Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A note to the sun

Dear Sun,

I know that we're moving into November; however, I do have a request. Could you please stop pressing the snooze button? I know that over the summer it was really annoying when you were acting like a college student OD'ing on energy drinks and I suppose you had to sleep off that rush; however, this is a bit crazy.

This morning it was pitch black out at 6 am, so I waited. Last week you would be rousing yourself around 6:15 or so and I felt pretty good about going out and not fearing a car would mistake me for a speed bump. Today I waited. And I waited. Then I gave up and went out around 6:30 without you.

It was dark and it was weird running in a sort of haze of street lamps where it was more of a shadow time rather than dark or light. It wasn't until the electronic voice declared I was at the half-way point 20 minutes later that you suddenly jumped up and started to wake up for real.

I get it, we all have days we want to sleep in but this is a bit ridiculous don't you think?

So here's the deal, you need to find some way of getting your act together in the morning so we can go back out for our runs together. I kind of miss your company in the early parts of my run. When the alarm goes off tomorrow, try not hitting the snooze button and join me.

Trust me, you'll feel better.

Sincerely,

Me

PS Have a nice day.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

GO GO BLACK AND GOLD

Tonight is the Bruin's home opener - we all should rejoice.

I rejoiced by going for another good run this morning. I did 3 miles of 3 minute run/walk intervals winding up with a 5 minute run to end things. My legs feel good and strong and it was a nice way to break in the new pair of Thing 2 (my shoes are always Thing 1 and Thing 2).

For some reason I thought of Buddy this morning. Buddy the Beagle was the President for Life (and still is in spirit) of the Somerville Striders Athletic Club. I have heard us describes as drinkers with a running problem. I would say we keep our running in perspective and balance with our life.

As I was running this morning, I thought about Buddy. Perhaps it's because there were no dogs out this morning (a rarity around here), so I filled in the gap. Maybe it was the beauty of the morning. Maybe because it's Thursday and summer Thursdays are when I saw Buddy. Perhaps I was thinking I might be able to do Paulie's Thanksgiving Run. No matter what, today's run was a good one and Buddy was a good dog. Perhaps that's the connection. :)

So tonight I hope to hear lots and lots of happy goal music from the Garden and I'll raise a Guinness tonight in memory of Buddy. Next run on tap is a long one Sunday morning, let's see how it goes.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I just can't quit you...

On September 7th I went out and had an amazing run. The world felt good and then I got to work and it all went quickly south. That day I did something I had never done before, I punched out and left. I was fed up and the fat lady sang.

After the initial "what do I do now?" panic, a window opened for me and I barrel rolled through it. The local elementary school called, they needed a classroom aide, was I available? Why yes, yes I was. But it did catch me up in a whirlwind of everything that needed to get done as a result and running was the last thing on the agenda.

Don't get me wrong, I have active. I now commute to work on my bike and I'm in constant motion at school: walking up and down stairs, monitoring the playground, etc., but I had not been running. When the Tufts 10k was looming large, I asked my class: "Who thinks I should run 6 miles on Monday?" Almost everyone raised their hands.

I was done for! So I registered for the Tufts 10k with an ambitious goal of a 13 minute mile but figuring a 15 min mile of mostly walking. I did walk the race and had a 14:50 pace for a time of just over 1:32, but I realized running was not going silently into the dark night and this morning I got up, pulled on the running tights and my compression shirt and hit the streets.

The plan this week is 3 minute intervals (3 minutes running/3 minutes walking) sandwiched between a 5 min walking warm up and a 5 min walking cool down. So today's 40 minutes looked like this: w5+(r3/w3*4)+r5/w5 = 3 miles in 40 min.

It felt good to be out again in the dark as it lightened into day. It was never a struggle and my pace felt good. If it goes this well on Thursday, I'll push the interval to a 4 min run on Sunday. I have to say, it feels good to be back. :)