of steam, and I decided at the last minute that I really wanted to extend my run. So, I headed back out and added on 2 - 2.5 miles on my run. During the Coach's session he said that we shouldn't run with a watch and that the course isn't exactly measured. He told us to leave our type-A personalities on the shelf, not to overdue it, and then claimed that men have more of a problem with that than women. I think I'm an exception to that rule (though I must admit that I'm offended by that concept in general. I challenge you to produce a guy that is more competitive than I am, and has more of a problem not competing than I do (Isn't it great that I perform my complexes as I talk about them)). Phew, okay, enough of the double parentheses stuff. Pretty much, with the exception of not running too fast (I was definitely running slower than usual) I broke every one of his rules. I ran with my watch, I drove my car around our route after the fact to find out just exactly how much we had ran, and I added mileage on to the run after it was finished. It really isn't my fault though that they tried to pass a 3.5 mile run off as a 4 mile run, or that the training schedule had said there would be an advanced group running 5 miles today, but the Alaska group only offered the option of 2 or 4. I swear I could have left my type A personality on the shelf if I wanted to. Of course, it wouldn't have stayed on the shelf for very long, I would have just run further tomorrow... :-)
On my "extra" run, I kept seeing people who were heading back in from their various training routes. I felt a little guilty every time I did so. Especially when I saw the head coach (whose advice I had ignored). They have "sweepers" who sweep the course looking for stragglers, they try to keep track of every one, you have to fight to escape the herd and then feel guilty about it afterwards. Hmmm... sounds a bit like... church? a cult? I mean, I've heard people say that running is their religion, but today cast a whole new light on that concept.
Anyway, since I'm not yet at the end of my week, I think I'll go ahead and post this and save the rest for tomorrow. Stay tuned...
Anyway, today was my first team in training group training session. For about an hour and a half we had a "Coach's Workshop" where they talked to us about equipment, nutrition, hydration, running stride, etc. Since I've run before, it was kind of boring, and I found myself daydreaming about my bed and getting anxious about the run itself. Then we all went outside to warm-up and run with our teams. The Alaska team is smaller than the San Diego team so I'm not sure I made the right call, but I'm sure once I get to know my team I'll be happier with it.
Yesterday was beautiful, but today not so much. It was actually warmer when I woke up at 7 than it was when we started our run at 9:30. It wasn't really raining, but it was cold damp and windy. Our team went for four miles. We went out slow and stuck together more or less... which was kind of nice. I dropped my map very early and decided to go back for it, at which point I gave up on running with Su and her mentor (I felt like the third wheel there) and started running with this boy named Tedd. Tedd just moved here in November and has run a marathon before but he claims he is not a runner. I'm not really sure how that is possible, but he also claims that his marathon time was so bad that he was getting passed by walkers and he refused to tell me what his time was. Tedd had been hoping that we would run 3 miles, and I had been hoping we would run 5, so I decided to be his cheerleader of sorts. I ran with him the whole run and tried to be encouraging and distracting, and I think it worked for both of us. I stopped worrying about how much faster and longer I wanted to run and he was surprised at how easy the run felt. Though I did wonder if it was slightly emasculating for him...
So... as we were finishing our run, Tedd was running out of steam, and I decided at the last minute that I really wanted to extend my run. So, I headed back out and added on 2 - 2.5 miles on my run. During the Coach's session he said that we shouldn't run with a watch and that the course isn't exactly measured. He told us to leave our type-A personalities on the shelf, not to overdue it, and then claimed that men have more of a problem with that than women. I think I'm an exception to that rule (though I must admit that I'm offended by that concept in general. I challenge you to produce a guy that is more competitive than I am, and has more of a problem not competing than I do (Isn't it great that I perform my complexes as I talk about them)). Phew, okay, enough of the double parentheses stuff. Pretty much, with the exception of not running too fast (I was definitely running slower than usual) I broke every one of his rules. I ran with my watch, I drove my car around our route after the fact to find out just exactly how much we had ran, and I added mileage on to the run after it was finished. It really isn't my fault though that they tried to pass a 3.5 mile run off as a 4 mile run, or that the training schedule had said there would be an advanced group running 5 miles today, but the Alaska group only offered the option of 2 or 4. I swear I could have left my type A personality on the shelf if I wanted to. Of course, it wouldn't have stayed on the shelf for very long, I would have just run further tomorrow... :-)
On my "extra" run, I kept seeing people who were heading back in from their various training routes. I felt a little guilty every time I did so. Especially when I saw the head coach (whose advice I had ignored). They have "sweepers" who sweep the course looking for stragglers, they try to keep track of every one, you have to fight to escape the herd and then feel guilty about it afterwards. Hmmm... sounds a bit like... church? a cult? I mean, I've heard people say that running is their religion, but today cast a whole new light on that concept.
Anyway, since I'm not yet at the end of my week, I think I'll go ahead and post this and save the rest for tomorrow. Stay tuned...
posted by Lynn at 3:19 PM
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