Sunday, January 24, 2010

Rain, Rain and More Rain...

Today, I invented a new endurance sport. 

You have heard of marathons, half marathons, Ironman, Half-Ironman and Ultraman.  This morning, I endured a rapidly racing heartbeat and generated buckets of sweat in a new endurance sport competition I decided to call...

"SteamroomMan" 

My decision to push myself to the human edge by sitting for 30 minutes in steam was thoughtfully considered and thoroughly planned.  Like any professional athlete, I visualized my success ahead of time.  I then worked at dawning the SteamroomMan uniform by wrapping a towel around myself.  I braced  for the collision of my hand against the doorknob and then navigated through the menacing fog to find a bench to sit down on.

I conducted all sorts of positive self talk to keep my head in the game. 

"Way to breath in that hot air Ed!" 

"You are almost to your goal of 30 minutes Ed!"  "Don't be distracted, focus!" 

"Be the heat Ed!"  

"Way to sit Ed!" 

It was hard, but I made it to the end of the race.  My pushing myself to the limits of human endurance in the steam room had its roots in the rainy weather we have been experiencing.  Weather here is generally amazing...however, this week has been really yucky.   We have been deluged with rain! 

Some areas in the Bay got 10 inches of rain this week.   Yesterday, I had the intent on pushing myself to 40 miles as the weather was supposed to be nice.  However, it was cold and raining off and on and I had to settle for a 19 mile sprint.

This morning, I started off thinking that I was going to do another 15-20 miles...however, the rain once again made an appearance.  I did 2 miles outside and got really cold and wet.   I decided to head to the gym and put in some miles on the treadmill.  I was making progress until the siren song of steam called me into it's welcoming fog.  The cold and wet run had made me achy and my mind was screaming that the steam was just what the doctor would have ordered.

I added about 27 miles to my training total this weekend and I am nearing 200 miles for the month.  I suspect I am going to have a 250 mile month in my first month of training.  I am looking forward to my next long run. 

In the meantime, I am going to bask in the glory of finishing "SteamroomMan!"


E

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