And we're back

I didn't end up running on Wednesday morning (still rewarding myself post-marathon). Instead I went on Thursday morning for three miles on the treadmill because 1) it is too damn cold at 6am to go running outside and B) I wanted to do ab work after the run since I think my stomach and lower back muscles are weak and lead to poor form while running.

Running on the treadmill, at first, was like taking a dusty old toy car of the shelf and being pleasantly surprised that the little thing whizzed around and bounced off walls as if it were brand new. It took some adjustment at the beginning (it had been 1.5 weeks since any kind of running) but everything was working fine and nothing hurt, not even my IT band. The only thing that amazed me was how, after training and running races for seven months, this short little run demanded so much concentration and energy. This happens after every racing season: the first run after the last race is always the hardest, it's like starting all over again.

Eventually, I did find a kink and the kink was in my stomach and it wanted to get out of there about 2.5 miles into the run. Aha! There is the poop that I avoided during the Marathon. I tried to get myself through the last .5 miles of the run, I know I could fight back this "cramp" (if cramp is code for GI onslaught) because I had fought back so many first wave cramps in training (it's the second and third waves that get me), but I just couldn't. I stopped the machine at 2.58 miles and bolted to the bathroom.

Sigh. And we're back to square one.

Post-bathroom (yes, Miguel was there) I did some leg lifts on the caption's chair and some lower back exercises, but since I haven't done those exercises in, oh, four months, so I've been like an old man since Friday morning because I can't get up quickly from hunching over and I can't do anything that involves my ab muscles. That should have been my Halloween costume: an nursing home patient--it would have required no acting at all.

In other news...Halloween was fun this year. After being stuck in the office until 8pm (hearing the Halloween parade right outside the building was just torture while I was trying to wrap up budgets) I hopped in a cab and met wifey and friends to go upstate to the Headless Horseman hayride and haunted houses. The place was fantastic: you start on a haunted hayride were people come out and scare you, and then you're lead through a series of haunted houses and a corn maze. The only downer was that we were some of the last people of the night and I guess the zombies and chainsaw killers started clocking out for the night before we went through, so there were some empty patches during the houses and maze. Bummer.

We finally came home at about 3:30 last night (thank God for the extra hour this morning!). Now to run some errands today because wifey and I will be volunteering at the finish line of the Marathon tomorrow. To everyone running the five boroughs: Good luck and have a blast out there!!!!