Thor's Running Journal

Toward the end of my run today I passed by an apple tree laden with apples. A wild apple tree of sorts at the end of a neighborhood block. I run by this tree often, but usually in the dark. Its branches slightly cover the path and generally I need to duck around them. Today the beauty of the tree struck me in particular way. The pattern of the apples on the branches against the morning sky created an irregular rhythm, but a common repeating pattern. I've seen plenty of apple trees in my life, but for some reason, today, that apple tree appeared as if it were transplanted from another planet. I have no idea when I first saw an apple tree, likely as a young child, but seeing this tree today I had a sensation of wonderment not unlike a child full of marvel at the introduction of some object or piece of nature that is not yet common place in his or her experience.  Running provides space think thoughts.  The past three days have been incredible runs. Just the right temperature. Ju...

Knowing I didn't have any plans for the day, I went back to sleep after my body woke at 4am. I didn't have any kids to shuffle off to school or work to get to so if I started my run at 7am rather than 4 am no one would notice. In all likely hood the family would be sleeping when I got back.  This turned out to be a really good idea in more ways than one. Although the morning started nice and cool, as the sun came up, the temperature rose and I needed stay on pace.  This scenario is not unlike what seems to happen during my marathons. Things are cool at the start and then the sun comes up around mile 19-20 at which point I'm already running thin and my body doesn't seem to be able to tolerate even the slightest bit of heat. I wilt.  Having a mental marker of what it feels like to stay strong even in this warming situation is will be helpful come November. While most runs are temporarily memorable, some runs, like this one I tuck away to pull out later. I can think back t...

  When the weather was super hot a few weeks ago, I scored some new to me short shorts of the 2"-3" variety and running tank tops. It is a different feel and look than where I started at a few years ago, but I figure after two years I have the legs for it and to be honest they are pretty comfortable. I mean nobody is really paying too close attention at 4am in the morning so I can live by my mantra of "comfort over style". The fabric of these shorts is light and moves with me in a way that I never expected to be too picky about, but now that I've tried them the past little while, I'm not sure I'd go back to 5" shorts. I wasn't sure how it would work wearing a running belt (used for holding phone, id, and a little water flask), but so far so good.  On a more mundane level, this morning I finally got a decent marathon pace practice run in without any kinds of disasters. Under the stars Nice and cool. Felt great. Not effortless, but certainly pleas...

This week's 14 miler allowed for me to head up over the Saginaw river and do a bit of a jaunt through downtown Saginaw. It makes me feel a little more metropolitan when I run through the city. I can't extend too far beyond the bridge because I need to head home, but there is a small thrill in getting to see the reflection of lights on the water.  Easily entertained? Perhaps, but remember running is boring so it doesn't take too much. I dont really like to drive to a location to go for a run. I'll make exceptions every now and again, but for the most part I don't want to bother with the effort and time it takes to go through that rigamoroll. The disadvantage of this approach is I can only explore so far from home before I need to turn around and come back home.  The run itself felt good. A little bit of a mental effort around mile 10 or 11, but that's sort of to be expected. I think this is the first run over 13 since my half-marathon race back in April. I didn...

 It never ceases to amaze me the difference that an hour can make in the morning as the sun starts to come up. It goes from a hint of light to fullness in what seems like no time. This particular morning a layer of fog hung a bit over the more open areas I passed on my run adding to the aesthetic. It cooled significantly over the past couple days and I could feel it. The stifling heat of last week feels like something of a dream now. The cooling makes running more pleasant. I'm grateful for the seasons. All of them, but I think the middle space in the weather is easier to enjoy than either of the extremes.

A rose of sharon bush caught my eye at about mile 6 of 7 today. Huge and blooming. Filled with blossoms. Evenly spaced in a way that created a magical effect. Repeating over and over again. I took time to stop and smell the flowers.  My grandma had a rose of sharon bush in her front yard next to a rock that was just big enough to be interesting and stomp on to get a small lift off the ground. Not a climbing bolder, but a front yard feature. Who knows where it came from. On google maps it is still there, but the current owners moved the rock next to mailbox. The rose of sharon at her house bloomed with white flowers and deep magenta inners. Pretty boring run today.  I didn't mind especially after  yesterday's fiasco  it felt good to just relax a bit. Thursdays are generally more relaxed anyway, but this felt like a moment to demonstrate quiet resilience.  

