Glasses

-

When it is snowing or raining hard I take my glasses off. This might sound reckless or scary, but the water droplets pool up on the lenses and leave me lacking visibility anyway. I find taking them off is more comfortable than the perpetual effort to wipe them down for clearance. And how far in front of my face do I really need to see when I'm running in the wee hours of the morning? I can see the light of an on coming car if I need to. Of course I want to make sure I don't die hitting a pot hole, but I think I can actually see better without my glasses in this scenario. 

The road's white line is there for a reason. I stick to it. Still keeping my head up.  Sometimes I'll turn my headlamp up an extra click to add a little light to the road ahead, but other times, there is enough light from the street lamps or snow reflections or moon I don't need to. It sounds crazy, but ditching my glasses creates a peculiar sensory freedom. I don't know that I'd leave my house without them, but it is sort of nice to live in an impressionist world every now and again. 


Popular posts from this blog

There are no shortcuts in running

-
Image
There are no short cuts in running. I can only make a measured amount of progress everyday. The only way to get better is in increments. There are apps for helping make progress, but there's no magic button to go from being able to run a 5k to a marathon. The process itself is straight forward and not necessarily hard to understand, but applying the process takes focus and stamina.  Once these are achieved, it's possible for the process to become at least a little easier because there is clarity about how things get done. The internal dialogue  moves from " if I run today" to " when I run today". This mental status is what endurance is built from.  And endurance builds upon itself. When I finished my first marathon, one of the most enlighten moments came when my brain thought "if you can do that, what else is possible?!" My body changed from a physical processes, but I realized my mindset changed just as much. This empowering mindset not only work...
Read more

Rest is part of the work

-
Image
I made a small change to my usual routine today. It is a rest day so instead of putting on my fitness watch, I put on my "just tell the time" watch. This doesn't seem like much, but throughout the day it reminded me this is a rest day and I should take it seriously. I know it will alter the every day metrics being recorded by the fitness watch, but that's ok. Does everything need to measured all the time? Apparently not because I have no idea what my "body battery" reading is this evening. I just know I feel sorta tired and should go to bed soon. I'm not sure my stress level, but I suspect it was a little elevated getting the kids off to bed. I didn't count my steps wheeling around the grocery store getting charcuterie materials for an exhibition opening tomorrow, but if I needed to guess, that would have been the highest concentration of steps in the day.  The deeper I go into the training cycle the more I will value the weekly rest day on Wednesday...
Read more

Happy New Year! 2024 By the Numbers

-
Image
We're in an age of running where there are so many things that can be measured, tracked, and scrutinized in a way much more easily easily than previous generations. Distances. Times. Paces. I won't pretend to be above all that and just run because I love running so much. I like the numbers too. So here are a few.  Distance:  2,179 miles (about the length of the Appalachian trail) Time: 300 hrs (I was 17mins off after my morning run. I took care of that this afternoon ) Elv. Gain  27,450 ft Races: I ran 5 races including 2 marathons and set PRs for the 5k, 10k, and Marathon distances Bayshore Marathon, Traverse City, MI 3:57:47 Vaulkslauf 10k, Frankenmuth, MI - 3rd in Age Division; 44:06 7 Bridges 7 Brews, Sault St. Marie, MI - 1st in Age, Masters Division Winner 20:32  Detroit Free Press Marathon, Detroit, MI  - 3:21:33 Gobbler Gallop 5k , Saginaw, MI-  20:10 Favorite Runs: Running on vacation was the best....Freeport, IL, HOLY HILL (literally and figurativ...
Read more