Ever have a true moment of clarity? When there's multiple issues all jumbled up. When things you've been thinking about for months, perhaps years. Tying you up in knots. Getting you pissed off beyond belief? Then, a thought passes, and you just see it. Right there in front of your eyes. It's there. And that's all you need.
I had one today. And I'm cool with things.
I don't know if it was the moment of clarity that lifted the 100 pounds of monkeys off my back, or the three-taco combo I had at Chipotle today for lunch, but I had one hell of a run tonight.
Avoiding the 97 degree heat at 8:00PM I went to the gym hoping to put in an hour on the treadmill at an easy pace. Just logging miles, really. As I was starting to run, I got to thinking and that's when it set in. I realized some things I'd been discussing in my head earlier in the day was right and that I was on the right path.
Then it was time to get on with it. I started out at a 10min mile pace, and dropped it down from there. I'm not going to go into the details now, but I got my run in. I also learned that there's a certain speed that the treadmills can't go. It was that kind of a run.
It's been a long time since I've logged in this damn thing. So much has happened. I've been running. Logging about 6 weeks averaging above 40 miles a week. Not bad for the excruciatingly torturous heat. More importantly, I'm shooting for 8 runs per week. Haven't hit it yet, but am shooting for that number. The number of runs is important -- especially in this heat.
Did almost 16 miles last Saturday, 13 on the treadmill at around 11PM and 2.5+ or so at night on the roads. The thirteen were surprisingly good. The first 6 miles slow, the last seven miles at a gradual pickup. I could have added three more. Slowly getting the endurance back.
I had quite the interesting run in Pennsylvania. I stayed at my brother's place, and jogged a little bit in the neighborhood two Sundays ago. Started a bit slow, having done almost 13 the day before. As I was about 1.5 miles into the run, I saw a bunch of the Amish playing volleyball. And as I ran by them, I heard two kids running behind me: "wait up, we wanna run with ya."
Unfortunately, I sped up! WTF! Instinct I guess. It is something that I will always regret. When will I ever get a chance to go for a run with the Amish? Probably never again. I so regretted it shortly after.
So a few days before this run, my brother Greg told me where the mile-to-go marker was. Not having run much with a watch this season, I figured I'd see what sort of shape I was in. So with a mile to go, I split my watch and figured I'd see what I could do. I had no intention to go all out, but to have a good smooth comfortable pickup. Again, no kicking, no heavy breathing, but a 'where am I at' run. Was a bit surprised at the finishing time: 6:20 mile. Quite the boost, considering the year I've had.
Speaking of Greg. He dropped a 5:03 at the Harrisburg Mile last night! Way to go Greg! He was a bit sick going into it, but laid it on the line. Funny thing was that he puked his guts out afterwards. It's ok Greg, here was my first road mile! We're going to do one together one of these days. And I'm going to beat you!
Sometimes I like to wear short shorts when I run, because when I see my shadow at night, it makes me look faster.
I'm not ready to run with the Gazelles in workouts just yet. Not sure why. Probably because it hurts. Maybe I'll go do some 800's one of these days.
Had an incredible night watching the finals night of the Olympic Trials. So. Incredibly. Inspiring. The 1500m final was so stacked. What professionals. I caught a few nights of the trials. Freaking Awesome. I'm debating getting cable just so I can watch every second of the Olympics (Track only of course).
Now that I got all charged up from watching Track, I think I want to run a two-mile again soon.
I'm writing in here tonight in a bit of motivational desperation. As we page through our various phases and cycles we tend to forget the difficulties of the routes we took to get where we are. As someone who's trying to get back into shape, I'm reminded again of just how difficult a task the first attempts were.
But I'm recognizing and thinking about it again. Temporarily distracted by other, important goals, I think I'm finding my way back. Every morning is a struggle, and thankfully I have my evenings. Tonight I ran to Zilker Park, found the grass and ran in circles -- slowly. Sore all over from overdoing it yesterday (two workouts) I had a good time out there by myself, stepping into a few holes and watching lightning bugs. It's a great place to run and I'm glad I'm rediscovering it. I basically had the place to myself. Imagine that. A gigantic park in the middle of one of the world's great cities -- to myself.