I ate like a garbage truck yesterday. Turkey Ruben sandwich for lunch with a side of a doughnut and can of coke. Burger and beans with ramen noodle salad and another coke for dinner plus ice cream AND a cookie Even as I sipped the second coke socially at the party I had a sinking feeling the days diet would catch up to me. It did. At about 1:10am I woke up not feeling so great. After a bit of business I put my shoes on and headed out for my run thinking of the worse that could happen, but not overly concerned. Packing some toilet paper just in case. Good thing I packed it because at mile 3 when I pulled into Anonymous Party Store for a pit stop. I wanted patiently (not so patiently) for the lady who just pulled up to get her liquor and asked the attendant if I could use the bathroom. He said, sure and guided me to through the turn style door to a room with a toilet and a sink behind beyond the counter. Welp it turned out to be a good thing I packed that toilet paper because Anonymous P...

Rest day today after a rather long last couple of days. I still woke up at 2 am or something like that, but was finally able to get back to sleep after getting up and eating a snack. It works good to have a rest day today too because most of the kids started school. Plus it's raining. Work hard play hard. I'm much more comfortable with disruption to the training plan than last cycle. I'm still dedicated to the goal, I'm still packing in the miles, but I'm willing to compromise and adjust. I know the risk of compromising too much. That is called cutting corners. But having flexibility keeps the whole treading balance of life in order. The start of school by its nature means structure and that will be a counter weight to the risk of getting off course. It will also mean less just sitting in the driveway and sipping coffee after a run. Less margin and more calculated use of the time available.

 This morning I ran 1mile warm up, x7 @goal marathon pace, 1mile cool down To be honest, in the final analysis, I ran the "goal marathon pace" segment too fast, but it felt harder than easy, easier than speedwork, and settled and controlled. Even going faster I felt as though I held myself back a bit as I turned up and down the hot neighborhood streets at 3:45am. It was 68 degrees out. The last time I did this work out was February 14 and can you guess the temp? 16 degrees. That's right a 52 degree swing temperature. This time I ran 7:16/mi Last time I ran 7:18/mi It's sort of fun to look at these runs 6 months apart to see progress. It only looks like 2 seconds, but that difference doesn't factor in the heat which I am putting into my equation. There is an mantra popular in the modern running zeitgeist about how consistency matters. If nothing else, I feel like I've held onto that for the past 6 months as I chase down big goals.  One foot in front of the othe...

I got a call from the tour manager at 1:25am this morning saying the Uber canceled on him and the bus driver needed a ride back to the venue. This happened after I drifted off to sleep about an hour earlier. I didn't mind getting the call and indicated to the TM to give me a ring if this situation arose (and I expected it would). Even an hour worth of sleep helped put enough fuel in my tank for this final run. It felt like being woken up from sleep in the middle of the night a few weeks ago when I was sailing.  I drove to the hotel, picked up the bus driver, took him to the venue, and then back home. I went into sensory denervation mode where I lay very still with a special eye mask that contains speakers that I can play white noise through (airplane cabin sound is my personal favorite right now). Without difficulty I fell back asleep until my body natual woke up.  When I peeled off the eye mask I noticed some light so I knew it had to be after 6am. I cracked open an eye ...

  Long runs are strange. I'll feel OK and be cooking along for the first half, or even the first 3/4 and then things start to feel a touch more challenging. Not awful, but streach just a hair. It's almost as through it takes all those miles before hand just to get to the point of stress. Tapping out early and the whole run would have lost its effectiveness.Ok, maybe not the whole run, but the idea is that sometimes it takes doing something a long time to get to the most important part. It takes a lot of patience.

I woke up to fog this morning. I didn't check if there was an air advisory in effect from the wild fires in Canada. I rarely check the weather. I like suprises. "Is it  ____________ out? Welp. Looks like I'll be running today.  Frankly, running in the dark and in the fog is sorta fun. It makes all the lights glow a bit more. It also felt good to do marathon pace practice without hills. Sort of hard to believe it's already been a week since trying to do this workout in the hills...errr... mountains of West Virginia.