Mon
Treasure
We discovered a treasure trove today and capitalized this evening. Knowing what was there, it was still funny covering the half mile from our place to the “x on the map”. Pure amazingness! More riches than we can take in today or tomorrow or even this month. The trails at Blue Hills are runner’s gold.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
9/25/11
Sun
Déjà vu
Have I been here before? Well of course yes! You have run this course many times chirps my brain. Yet there is something more to this repeat, something really different. Not like I have run this run before but like I have run this stride before; this moment of time has already happened. Déjà vu is eerie and awe filled when it happens anytime, but this is emphasized when it happens while running.
Déjà vu
Have I been here before? Well of course yes! You have run this course many times chirps my brain. Yet there is something more to this repeat, something really different. Not like I have run this run before but like I have run this stride before; this moment of time has already happened. Déjà vu is eerie and awe filled when it happens anytime, but this is emphasized when it happens while running.
9/24/11
Sat 24
What will be, will be, how well, we’ll see
Five years he hadn’t been at the track. Stepping on it looking as if he just realized he accidentally ran into someone he did not want to see, clear as day the awkwardness painted his face. How little does he know! Almost everything he associated with training is going to change. Yes, he will have to bring it but the constant training to just race well is done. He will accomplish much and will reap the benefits of being healthy. There is no guarantee to how well he will do, but as long as he provides the commitment and no X factor outside the range of training intercedes, then he is going to be more then just fine. Colin may even be really fucking great!
What will be, will be, how well, we’ll see
Five years he hadn’t been at the track. Stepping on it looking as if he just realized he accidentally ran into someone he did not want to see, clear as day the awkwardness painted his face. How little does he know! Almost everything he associated with training is going to change. Yes, he will have to bring it but the constant training to just race well is done. He will accomplish much and will reap the benefits of being healthy. There is no guarantee to how well he will do, but as long as he provides the commitment and no X factor outside the range of training intercedes, then he is going to be more then just fine. Colin may even be really fucking great!
9/23/11
Fri
Track Talks
“End each workout feeling you could do another repeat” – Ryan Hall speaking about a particularly salient piece of advice from his Coach at Stanford
Track Talks
“End each workout feeling you could do another repeat” – Ryan Hall speaking about a particularly salient piece of advice from his Coach at Stanford
9/22/11
Thursday
A terrific trio
Driving to Colins with a quick thought that it is the second time we have run together and the first time he has with Jen. We arrive for a run after earlier getting home from work in the dark but still eager to get in a stroll. He takes us out on roads that are familiar to him but still new to us. He lives only a mile from us, but we didn’t run there as per our low mileage training plan. It is nice to get out on the roads with him, old teammate just leads and we follow.
A terrific trio
Driving to Colins with a quick thought that it is the second time we have run together and the first time he has with Jen. We arrive for a run after earlier getting home from work in the dark but still eager to get in a stroll. He takes us out on roads that are familiar to him but still new to us. He lives only a mile from us, but we didn’t run there as per our low mileage training plan. It is nice to get out on the roads with him, old teammate just leads and we follow.
9/21/11
Wed
The Critical Zone
Racing and running hard demand a certain set of thoughts. A certain conscious course of action and neural firing happens in our mind when it demands our body to move fast and hard. It is loudest in what is known as the critical zone. The critical zone is the last 25% of the race. In the cacophony that hammers away at our minds, like a child of eight free on a piano with a bagful of Halloween candy, there comes an almost eerie trail of thoughts. The world screaming at you and the funniest thoughts pop up. Snippits of bizarre songs, punch lines to jokes and frail memories hardly held are just a few I have experienced. It’s funny, when our bodies are doing something so graceful, and for even a “novice” runner there is grace in the all out effort of racing, we have a sort of auto tune of humor. Maybe that is microcosm of life, try your best so grace will come from what you do and there will always be humor in your life.
