"Long Run"

The title for today's post (and Saturday's long run) could have been so many things. Both my body and my mind were sending so many contradictory signals. Just for my own ability to go back and keep track:

4 miles
53:55

I decided to run on campus today because I'm just bored of running through the neighborhood and needed something to shake it up. So, I parked the car on the far western side of campus and ran a mile east to the track. I started off WAY too fast - I mean, seriously way too fast. YOu know my avg. pace right now is somewhere b/w 10:30 and 11:30 minute/miles and I looked down at the Forerunner at one point and it said I was running at an 8:13 pace. This may have doomed me. I've never EVER liked running on tracks before, especially indoor ones, but today (Saturday) was better. AFter running the mile down to the track I ran the next two miles on the university's outdoor track, which was actually just what I needed. Quiet; somewhat isolated as there were only 2 other runners there; and I have to say that that surface was much cushier than asphalt! This is where the pain started though. My shins were unbelievably tight then they moved from tight to painful. After a while, I had almost no dorsiflexion left and I was just swinging my lower legs through their rotations. I had to stop (painful to admit) about 6 times maybe (maybe more) to stretch my shins out so I could continue. Anyway, did the 2 miles on the track then headed UP THE HILL for the last mile back to the car. According to the Forerunner, it was about a .4 mile hill which to be honest, actually helped to continue to stretch my shins out. Did the last mile and then went home and grabbed some ice. All the stuff that went through my head today:

Ok here we go
this feels pretty good
it's cold but this will be great later on
damn going way too fast, have to slow down
getting tight
ouch
damn that hurts
i suck
not a helpful thought
concentrate
have to stop again
did i plan for more training than I can accomplish at this point
discouraged
wow that lap went fast
doesn't hurt as much
ouch
have to stop again
discouraged
i will not be discouraged
it's not complicated, just one foot in front of the next
my shins are like cement blocks
i will not be discouraged
i did it
i might suck, i might be great, we'll see

Running in the snow

Alright - did what was on my training schedule tonight - 17 minute tempo run. The thing that made this run interesting was the snow - it was snowing like crazy for the first 10 minutes, then it turned into some kind of freakin' hail or sleet or some crap like that - like little salt pellets nailing me in the face. Not all that bad though and actually I was getting into the whole 'misery' aspect of it - cold weather, snow/sleet, dark streets, wrong shoes (left my running shoes at the gym at work), and that whole scene. I really had a good time which was a nice change for me - several of the last few runs have just been robotic - no emotion to them at all - this was a good time in that bizarre "I'm into pain" way. Little Eddie went with me and did great. He's training for his first 5k - he's run a couple of 1 mile fun runs but yet to do a 5k and he's into it. He did great and is going to be a fun training partner on these mid-week maintenance runs.

Holy Shins Batman!

OK - first let's get the stats out of the way.

3.1 miles
35:33
11:28 pace

There, now that's out of the way, I can say YEEEOOOOWWWWWWWW! Man my shins were burning tonight. I'm going to chalk it up to not really being "into it" lately and just running longer than I can without some initial pain. It's not bad - trust me - but enough to make me go straight for the ice (and beg for a massage from my massage therapist bride) the instant I got into the house!

So, I've been reading a lot of blogs over the last few weeks. Everyone seems so damn motivated - all pumped up after the new year, running with purpose and meaning...and me... I haven't really been into it at all. I want to be - I don't even feel the same as I used to when I was running every day, every other day whatever, and I want to feel that way again. Over the last 20 days since my last post, I'm lucky if I ran all of 3 or 4 times. But tonight something clicked. When I got home, (after all the begging of course) I took a look at the list of races I created near the end of December because I just couldn't get into the race that I had currently planned on running on 4/29th. It's right here in Kalamazoo and I just couldn't get up for it. Then I found the link I highlighted for the Bayshore Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10k and I found the "half" I've been looking for. So..... here we go. Now I have a target to aim at and a goal in front of me. Because I pretty much run alone, I'll need whoever is left that still reads this from the RBF to keep me honest and I'll do my best to both read and post as often as I can.

Oh yeah, I meant to post this a few weeks ago ....."..... and I recommend Prof. Roth for both tenure and promotion to Associate Professor". That's from the director of the school, so only two more rounds to go - the Dean and the Provost! See ya round gang!

Oh yeah part 2 - I'm part of the host committee for Super Bowl XL in Detroit in a few weeks - finished all of my training last weekend and am pumped about getting this party started!!

Dreams

I don't keep a "regular" hand-written journal and I wanted to make sure I wrote this down somewhere.

I saw a dream take place right in front of me last night. It almost moved me to tears but I was cheering inside too much to cry. This was particularly exciting for me as most of the dreams I had as a kid have already been exceeded or are well out of reach (too late for a 35 year old to play his rookie year in the NFL probably :)

Eddie was asking me all of these technical questions about making CDs ... "how many can you burn at one time, how much does it cost, can we do it ourselves or do we have to go to somewhere else..." After answering all of his technical questions, I asked him why he was asking and he said he wanted to "make a CD with 14 songs on it". I congratulated him on his ambition and he asked me if he would have to record it "brand new each time I want to make a new CD" to which I of course said, "no, once you record it the first time you can make as many copies as you want, and usually studios will only press a minimum of 500-1000 or if we do it ourselves we can make as many as we want". And there it was - this smile... pure, innocent, and inspired. He was overjoyed with the possibility of creating something that was all his and from his heart. He immediately went downstairs and got a pencil and paper and started writing - wow, now my eyes are... I probably just need some sleep. When I saw him smile I connected to this old part of me that felt that same thing when I was around his age - something I haven't felt in a long time - it was just so instant, joyful and innocent, childlike and .... real. Wow - what a moment.