How's your endurance?

I don't seem to have the pinterest addiction that most of my friends do, but a bunch of my friends started a group board, where they pin awesome stuff, and it's a win win. They indulge their addiction, and I check in once a week or so and get to just look at that board to see the stuff worth looking at, and skip all that crap like "crafts" and "fashion" that is so far beyond me it's not even funny.


I actually felt like I overindulged just the amount that a normal American overindulges for Thanksgiving, which is significantly less than what is considered "overindulging" for me. Mainly because almost 100% of the Thanksgiving dishes included meat, so I didn't eat them, which actually seemed to be a good thing for my pants, because I can still fit into them.


I was watching a rerun of Friends the other day, and apparently Chandler refuses to eat any traditional Thanksgiving food on Thanksgiving, so in one of those flashback episodes Monica gives him macaroni and cheese instead. So, apparently not one writer, producer, or anyone in any way affiliated with the show has ever been to a black Thanksgiving? Because that's an important entree, and in my opinion, absolutely the best part. Too bad everyone else at my in laws agreed, so when I went to eat the leftovers for dinner Friday night, it was long gone.


Let's talk about endurance.


Eric and I left at 5am Thursday to drive to Ohio, and we also left at 5am today to return. Both times we completely lucked out and didn't hit any traffic. This has to do with endurance because, it takes endurance to survive that long in a car with someone (8+ hours both ways) and we actually have fun during long car rides, even 8 hours in. When we first dated we did a triangle from Baltimore to upstate NY to Ohio and back so we could get everyone introduced to all the families in one fell swoop. When we didn't want to kill each other after 20 + hours in the car in just a few days, I knew I was in it to win it. True story. I suggest this kind of relationship test before putting a ring on it.


Actually, I'm not sure if today counted though, because I was listening to The Hunger Games on audiobook throughout almost the entire drive and I swear I was actually in the arena with Katniss. It was intense, man.

There really just cannot ever, ever be enough young adult fiction images on this blog.

Another true story: I had to stop writing this blog post after that last sentence to watch The Hunger Games trailer. Again. And I cried. Again. OBSESSED.

What I really wanted to note, before I got completely carried away thinking about The Hunger Games, was my running endurance. My first run (5 days) after my first marathon was the worst three miler of my life, I had to stop and walk, and it was so painful. After my second marathon, the Shamrock Marathon, I was impressed that I'd bounced back so much more quickly than after my first marathon, in terms of soreness. However, two weeks after that race, I did a long run with Carolyn, who was training for a half. We did 11 miles, and I could honestly barely keep up an 11 minute mile pace. This made me really nervous when training for the 50 miler, because I knew I'd have to run the Baltimore Marathon, then jump right back in and complete two double digit runs the following weekend. 


But that all went fine, and while it wasn't easy, it wasn't phenomenally difficult, either. Now, my soreness is gone after the 50 miler, but in the first few days I wondered if it was going to be similar to my Shamrock experience, where I lack soreness, but my normal speed and endurance is shot. 


It's only been a week, so it's still early, but I've done three runs and they've all felt shockingly normal! I did 6 miles with Jessica on Friday, which was good. Yesterday morning I did 6 on my own, and other than insane midwest winds pushing me backwards and nothing to look at but cornfields, I felt terrific. After our car ride, I met up with my friends Mike and Colleen for a 7 miler at Loch Raven Reservoir, a notoriously hilly local path. With five hours of sleep and seven hours of driving under my belt (and twice as much coffee as water), I thought I was in for a rough run, but I felt strong, even though Colleen was really pushing the pace up the hills. There's still time for me to feel like crap, but, maybe the more you run, the faster you bounce back? I'm sure there's plenty of research that could have told me that years ago, but I have to do enough boring reading for grad classes. I'd rather just run my own 50 miles and see what happens from there. 


Do you agree that the longer/more you run, the faster you recover?


Are you obsessed with The Hunger Games yet, or do I need to come to your house and demand that you read it, as I've already done with several friends?