The Critical Zone
Racing and running hard demand a certain set of thoughts. A certain conscious course of action and neural firing happens in our mind when it demands our body to move fast and hard. It is loudest in what is known as the critical zone. The critical zone is the last 25% of the race. In the cacophony that hammers away at our minds, like a child of eight free on a piano with a bagful of Halloween candy, there comes an almost eerie trail of thoughts. The world screaming at you and the funniest thoughts pop up. Snippits of bizarre songs, punch lines to jokes and frail memories hardly held are just a few I have experienced. It’s funny, when our bodies are doing something so graceful, and for even a “novice” runner there is grace in the all out effort of racing, we have a sort of auto tune of humor. Maybe that is microcosm of life, try your best so grace will come from what you do and there will always be humor in your life.
9/20/11
Tuesday
“…then don’t fix it”
So we have been experimenting with taking a ten or eleven day cycle and going sprint day, two days easy, sprint day, three days easy, tempo day, three days easy and then repeat. The cycles alternate with a tempo block run and the next cycle has cruise intervals, tempo paced bouts of three to fifteen minutes with about one minute rest for each five minutes just run. This has been our third or fourth cycle and it has been going really well.
On the sprint days, it is really just intuitive belief that drives our feeling of accomplishment. But with the tempo runs, the hallmark workout to measure endurance, we have been seeing a good return on the training effect. These gains in fitness have been met with mild surprise due to our twenty minute jaunts or days off in between track days. The long work days and traveling rigors of the last eight weeks has been part of the reason we have chosen to train this way. That and the part of the year it is, spring track is a ways off and winter is still well in the distance. However, as things start to relax, I am reminded “if it ain’t broke…”
“…then don’t fix it”
So we have been experimenting with taking a ten or eleven day cycle and going sprint day, two days easy, sprint day, three days easy, tempo day, three days easy and then repeat. The cycles alternate with a tempo block run and the next cycle has cruise intervals, tempo paced bouts of three to fifteen minutes with about one minute rest for each five minutes just run. This has been our third or fourth cycle and it has been going really well.
On the sprint days, it is really just intuitive belief that drives our feeling of accomplishment. But with the tempo runs, the hallmark workout to measure endurance, we have been seeing a good return on the training effect. These gains in fitness have been met with mild surprise due to our twenty minute jaunts or days off in between track days. The long work days and traveling rigors of the last eight weeks has been part of the reason we have chosen to train this way. That and the part of the year it is, spring track is a ways off and winter is still well in the distance. However, as things start to relax, I am reminded “if it ain’t broke…”
9/19/11
Mon
One small step for
After a very long day, that came after a weekend encased in 500miles of driving, a run was done. This run did not have some spectacular effort put into a bout, but some spectacular effort went into just getting out the door. A kind of reminder that the easy days aren’t always easy and that greatness is made out of some big things and a lot of little things.
One small step for
After a very long day, that came after a weekend encased in 500miles of driving, a run was done. This run did not have some spectacular effort put into a bout, but some spectacular effort went into just getting out the door. A kind of reminder that the easy days aren’t always easy and that greatness is made out of some big things and a lot of little things.
9/18/11
Sun
To Make a Diamond
I think Jack Daniels said, “A great coach is just a good coach and a great athlete getting along well.”
There is so much truth in that statement and a backwards glance at luck. Not that there aren’t more knowledgeable coaches than others, it is just that after a time coaches figure a lot of the stuff out. I can honestly say, as far as my training theory goes, around 75% of what I do now will never really change. Where as the 25% or so that does change will serve to make me a much better coach. What will change will be nuanced and cannot be gleaned from a book. It is the compounding of experience, under scrutinizing pressure and over a length of time.
To Make a Diamond
I think Jack Daniels said, “A great coach is just a good coach and a great athlete getting along well.”
There is so much truth in that statement and a backwards glance at luck. Not that there aren’t more knowledgeable coaches than others, it is just that after a time coaches figure a lot of the stuff out. I can honestly say, as far as my training theory goes, around 75% of what I do now will never really change. Where as the 25% or so that does change will serve to make me a much better coach. What will change will be nuanced and cannot be gleaned from a book. It is the compounding of experience, under scrutinizing pressure and over a length of time.
9/17/11
Sat
on the ol’ dusty road
A run is a journey. Traveling distances through streets, over streams, down paths glistening from emerald pockets of fresh fern growth with gnarly roots bursting then burying themselves in shady earth. A run can take you places and sometimes these are places untouched by steps.
