Thor's Running Journal

Although I'm still only half way through the training now, I am entering the " oh don't get injured now" mental state. Having come from a training cycle that fell apart a few months ago I am acutely aware of the many things that could derail this effort. At the same time, forward is the only direction I can go to get to the finish line. It would be nice to just press pause and wait for November 8, but that's not the way it works. Got to love the process they say. Yeah, I guess I do, but I don't have to love it all the time with the same intensity. I have to give myself permission to grumble every now and again so long as it isn't a sustained grumble.  It was the double 10 milers the past two days.  10 miles at easy effort pace on Friday  10 miles at slightly more moderate pace on Saturday I wanted to wait until daylight this morning, but it just didn't work that way and in classic form I decided getting the milage done would be better than staring at t...

 

I think it was a little less than a full moon this morning, but one way or another, it was bright enough to illuminate the running path. This turned out to be a good thing because I got the end of the driveway without my headlamp. 99.9% of the time I go through my getting ready to run routine without error so this doesn't happen, but today fell into that  .1% space. I also didn't put my earbuds back in to the charger so they were low on juice. Nothing worse than earbuds saying "low battery" as I'm trying to finish off x6 800m @5k pace with 400m recovery. I solved this second problem by just letting the earbuds charge during my 2 mile warm up. That worked and my "upbeat tempo pop music radio mix from previously listented to songs" playlist cranked out the tunes.  But back to the moon's illumination. I've run through the moonlight before, and this time around wasn't unique in that sense, but each and every time it fills me with wonder at just h...

  Carts like this one claim to have wheels that lock up when they are removed from the parking lot of the supermarket. If that is the case, a very determined person pushed this cart for three-quarters of a mile just to abandon it in front of YaYa Chicken. I wonder if they recorded it as a Strava activity. It was long run day today, and I had every intention of sleeping in, waking up slowly, and heading out once the sun was up. But all those good intentions went out the window when my body woke me up at 3:30 in the morning. I stared at the clock for a minute, debating whether to try going back to sleep. I knew, though, that I probably wouldn’t—and I’d just end up frustrated that I missed the chance for an early run. So instead, I decided to swing my feet out of bed and put my shorts on one leg at a time. Usually I don't eat before runs, but with a long run I like to put some fuel in my tank so I had half a plain bagel with a bit of almond butter spread ont top Even though I’ve run...

 I started listening to musicals on my runs. I'm a fan of the idea of musical theatre, but frankly not really a fan of musical theatre itself. I don't know it all seems very, dare I say, dramatic? But the idea of creating a story with themes and characters and the use of song for expression impresses me. There is a particular genius in musical theater I can appreciate the way I suppose some people can appreciate the idea of running as a hobby or for fun. But I like challenging myself and trying new things so I've been filling my earbuds with show tunes.  Here is the other neat part. The sound track lengths are about right for various length runs. Oklahoma: 1hr 14 mins / 8-9 miles easy effort miles Sunday in the Park with George: 1 hr 17 mins /8-9 easy effort miles Westside Story: 1 hour 18 minutes / 1mi wu, x7@marathon pace 1mi cd Hamilton: 2hours 22minutes / this is likely going to be two runs Les Misérables: 1hr 44minutes / 12 mile long run Having an audio experience tha...

In August I logged over 220 miles. This is the highest mileage since things took a dip in April. Frankly, I don't think too hard about the total miles that often because I am usually just breaking it down into days. Even when I am looking at daily mileage, I am thinking about the day's goal. Speedwork...easy effort...marathon practice...long run... Just doing what it takes to check off the box for the day. It usually takes until about week 14 before I get to the point of "I don't want to do this any more" and then at that point I figure I only have a few more weeks left so I might as well just get it done. That attitude rarely lasts more than a day or so. More miles are just the outcome of the effort toward the big goal. As awful as it sounds I could run 2000 miles again this year, but if I miss the mark and can't qualify for Chicago (and meet the Boston standard) I'll probably still be a little irritable.  I want to celebrate "the process", and ...