However, I can't say that I'm a person who has anything remotely close to a high level of pain tolerance. Paper cuts, which are unfortunately a commonly faced hazard of my job, will debilitate my affected finger for days. And I absolutely can't stand it when I bite my own cheek. I will carefully chew one-sided for over a week until my poor swollen cheek swells down to normal size again (if I don't keep accidentally biting it repeatedly and crying out in agony). I even managed to black-out from the pain of a sprained ankle a few years ago (I'm am being sincerely honest when I say the memory loss had nothing to do with the Seahawks game tailgating that occurred prior to the incident).
Let's just call it what it is.
I'm a wimp.
But when it comes to running, the story completely changes. I have taught myself to endure and take pride in any sort of typical pain associated with running. As I grimace and grunt through hill reps or speed work or the tail end of a long run, I am smiling on the inside, knowing that this pain is earned. I worked for it. It means that I'm out there working hard for no other reason than because I choose to. This pain means I am strong. And being stronger (mentally, physically, and emotionally) is something I am continually striving higher for.
Post-marathon pain is the best. I giggle with co-workers as they laugh at me for waddling down the hallways. I wince happily as I try to go up or down stairs, swinging myself between railings instead of taking that horrifically painful downward step. I joyfully imagine how ridiculous I must look as I attempt to sit in a chair, grabbing at any nearby table or the seat of the chair itself in an attempt to lower myself down without using any of the brutally sore leg muscles. Each painful step is a reminder of what I recently accomplished.
Today, I am in pain from my neck to my knees. Let me proudly tell you why.
It started on Monday with my first boot camp work out in over a month. Remember back when I said I was going to be good and do boot camp and yoga every week during this training season? Yeah, my busy schedule unhappily got in the way. So I was kind of dreading re-entering the boot camp arena.
I'm not sure I've told you exactly what boot camp entails. It is led for free by the P.E. teacher at my elementary school for any staff members who wish to inflict serious pain on themselves for 40 minutes after the work day. Awful tools of torture like hand weights, jump ropes, and *gasp* sliders are used throughout. There are rotations of 2 exercises with 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 4 repeats. Then a minute of rest and water followed by a new rotation of 2 exercises. This continues for the full 40 minutes. This may not seem too overwhelming, but by the time I get to the third or fourth 30 second rotation of an exercise, my muscles are screaming that they won't do any more.
Like I said, I'm a wimp.
BUT, because I'm doing this to benefit my running, I am happy and willing to try my best to push through this pain. I had gotten pretty strong up until I dropped off the map for 4 weeks. So my return to Monday boot camp hurt. I collapsed while doing push ups and my abs all but completely gave out by the end. I did, however, lunge like a rockstar. I've got the leg exercises down. Even if they do still leave me sore.
On Tuesday, it hurt to get out of bed. The first "sit" of the day (guess where that was) was excruciating. It hurt to turn my head, and coughing left me cringing in pain. But this pain was earned, so I smiled through it all (they were mostly smiles on the inside so my co-workers and first graders didn't think I was a crazy person).
Then, Tuesday night was Team practice. Instead of the anticipated hill rep workout, we did a tempo run. Which I was excited about. A tempo run consists of a 10 minute warm up, 20 minutes of running at 1 minute below your marathon goal pace (which for me means running at a 7:45 pace), and then 10 minutes of cool down.
I much prefer speed work to hills. With hills, you can actually see the mountain you have to climb. For speed, the mountain is completely metaphorical and dependent upon your effort level. So for speed work, I grimace, grind my feet in, and RUN.
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| Metaphorical speed mountain, you don't scare me. |
I killed it.
*Side Note: Speed for me is completely relative. My speeds may seem slow to some and fast to others. This is just an expression of how I feel about my current pace and anyone who is out there pounding the pavement is doing much more and much better than the vast majority of the population. I truly admire you all.
So can you guess how I'm feeling today? There is a LOT of pain. I sat as little as possible today. I dreaded the awful toilet trips where sitting is necessary (for us ladies, at least) for a ridiculously short amount of time where there are no nearby tables or items to grip to relieve leg pain (unless you want to touch the germ-infested walls or *double gasp* toilet seat). And those 3 awful steps that lead down from my apartment stoop have been accomplished with a swinging leap from the railings. But I'm enjoying the pain. Because I earned it.
And I still ran today. After Erica bailed on our usual Wednesday run, I decided to take Lucy out for an "easy" loop of Green Lake. I knew that if I ran Lucy-pace, she'd force me to go slow and easy and keep me from really hurting myself (injury pain = not OK). After I hobbled down Phinney Ridge, she trucked along with me at a 9:00 average, which for her is actually quite fast, but for me has somehow become an easy, slow pace (a year ago, I was ecstatic to run a 9:00 min pace, so it's crazy to me that this has now become my "easy" pace).
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| Post run Lucy might be the cutest thing ever. She wouldn't lift her head, despite much encouragement. The tail is wagging though. |
Watch it. Funny stuff.
So if you're out there running or pushing yourself in some other fantastically challenging way, cheers to you. Enjoy the pain. You earned it.
I'm certainly going to happily grimace through whatever pain I'll be facing tomorrow.
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