A journey inside, that of a wandering mind feeling free to abstain from overly preoccupied callings and somehow unburdened by the constant motion which has a low constant level of alertness but with no real hard acts of focus. It can be an inner moment of true escape into relaxation or an effort of utmost grit accompanied with the knowledge of one’s ability. There is so much to running that is just a pure gift. A chance to really open up.
on the ol’ dusty road
A run is a journey. Traveling distances through streets, over streams, down paths glistening from emerald pockets of fresh fern growth with gnarly roots bursting then burying themselves in shady earth. A run can take you places and sometimes these are places untouched by steps.
A journey inside, that of a wandering mind feeling free to abstain from overly preoccupied callings and somehow unburdened by the constant motion which has a low constant level of alertness but with no real hard acts of focus. It can be an inner moment of true escape into relaxation or an effort of utmost grit accompanied with the knowledge of one’s ability. There is so much to running that is just a pure gift. A chance to really open up.
9/16/11
Friday
We have a mattress in the living room covered with a dog blanket so the girls can hang out on it and so that we can too. A comfy place where the family gathers to just “hang”; an activity that is best done lying on the same level.
Today started with about two hours of driving. From our home, then to the shop and next to Rhode Island with a return trip many hours later. A sandwich trip filled with working all day in the country side of New England. The sun is not too hot with plenty of shade. Shade that couldn’t stop the person's home from bearing heat as we were relocating their house hold goods.
This was a large dwelling with plenty of stairs often climbed carrying items, objects, furniture and focus all over this small castle. Tonight, a few pints at the Sly Fox pub around the corner, and we are laying on the living room mattress with our dogs, still dressed and falling fast asleep one happy family. Maybe not a real run but a breadth of distance was covered anyway.
We have a mattress in the living room covered with a dog blanket so the girls can hang out on it and so that we can too. A comfy place where the family gathers to just “hang”; an activity that is best done lying on the same level.
Today started with about two hours of driving. From our home, then to the shop and next to Rhode Island with a return trip many hours later. A sandwich trip filled with working all day in the country side of New England. The sun is not too hot with plenty of shade. Shade that couldn’t stop the person's home from bearing heat as we were relocating their house hold goods.
This was a large dwelling with plenty of stairs often climbed carrying items, objects, furniture and focus all over this small castle. Tonight, a few pints at the Sly Fox pub around the corner, and we are laying on the living room mattress with our dogs, still dressed and falling fast asleep one happy family. Maybe not a real run but a breadth of distance was covered anyway.
9/15/11
Thursday
Track Talk
“There are plenty of coaches who don’t know anything about running except how to put one foot after the other and both in their mouth.”
-Jen Dagan
Track Talk
“There are plenty of coaches who don’t know anything about running except how to put one foot after the other and both in their mouth.”
-Jen Dagan
9/14/11
wed
A new race
Found out about Colin’s race next year. Colin is a college teammate and friend of ours who recently became our employer. He has been challenged to break 18minutes in a fairly flat 5k road race. If he does, about ten thousand dollars will be donated to breast cancer research. The race is in about a year and we are all excited as if it was in about a week. Sometimes it is the anticipation that gets you all worked up, like a kid on Christmas eve and other times it is finding out about months of preparation that has you going full tilt, like a woman who finds out she is pregnant.
A new race
Found out about Colin’s race next year. Colin is a college teammate and friend of ours who recently became our employer. He has been challenged to break 18minutes in a fairly flat 5k road race. If he does, about ten thousand dollars will be donated to breast cancer research. The race is in about a year and we are all excited as if it was in about a week. Sometimes it is the anticipation that gets you all worked up, like a kid on Christmas eve and other times it is finding out about months of preparation that has you going full tilt, like a woman who finds out she is pregnant.
