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Intern Matt: Training Has Officially Started For Chicago

By Intern Matt

July 11, 2018

Okay, folks. I know it’s been a while but I’ve been working behind the scenes on my year-long internship with CITIUS MAG but I’ve started training in earnest now, and the verdict is in—I suck at this. I’m so painfully slow at the moment that saying I move at a glacial pace would be an insult to the natural deterioration of our ice shelf.

The founder of this fair website and my pal Chris Chavez has been sending weekly schedules for me to follow and we connect using the popular app Str**a (no free ads) so he can track my progress from New York while I’m based in Chicago. Chris has zero coaching experience so this could go awry very quick.

I don’t know how you people do this for fun. I did my first “long run” last weekend and I wanted to die…like a lot. I’m lucky enough to live in a city where there’s dozens of miles of trails along Lake Michigan that are littered with drunk and clueless suburban families who find it a good idea to stand right in the middle of everything on a 100-degree-plus day. I strive to live such an oblivious life where you don’t realize hundreds and hundreds of people are having to run and bike around you and the Yeti cooler you bought on sale at the local Cabela’s.

Putting that aside, I tried to enjoy the scenery. The beautiful blue-green lake, the hundred-foot yachts, the horrible tattoos and the great lengths people go to to relax.

Whatever I tried to do to distract myself from the monotony of putting one foot in front of the other for two hours didn’t quite work. The Midwestern heat and humidity got to me and I consistently felt like I was breathing through a wet washcloth the whole time. Waterboarded, if you will….Maybe Dick Cheney had a point.

Anyway, by mile 3 I got a bit more used to both the heat and the idiots who didn’t understand basic human pedestrian rules (or maybe that was heatstroke? I think it was heatstroke).

The good news is that I finished the run, which is probably the most important thing. The bad news is I felt horrible afterward and realized I had a long way to go (that’s a running metaphor for you).

It’s often difficult to put training into context.

Did I feel sick at the end of that run? Yes.

Would I have been able to complete it at all two months ago? Absolutely not.

So, for now, as I wallow in my misery of heat-induced and self-inflicted sickness, I’ll take solace in the fact that I’m getting better, even if it doesn’t feel that way for now.

If you’d like to track my progress and pain, I am on that running app. Any tips are greatly appreciated.