I jumped into Hal Higdon’s novice-level half marathon training at week eleven, because that’s what lined up with the next 5K I’m doing. Today was either a 2 mile run or cross-training. I feel like I did both.
Now, having lived in New England my entire life, and not more than 1/2 from the ocean for all this time, you’d think I might know something about when tides go in and out. But no. For some reason, I thought the time they went low was fairly constant, but today I learned that at 5:14AM, the tide is pretty damned high at the beach. Can you say, “run in gooshy deep sliding sand?”
That aside, the run was delightful. It’s already 67 degrees and sticky, so the ocean air was much nicer than our apartment. The sun was a fat tangerine over my right shoulder, and I shared the beach with four seagulls and an old guy surfcasting.
As I ran, the water stretched out to touch my toes, like a lover across a too big bed. Only, it had to be a lover like me, because instead of being content with a simple touch, it would occasionally lunge up and try to scoop me up in an embrace. And probably just like me, it would receed, leaving a drag against my legs, and sloppy running conditions.
This was supposed to be an easy run and it was. I did my dutiful 2-something miles at my planned “Run 4/Walk 1″ pace, and my times were not much better than walking. However, I definitely worked on conditioning my heart, and running on soft yielding sand is like running with an extra 30 pounds strapped to both legs, so I feel like I did some muscular cross-training along with the running.
On a musical note, I purchased this last night off iTunes and love the hell out of it.
It’s funny, because I heard a few snips off NPR and was mesmerized. Later, after purchasing the album, I realized that she’s part of a band I already really liked called the Be Good Tanyas. Guess I was hooked before I knew it.
Anyhow, good run, and beautiful to start my day with the sun, the ocean, and a few gulls.
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