9/13/11
Tues
“when all it does is slow me down”
Today would be the fifth day since we last ran hard and that would be irritating. Instead of risking it, we do a workout at Walpole High School. It’s only a mile or two out of our way home from work, and Jen had been able to pop home earlier this evening to let the girls outside on a much deserved bathroom opportunity. Even though we haven’t found a track closer to home, the goal of the last two days, today we are able to accomplish the goal of today. Four sprints of about 55yards for Jen and 60yards for me with about four to five minutes rest in between. Each sprint is done from a flying start hit at pretty much top speed. We use a hurdle to mark out where the 25 yard hash mark on the Football field is and then run to the start of the two mile for Jen and myself to the start of the Mile. Its fun and not really different than our last few sprint workouts. There is, for me, a change, the uncomfortable company of another runner at the track.
I see them out of the corner of my eye. They never run towards me except when I am blistering down the track at full sprint. Not really able to take a good look, as they disappear in a streak if I take my eyes off the true focus of sprinting all out which is, for me, an imaginary dot just above eye level that is past the finish line. Sprinting, especially when moving at top speed as opposed to accelerating, is a sort of engaged effort where you have to use your peripherals’ in order to see things right in front of you and so I never get a good look at this pesky ambler.
At all other times this awkward pest manages to be doing something on the other side of the track. But I know who it is; it’s my own sort of “ghost of Christmas past” a “ghost of last couple of days”. The ghost is haunting me with the admitted and annoying fact that we still don’t know where to go for a closer to home workout. At best we have some local guesses and one Track at a High School a couple exits down 93, but we want something closer for a long term go to place and this ghost knows it, and so reminds me of it just by being around.
There is nothing I can do about this workout partner. I bring them with me by my knowledge that I don’t know of a Quincy track even after searching for two days. Today they are here, bringing up the workouts shifted and the time not lost, or even wasted because we learned more of the city getting turned around, but taken from us when we are in a time of busy work, moving and buying a car. But then with a tap on my shoulder it’s my good friend “ghost of running future”.
He says, “Don’t mind that other ghost, you guys love the track so much you will find your way back and make it work somehow.” He is a calming presence who sort of rewrites the pesky awkward “ghost of last couple of days” interactions over the last few minutes with a new vibe of shyness and anxiety. Seeing “ghost of last couple of days” in a new light, I remind myself that “ghost of future running” is also part “ghost of future self”.
“when all it does is slow me down”
Today would be the fifth day since we last ran hard and that would be irritating. Instead of risking it, we do a workout at Walpole High School. It’s only a mile or two out of our way home from work, and Jen had been able to pop home earlier this evening to let the girls outside on a much deserved bathroom opportunity. Even though we haven’t found a track closer to home, the goal of the last two days, today we are able to accomplish the goal of today. Four sprints of about 55yards for Jen and 60yards for me with about four to five minutes rest in between. Each sprint is done from a flying start hit at pretty much top speed. We use a hurdle to mark out where the 25 yard hash mark on the Football field is and then run to the start of the two mile for Jen and myself to the start of the Mile. Its fun and not really different than our last few sprint workouts. There is, for me, a change, the uncomfortable company of another runner at the track.
I see them out of the corner of my eye. They never run towards me except when I am blistering down the track at full sprint. Not really able to take a good look, as they disappear in a streak if I take my eyes off the true focus of sprinting all out which is, for me, an imaginary dot just above eye level that is past the finish line. Sprinting, especially when moving at top speed as opposed to accelerating, is a sort of engaged effort where you have to use your peripherals’ in order to see things right in front of you and so I never get a good look at this pesky ambler.
At all other times this awkward pest manages to be doing something on the other side of the track. But I know who it is; it’s my own sort of “ghost of Christmas past” a “ghost of last couple of days”. The ghost is haunting me with the admitted and annoying fact that we still don’t know where to go for a closer to home workout. At best we have some local guesses and one Track at a High School a couple exits down 93, but we want something closer for a long term go to place and this ghost knows it, and so reminds me of it just by being around.
There is nothing I can do about this workout partner. I bring them with me by my knowledge that I don’t know of a Quincy track even after searching for two days. Today they are here, bringing up the workouts shifted and the time not lost, or even wasted because we learned more of the city getting turned around, but taken from us when we are in a time of busy work, moving and buying a car. But then with a tap on my shoulder it’s my good friend “ghost of running future”.