I've strung together a few 30 mile weeks in a row and hit 40+ last week for the first time since early Feb. I've gained a few pounds, and haven't done much core in the meantime and am feeling the effects. I'm not in bad shape, but am not sharp either. My proudest accomplishment was running six days last week -- and running tonight when I didn't feel like it.
I'm going to try taking this thing seriously again, and I'm posting here to try and get some accountability. Primarily from myself, but if others will help that'd be good too.
So long for now. Hopefully I'll be back soon. If I am, I'm doing something right.
So it may seem like my zest for putting one foot in front of the other quickly and writing about it has died. Certainly the writing about it part has significantly decreased. To be honest it isn't quite, or hasn't been quite, as magical as it once was. But I do still run and I intend to run more, but life seems to've been getting in the way.
Between work and remodeling a house, there's not much room for running, or writing. In fact, getting things dry-cleaned, grocery shopping, cleaning, and just keeping up with the tedium seem to be a luxury. How do people do this? How do people do this with children? They must not waste a millisecond.
Although I'm not quite where I should be on the running scene, I'm happy with what I've been doing with my time. But after stepping on a scale, and after the last few runs, I believe it's high time to start getting back in shape. I didn't get way off. I felt very good in December of this year. I got sick in January due to some Cluster Headaches.
The headaches finally stopped with about three weeks to go before the Austin Marathon. So I said what the hell and signed up for it. Then I pounded out a 59 and 55 mile week respectively, and hit something like 16 the week of the marathon. I didn't end up being in December shape, but I did have a relatively enjoyable marathon of 3:32 or something like that. I didn't wear my watch and liked it. Heck, even finished it saying to myself: "I'll probably do another one."
I guess I'd like to be in shape for some fast races, but I'm not going to make any promises anytime soon. Right now I'm just trying to string together some six run weeks. Matter of fact, tonight, I ran for about 20 minutes with my cell phone in hand. My sister was coming over and I knew I wouldn't have time to get a run in. So I just ran around the neighborhood, weaving through streets, and when she called I came home. That way I was able to put together a string of four days in a row with a run. It may've been only two miles or less, but a run nonetheless. Four days, one week. It's been a while.
Who knows, I may do this sort of thing again. Maybe I need to start a new thousand miles. Would be pretty cool if I did it in 20 weeks. That'd be 20 fifty mile weeks in a row. I might be in good shape then. Maybe.
As you can see, my training has been quite inconsistent over the years. I guess the only thing consistent I see in it at first glance is that my low months tend to be marathon months. See any trends? If so, please leave a post.
I've been thinking lately of shutting down this page. Although the original intent was to hold myself accountable, after reading some other fitness type blogs I wonder if the idea of blogging and running should be filed under narcissism. It's a fair question and probably explains why I don't really do it that often anymore.
But as I was flipping through this thing tonight, it seems it's been more therapeutic than anything. And, lately, I've only been doing it when I feel the urge. It gets me writing again, if only for a couple minutes now and then.
I feel as if I'm as accountable as I want to be at this stage, so the accountability need has been met. However, sometimes, it's good to put goals out there. And if I truly had some right now, I would write them down. But for the first time in a long time, I don't really have any short-term goals. I wonder if I've become fulfilled with this aspect of my life?
Probably not. I still haven't figured out how to negative-split a marathon. Although I'm telling myself I've "retired" from that distance, I still want a piece of it. Especially after watching friends figure it out. The shorter distance goals are still on the agenda I guess, but that'd be down the road.
Ok. So even though I still have some goals, they're not on the forefront of my mind anymore. In fact, in all honesty, I don't care too much about them. What I seem to enjoy most lately are days like yesterday where I actually *got up* in time to meet the group, finished a 21-miler (and enjoyed it) and went to coffee with cool, interesting people.
To update my vast following of readers (Dad, Greg, this means you), the training seems to be going well. Have been consistently building the mileage and topped off close to 60 this last week. Hope to have two to three at around this mileage before I drop back down. The weather here in Texas has been bi-polar, but perfect for running nonetheless. After hearing from you Yankees out there, I can't complain a bit.
Anyway, things are good these days. I can't really complain. I'm looking forward to more days on a schedule. Speaking of, better get to bed. And if I don't post before Tuesday, Merry Christmas!!
