Rain, Laps and Week 2 Thoughts

Week two of training is in the books and I got about 21.5 miles covered. Daily schedules screwed things up so I was not able to, scratch that, did not follow the training program as strictly as I would like to (see, I'm taking responsibility for myself). Instead of doing 3,5,3,3,9, I did not run on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I did 7.5 miles on Thursday, did not run on Friday, so I did 6.8 miles on Saturday and since I already ran on Saturday, only got a little over 7 miles done on Sunday. Pace was okay (9:30 range), but I need to pick it up some.

Yesterday's run was fun, it started out misting a little bit, but after about 2 miles, I got hit by some isolated showers and got drenched. We have been having a "dry spell" and it was good to get some rain. It was nice, it was a reasonably warm rain and so I did not get too sweaty. There are two things I really enjoy doing when its raining, and both of them revolve around exercise. One is running, the rain helps to keep things cool and the other, introduced to me by a dear friend in Northern California, ...well, let's just say that it's nice to through the windows open and listen to the rain while "working out". Anyway, the rain helped me to get my best pace of the weekend (about 9:20) and there wasn't too much traffic on the streets since the Bears game was on. Saturday, I ran out in the Heartland, among the corn and soybean fields and it was nice to feel the solitude and listen to the cicadas and the tempo of my footstrike. Thursday was from downtown to campus in a big loop to try to keep down the monotony.

Which brings me to my next thought...LAPS. I believe that the only thing laps are good for are dances. The more the merrier. However, when running, especially distances, laps are bad; even with a band. The temptation to stop before being completely finished with a circuit is too great when you are trying to run 10 miles by doing 3-31/2 mile laps. That's what happened yesterday. I wanted to get the 3 laps done, but after I got done with two and with the ankle hurting a little, I said "screw it". When I am on a big loop, I can't stop in the middle because I still have to get back home and psychologically, that keeps me going. From now on, I am going to plan out longer loops so I don't end up with doing laps and that will take a decision point out of the mix.

Now I said something above about the ankle hurting and I guess my achille's heal is really my Achille's Heal in my training. For about the first half mile or so, it ends up killing me and then the pain just goes away until about a half hour after the run is over. Then, I can hardly walk. I think this stems from chasing a cat around my house and an injury I suffered about 3 years ago. I knew that chasing that "cat" around too much would end up causing me problems. Well, I will do some more calf raises, etc. to be sure that I can get more strength there.

Not much else to discuss today. Glad to see decorum and comity come back to Congress and Washington as a whole. Might say something about politics this week, too. When running, the mind can wander and you can really think about things. I can even convince myself that I have profound thoughts. But enough about dry spells, rain exercise, lap dances and chasing cats, I need to focus on something more positive; more attainable goals right now! I could still use a leg massage, though... This week is a reasonably easy week: 3,5,3,5,6. I'll be sure hit all of the days appropriately. Still lifting, too!