He says, “Don’t mind that other ghost, you guys love the track so much you will find your way back and make it work somehow.” He is a calming presence who sort of rewrites the pesky awkward “ghost of last couple of days” interactions over the last few minutes with a new vibe of shyness and anxiety. Seeing “ghost of last couple of days” in a new light, I remind myself that “ghost of future running” is also part “ghost of future self”.
9/12/11
Mon
“Is it a sure fire way to speed things up”
No track, again. MapQuesting High Schools that did not end up owning the elusive 400meters of stripped patience; stretched elliptical shapes made flat on the sides, with curved ends akin to the outline of a giant capsule. Hunting for something not found, disappointed us yesterday and we did not do a run at all. This time, unlike Sunday’s frustrating run, an almost insatiable emotion enters us. As if we are being tested on whether or not we really want to run. We get home and determination is made as we are out the door.
Tomorrow we are getting to a track and will do the right workout rather than some road workout that just isn’t the same return for what we are really trying to accomplish. Tomorrow we will be more rested than ever. As we firing out the door for an easy 20 or so minutes, a lot of the bottled up bitterness over not being able to get what we wanted, a track workout yesterday and then again today, disappear in a puff of passion changed to a set path of a plan. Tomorrow we sprint!
“Is it a sure fire way to speed things up”
No track, again. MapQuesting High Schools that did not end up owning the elusive 400meters of stripped patience; stretched elliptical shapes made flat on the sides, with curved ends akin to the outline of a giant capsule. Hunting for something not found, disappointed us yesterday and we did not do a run at all. This time, unlike Sunday’s frustrating run, an almost insatiable emotion enters us. As if we are being tested on whether or not we really want to run. We get home and determination is made as we are out the door.
Tomorrow we are getting to a track and will do the right workout rather than some road workout that just isn’t the same return for what we are really trying to accomplish. Tomorrow we will be more rested than ever. As we firing out the door for an easy 20 or so minutes, a lot of the bottled up bitterness over not being able to get what we wanted, a track workout yesterday and then again today, disappear in a puff of passion changed to a set path of a plan. Tomorrow we sprint!
9/11/11
Sun
“why you wanna give me a run around”
Running my brother’s truck all over town looking for a track that is never found and in some ways that fact is sort of felt the whole time. Down streets or avenues never seen before with unrecognizable buildings looking at our fool’s errand with what is personified disdain brought forth out of the true feeling fingering the back of our necks with the uncomfortable suggestion, “Are you sure you should be going this way?”. Eventually we do get to the elusive High School.
Greeting us is heavy machinery, construction paused for a day of rest but underway in the manner of a chess game over halfway done but with participants not there. These pieces are part of building a track. Great news for the future, but right now it breaks over us in a sort of betrayal of expectations. The time and effort of the search has taken its toll on the riders even though the car is doing all the running around town. In fact we get so tired from running around, searching for something that was never found, and we do not do a real run.
“why you wanna give me a run around”
Running my brother’s truck all over town looking for a track that is never found and in some ways that fact is sort of felt the whole time. Down streets or avenues never seen before with unrecognizable buildings looking at our fool’s errand with what is personified disdain brought forth out of the true feeling fingering the back of our necks with the uncomfortable suggestion, “Are you sure you should be going this way?”. Eventually we do get to the elusive High School.
Greeting us is heavy machinery, construction paused for a day of rest but underway in the manner of a chess game over halfway done but with participants not there. These pieces are part of building a track. Great news for the future, but right now it breaks over us in a sort of betrayal of expectations. The time and effort of the search has taken its toll on the riders even though the car is doing all the running around town. In fact we get so tired from running around, searching for something that was never found, and we do not do a real run.
9/10/11
Sat
Inner compass
Jen likes to trust finding her way but I don’t. I always have this nagging feeling which is a sort of stale fart that I can’t shake and it ruins the entire run with a gross undercurrent; you might get lost. She teases me without even saying anything, just by her sure confidence in finding her way and of course she always does. It reminds me to relax a bit and follow her lead.
Inner compass
Jen likes to trust finding her way but I don’t. I always have this nagging feeling which is a sort of stale fart that I can’t shake and it ruins the entire run with a gross undercurrent; you might get lost. She teases me without even saying anything, just by her sure confidence in finding her way and of course she always does. It reminds me to relax a bit and follow her lead.
