Four

At some point during the first week of this training cycle, I decided I would post something about running at least once a week, no matter how mundane it might be. And for a couple weeks, it was "weekly" on a Sunday night. Then last week it was on Monday... and it's Monday again for number four.

Bored yet?

Anyway, breaking from the format a bit, I didn't repeat the long out-and-back seaside run I mentioned last week. I ran for "square footage" instead. Something I haven't ever consciously done before, at least not in a single run. We were staying in Rhode Island in a small area whose perimeter I knew from an earlier run to be almost exactly a 5k. I had to do 12 miles, so I started off thinking I'd just do four laps around the place. Nobody knows why (probably because doing laps is kinda boring), but within half a mile I changed my mind and decided to cover as many roads as I could inside the loop as well. I did pretty good - missed a few roads, but went over several of them two or even three times. I'f I had put a little more planning into it up front, I probably would have covered all of them. It ended up turning into a rather long version of the Marshes - I found myself zig-zagging back and forth, running up and down many, many hills. I found a couple dead-ends as well. Just to spice things up a bit, here's a picture where you'd have to look real closely to identify all the roads I missed:

In other, perhaps more exciting news, I also booked our flights and hotel for November. That was kind of the last of the fundamental preparation steps. Now, I just have to run for a few more months and show up on race day. Simple.

In yet other, and quite less exciting news, I'm no longer running to the sound of surf. I was very surprised yesterday at how not-oppressive the heat felt on returning to Austin. And today, I was not surprised in the least to find that yesterday's run was but a mere illusion, pulled off by the sun, who had been using a couple cloud-shaped accomplices to hide the truth.

Sea Breeze

Week three, a little late... this time I actually am a bit closer to Philly. I overshot it by a few states though. I ran back that direction for seven miles along the coast on Saturday, which was fantastic. I don't know if it was the sea air or (slightly) cooler temperature, or just some new scenery, but that run was definitely the highlight of the week. I hope to repeat it again before heading back home. When I had to turn around, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a longer run, but then by the time I made it back it felt just about right.

The lowlight... Monday morning. I did get out and do my run early, but I seem to have been following the same formula as last summer, which is not a good one. It included a few mid-run walks and lots of sweat... mild digestive issues... lots of wondering if I'd be better off staying in bed. That sort of thing. But I slogged through it. They can't all be winners.

Next week (really, this week), maybe I'll repeat Saturday's run before I leave. It is nice to be on vacation.

Glorious

Week two is complete, and I'm several steps closer to Philly. Actually, I'm no closer at all, I am still sitting in the same spot I was this time last week. So I am not sure why I just wrote that. It was a good week, and I ran some miles (surprise!) Most of those miles were good ones.

The implied "goal" for this week was to remember how to plan out my time better, and get all the runs in. I am not sure I am any better at planning my time, but I did manage to fit everything in. I'll mark that as a win for now. For the coming week, the goal is to start the habit of getting my Monday medium-long run in early in the morning. I won't be able to do that run during lunch once the miles get longer. That probably means I should get to bed instead of spending much more time on this. We'll see how that pans out.

Lowlight of the week: Noticing RubbleTex for the first time. I am not always that observant, so it may have been that way for weeks. I was kind of sad to see the whole thing torn down. Especially the barn. I have some pretty vivid and fond memories of huddling in that barn with my teammates to stay warm and sane before a certain race in February, 2007.

Highlight of the week: The (glorious) rain! Monday and Wednesday I got to run in the (glorious) rain. It was a welcome break from the alternative. Yeah, it made things a little muggy on the other days, but this time of year, rain is just so... what's a stronger word for "great"? Wonderful? Awesome? Neat-o? No.. different, like... with angels or something. Heavenly? Hang on... it'll come to me...

Song of the week: Singin' in the Rain? I am just now realizing there aren't all that many options for "happy" songs about rain.

Beginning

Welcome to my new digs! I have yet to spruce the place up, but I decided this was the appropriate time to finally hop over to Blogger to put forth my ramblings on running (or is that my running-on ramblings?)*

The time is right because it's a new beginning. Week one of (official) Philly training is done! It was a decent week, with its ups and downs. More than anything, it feels good to be out running with a bit of focus again.

Lowlight of the week: Missing my Thursday run. I am completely not used to the advance planning required to fit in six runs a week. I knew how to do it last summer. I vow to re-learn that skill this week. I've been winging it for too long.

Highlight of the week: Saturday's 12-mile joint therapy session with Jordan. She vented for a couple miles, I vented for a couple miles, we did that a couple more times, and before we knew it the run was done.

Song of the week (just 'cause the week feels like it needs a song): Wordless Chorus.

*I got tired of having to delete the weekly foreign language spam-bot comments that kept appearing on my old running blog. I never have to do that on the kidblog, which resides here in Google-land. Plus, I got tired of being frustrated with their posting interface every time I wanted to cut and paste some text. This has been going on for a couple years. I just finally decided it was time to cut the cord. All the old stuff will still be where it is (over at Livejournal) - probably I will migrate some of the interesting ones over here in time, if I can figure out how to use the Python script I found lying around in a dusty corner of the web.