Ultrarunner's credo:
give me life
give me pain
give me my
self again
- Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos
Chris made an amazing creamy pesto pasta dish last night. Incredible. And perfect fuel for my body: my lunch run today was fantabulous! I had enough energy to maintain a 10:50 pace for four miles (pretty darn good for me, especially while I'm sick!), without taking any gatorade/sports beans/gel/etc. before or during the run. Normally, I like to eat a half-package of sports beans (or two clif shot blocks) before any exercise lasting over 30 minutes. But I'm working on training my body to not necessarily need that.
Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos was the first song my iPod threw at me for the run; it was so perfect for my mood - cranky and feeling out of sorts and needing expression and connection and feeling to flow - that I played it twice. The lyrics I quote above sort of sum up why I run long - long distances give me life, make me feel alive, inhabiting my body, bringing awareness back to me, my self; long distances give me pain, the "good" hurt of stretching my body to its limits and beyond, pushing myself to the brink and allowing myself to come back again; long distances connect me with my SELF. I think shorter runs do the same thing, only it's not magnified as much as on a long run.
After my run, I felt much better: back in my body, with my head back in place, knowing who I am and how strong I am, why I live my life a certain way, and knowing that even though I'm sick and PMSing, everything will be alright - I just need to live through this, run through this.
I've been craving salad in addition to pasta, so I stocked up on spinach/romaine lettuce mix, carrots, apples, almonds, feta cheese, bacon bits and low-fat raspberry vinegarette (my favorite salad!). I go easy on the feta and bacon bits (those are lightly sprinkled on top, for that "icing on the cake" type feeling), but heavy on the lettucs, apples and almonds. Mmm, so good. I can't believe salad is a comfort food to me :)
I get to see Olga on Friday; I'm very excited. Trail Goat is also out for OP50; I'm hoping to get to meet him in person at the race. Is there anyone else coming out to OP50?
I loved this post by BadBen.
Comments
Love the lyrics. I could use a bit of that kind of pain right now. I like salad as comfort food too. : )
Posted by: Sarah | February 26, 2008 09:50 PM
Hi Angie, don't know the song but i am going to look for it. I love salad too, and green leafs are the best and you can get so creative with it. my favourite: spaghetti with gorgonzola and spinach, talk about power food...Still training... a bit of knee problems but otherwise feeling great :) what is it about running that makes everything else seems so unimportant? ;)Have a fun week...bye
Posted by: Gabrielle | February 27, 2008 05:11 AM
I really like those lyrics!
Posted by: Javamom | February 27, 2008 07:41 AM
Gah! I have the CD but I've neglected to put it on my iPod ... adding that to the list of things to do.
The pesto pasta sounds heavenly scrumshious. I'm going to go make turkey burritos right now, so hungry!
I have a 23k this weekend. Wish me luck! I want to be ready for a 50k in June.
And I wholeheartedly agree with what you said about how running makes you/me feel. More grounded, more in my body and more spiritual. It's the best medicine there is!
Posted by: Tanya | February 28, 2008 06:19 PM
sounds like things are going pretty good. The pasta has got to be helping. ;-) I love pasta.
Have fun this weekend.
Posted by: darrell | February 29, 2008 07:14 AM
Loved the energy in this post!
Posted by: Sarah Elaine | March 1, 2008 06:54 PM
Oh, what great memories of that CD (which, I actually owned on a cassette tape). My daughters rediscovered it about a year ago and now they're hooked. Never thought of the lyrics in the way you did, but, hell yeah, it works.
Posted by: Anne | March 1, 2008 07:32 PM
Mmmmmkay... you're making me want to go grocery shopping now. A salad like that sounds sooo yummy!
Nice job on those 4 miles!
Posted by: Taryn | March 6, 2008 10:37 AM