9/8/11
Tried tempo and true
Up at 5am and out the door. Weaving through the streets of Boston in a 16foot pack truck to drop off a couple of deliveries brings a tired couple to Walpole’s Track. A short tempo workout of five minute on and one minute off is covered four times for myself and five for Jen. I went a tad too quick averaging 5:18 and Jen ran solid sub 6:00 to 6:05. We quit while ahead but still felt spent from the day.
Up at 5am and out the door. Weaving through the streets of Boston in a 16foot pack truck to drop off a couple of deliveries brings a tired couple to Walpole’s Track. A short tempo workout of five minute on and one minute off is covered four times for myself and five for Jen. I went a tad too quick averaging 5:18 and Jen ran solid sub 6:00 to 6:05. We quit while ahead but still felt spent from the day.
9/7/11
First run in Quincy
It is a day of work, moving a man into one of the lavish brownstone apartments placed in a posh section of Boston. Rain still standing watch, at two days deep now and it is an inaugural run in Quincy. Wandering this way and that, seeking refuge in the peaceful routes inside a Cemetery, then heading home and another day’s run is done. The fact that it is a first time, a moment of chance entered into what route was covered. A pulling of this and that; perhaps the end-choice comes from within, so it is personified in the roads, structures, plants and signs that call us this way and that.
This is akin to a night on the town. The sounds, taxies, lights, bars and people, speak from the city. They are part of what is a place, its very character, its very essence. This run today, was akin to the very first night on a town, an initial brief chat. Somewhat sad, drooped in rain, it was uplifting to see the potential.
It is a day of work, moving a man into one of the lavish brownstone apartments placed in a posh section of Boston. Rain still standing watch, at two days deep now and it is an inaugural run in Quincy. Wandering this way and that, seeking refuge in the peaceful routes inside a Cemetery, then heading home and another day’s run is done. The fact that it is a first time, a moment of chance entered into what route was covered. A pulling of this and that; perhaps the end-choice comes from within, so it is personified in the roads, structures, plants and signs that call us this way and that.
This is akin to a night on the town. The sounds, taxies, lights, bars and people, speak from the city. They are part of what is a place, its very character, its very essence. This run today, was akin to the very first night on a town, an initial brief chat. Somewhat sad, drooped in rain, it was uplifting to see the potential.
9/6/11
Another Day
A long day, wet for a while. Over eight hours of actual unloading, assembling, carrying and holding. A day of work that was difficult at times but not hard. In some ways a fun day; our brother moved to Boston, we worked together and there was pizza. No run per say, but the day was full of running our minds, working bodies and stomachs in unison and that was good.
A long day, wet for a while. Over eight hours of actual unloading, assembling, carrying and holding. A day of work that was difficult at times but not hard. In some ways a fun day; our brother moved to Boston, we worked together and there was pizza. No run per say, but the day was full of running our minds, working bodies and stomachs in unison and that was good.
A One Track Love Song
9/5/11
Back at the track, labor-day weekend rest fully seeped in; feeding hungry legs. Legs craving the workout stretching out before their warm-up leads them to cry in chorus “Come to me stretch of track, lined and curved in places.
We will devour more than a snack, and eat all your tastiness.
Let us own you for this while and you will own us two.
Now sing us a song in style as we come to you!”
And so the track’s lanes, lines and love replies
“You may have this moment, but you must be true.
If you want to own us then of course we own you too.
Tire not of our patience, for we are always there.
Learn to never hate us, and this time we can always share.”
Back at the track, labor-day weekend rest fully seeped in; feeding hungry legs. Legs craving the workout stretching out before their warm-up leads them to cry in chorus “Come to me stretch of track, lined and curved in places.
We will devour more than a snack, and eat all your tastiness.
Let us own you for this while and you will own us two.
Now sing us a song in style as we come to you!”
And so the track’s lanes, lines and love replies
“You may have this moment, but you must be true.
If you want to own us then of course we own you too.
Tire not of our patience, for we are always there.
Learn to never hate us, and this time we can always share.”
Home Sweet Home
9/4/11
Moved in! At last, we have spent the night at our new residence. Awaking on Sunday morning; the first day of the week and the first day our heads lift off of the bed recently laid down; long lost slumber mate hidden away in storage for a month. We are home in Quincy, a southern neighbor of Boston.
