Guess who has two thumbs and didn't want to run this morning . . . we all know that joke right?
Well, you're right: it's this guy (and, yes, I am pointing at myself this moment with both thumbs (and, yes, I am that good at typing)).
Pro 1: My daughter forgot her lunch for preschool today -- another way to put that is to say, "I forgot to give my daughter her lunch for preschool today" -- so I decided to incorporate delivering the Hello Kitty lunch pail to the preschool. It's a couple of miles, which I used as part of my half hour warm up before I ran 3 (1 mile) repeats.
Pro 2: I might not have gone running this morning if I hadn't dedicated myself to this blog. One of the things that I find terribly important in running, writing, parenting, and several other things that I do is being honest with yourself. I knew this morning that if I didn't run in the morning, I could promise myself to run after my work day. But I knew, too, that I am helping my spouse make presents for our nieces and nephews this afternoon, so I would have had to put it off until after then, but we'd be eating dinner, so after then, but I will almost certainly have had a glass of wine before then, so maybe tomorrow. If it weren't for the blog, I might have put this all off until tomorrow. But I am very glad I didn't.
My times: 7:03, 7:02, 6:58. The last one, I think was a touch wind-aided, so I am very pleased with the consistency of the splits. I feel like I ran them pretty hard, but I feel like my split time should be faster by about thirty seconds each. My last 5K (my first race in nine years) I ran in 20:51. That's a 6:43 split. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I should be able to run three miles with a four minute jog between each faster than seven minutes.
Anyway:
Con 1: When I am running well, my stride is short, my arms are pumping, and my breathing is controlled, deep. When I'm not focused, that all goes to hell.
Even on my warm ups and cool downs and maintenance (bleh!) runs, I focus on filling my lungs and keeping my form smooth. But I found myself today, thinking: "What should I write for my blog entry? Should I talk about the weather? Should I broach politics? Should I mention a high school race I particularly remember? I kind of feel like I have to puke -- should I make a big deal out of that, and then suggest more time between breakfast and running? Things like that. That's not real running for me.
Running is not about finding zen for me -- I don't mean to imply that I didn't have a chance to reach nirvana because of this blog. What I do mean is that running, for me, is specifically about running. It's why I'm running for the middle -- I'm not running to beat anybody or to set any records or to lose weight. I run so that I can think about running, focus on my breathing, feel my footfalls on the world around me.
Today was less than perfect . . . but definitely still worthwhile.
Well, you're right: it's this guy (and, yes, I am pointing at myself this moment with both thumbs (and, yes, I am that good at typing)).
Pro 1: My daughter forgot her lunch for preschool today -- another way to put that is to say, "I forgot to give my daughter her lunch for preschool today" -- so I decided to incorporate delivering the Hello Kitty lunch pail to the preschool. It's a couple of miles, which I used as part of my half hour warm up before I ran 3 (1 mile) repeats.
Pro 2: I might not have gone running this morning if I hadn't dedicated myself to this blog. One of the things that I find terribly important in running, writing, parenting, and several other things that I do is being honest with yourself. I knew this morning that if I didn't run in the morning, I could promise myself to run after my work day. But I knew, too, that I am helping my spouse make presents for our nieces and nephews this afternoon, so I would have had to put it off until after then, but we'd be eating dinner, so after then, but I will almost certainly have had a glass of wine before then, so maybe tomorrow. If it weren't for the blog, I might have put this all off until tomorrow. But I am very glad I didn't.
My times: 7:03, 7:02, 6:58. The last one, I think was a touch wind-aided, so I am very pleased with the consistency of the splits. I feel like I ran them pretty hard, but I feel like my split time should be faster by about thirty seconds each. My last 5K (my first race in nine years) I ran in 20:51. That's a 6:43 split. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I should be able to run three miles with a four minute jog between each faster than seven minutes.
Anyway:
Con 1: When I am running well, my stride is short, my arms are pumping, and my breathing is controlled, deep. When I'm not focused, that all goes to hell.
Even on my warm ups and cool downs and maintenance (bleh!) runs, I focus on filling my lungs and keeping my form smooth. But I found myself today, thinking: "What should I write for my blog entry? Should I talk about the weather? Should I broach politics? Should I mention a high school race I particularly remember? I kind of feel like I have to puke -- should I make a big deal out of that, and then suggest more time between breakfast and running? Things like that. That's not real running for me.
Running is not about finding zen for me -- I don't mean to imply that I didn't have a chance to reach nirvana because of this blog. What I do mean is that running, for me, is specifically about running. It's why I'm running for the middle -- I'm not running to beat anybody or to set any records or to lose weight. I run so that I can think about running, focus on my breathing, feel my footfalls on the world around me.
Today was less than perfect . . . but definitely still worthwhile.
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