Moved in! At last, we have spent the night at our new residence. Awaking on Sunday morning; the first day of the week and the first day our heads lift off of the bed recently laid down; long lost slumber mate hidden away in storage for a month. We are home in Quincy, a southern neighbor of Boston.
Fun in the Sun
9/3/11
Sprinting again and this time a lasting smile of the true heat of summer kisses down on the track in overflowing sun rays. Truth pours out of bodies ripping along 50-60meter sprints. In the five minutes between the four sprints there is a gathering of energy, focus and coordination. Swimming strongly through air the sun’s kiss feels like it is rippling around them. It is fun.
Sprinting again and this time a lasting smile of the true heat of summer kisses down on the track in overflowing sun rays. Truth pours out of bodies ripping along 50-60meter sprints. In the five minutes between the four sprints there is a gathering of energy, focus and coordination. Swimming strongly through air the sun’s kiss feels like it is rippling around them. It is fun.
Watering-Hole Walk
9/2/11
A walk is not a run. Not a run but you cover distance with your feet. We walked, walked for a while but did not run. A walk of fun, but with the purpose of arriving two miles away at a bar. Tired and sore from a hard few weeks of work, not run attempted that day would have been nearly as good for us.
A walk is not a run. Not a run but you cover distance with your feet. We walked, walked for a while but did not run. A walk of fun, but with the purpose of arriving two miles away at a bar. Tired and sore from a hard few weeks of work, not run attempted that day would have been nearly as good for us.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Please be patient
sorry for those who read this blog! We are still waiting to get internet at our new place, I have the blogs for each day typed, but cannot post until we get the net hooked up. I am doing this one from a computer at work and is just an update for my loyal readers. Please expect a massive backlog posting in the next few days!!!!! :)
Friday, September 2, 2011
the truth is in the jest
The street leading towards Gillette Stadium is crowded with people wearing Jerseys walking towards parked cars that are stashed at various places. The preseason game of Patriots vs. Giants is only half done but the spectators who take for granted their opportunity to watch such great athletes are leaving. Jen and I wrapped up another twelve plus hour day and are striking along towards the stadium, street lights guiding the way. At some point a man leaving the game says, "Great night for a run". I think he was being a wise ass, but I couldn't help but agree.
Hump Day
Midweek and already we sit at almost 40 hours. The craziness of work will dwindle in another ten days, but today the mantra of an AA member creeps into mind, "one day at a time". Working about 14 hours today, and no day off yet this week, we ease through the grind with a smooth pill of rest. Oh how easy it is to swallow a day off when you have been running ragged doing other things!
spin cycle
Working another twelve hours, then punching out, the run sits on our mind. Not an obligation, nor a duty but a desire to do what is right for the future. Heading to the laundromat the day's work does not cease. A quick O.K. is given from the attendant because it is past the last load time. Hurriedly throwing dirty articles in the washer, out the door and off we go. The run finishes as the clothing is spinning dry. While the clothing and run is done, there is the odd sensation that we are now the items twirling, fast and free as a top on Christmas morning.
The Tree & the Bush
Last week's 60hours of work is still in us as we finish our Monday with a twelve hour day. Mustering courage to arrive at the track at just past 8pm, the sun's light gone for the day. Going through the motions of a warm up, both knowing that the right thing is to do the workout.
The idea is consistency. If we put the workout off until tomorrow we will just be more tired then. However, the thirty to forty minute hard run is truncated to a 5k. An easier tempo workout than anything from the last few weeks.
The tree is strong but does not bend and when a mighty wind blows, it can crack and break. The bush flows with the wind and bends to any will, even a slight breeze. We like to think we are somewhere in between, a happy medium.
The idea is consistency. If we put the workout off until tomorrow we will just be more tired then. However, the thirty to forty minute hard run is truncated to a 5k. An easier tempo workout than anything from the last few weeks.
The tree is strong but does not bend and when a mighty wind blows, it can crack and break. The bush flows with the wind and bends to any will, even a slight breeze. We like to think we are somewhere in between, a happy medium.
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