Week So Far

 Here's how the week has gone so far -

Monday - When I woke up, my back was sore in one spot.  I've had this before.  It usually goes away.  I decided I'd try and go to the Y and lift some weights, taking the day off from running.  I warmed up on the bike once I got there, did one set of lat pull-downs and quickly realized it was not going to work very well, so I headed home.

That night, after work, I headed to boot camp and was feeling much better by then.  The naproxen, and then another dose of Advil while at work helped and it was back to somewhat normal.  We did about a mile of running during class, doing "Indian drills" where you run in a line and the last person in the line sprints to the front of the line.  It was a lot of fun.  This was the first class where it was completely dark at the start.

Tuesday - ran a  "new" route (9.5 miles, 8:29 pace), from my house to the Y and back.  Actually not really new, but it had been so long since I did this run it felt like new.  My back was pretty much back to normal and it was a nice morning out for a run.  When I got home I thought to myself "Happy to be alive" today.

Wednesday -(6.48 miles, 8:26 pace) - I was surprised when Jenny said she was going to run with Kathryn for a few slow miles.  I was going to start out with them and run maybe a mile or so since I often start out my runs pretty slow and it doesn't bother me.  We headed towards Kathryn's house and Jenny quickly realized it wasn't going to work out.  I ran towards Kathryn's house, saw her, then we headed back towards Jenny.  I said goodbye then kept on going by myself.

After the run, I did a few weights around the house including some weighted pull-ups with a 25 lb. dumbbell.  I also tried one rep with Thomas hanging from my back.  I almost made it but not quite.

I downloaded and then watched a live version of this song I had heard and thought was really great called "Keeping Warm" by We Were Promised Jetpacks, it's a pretty powerful song, but it is also long and takes about halfway through to get to the words.  The premise of the song is that the odds of any of us ever being born are so slim we should take heart at being born.  And for some reason, thinking about keeping warm and being born reminded me of when each of the boys was born, and how they put little hats on babies to keep them warm and their whole life is ahead of them.  It kind of brought a tear or two to my eye.   I was also captivated by the bass guitar line.  The sound quality is kind of poor in this video but there are better ones out there.



 In the evening after work, I headed over to Jenny's boot camp again.  Great class as usual and a great way to end the day.


Thursday - 7.2 miles at 7:21 average pace,  tempo run (I just remembered how hard those are, how discouraging mile 2 or some other mid mile can feel, but that's what it's there for right?) at Striders group run.  I did 4 miles at a tempo pace - splits of 6:48, 6:52, 6:45, 6:36

Short cool down after that to put the total at just over 7 miles.
It was nice to see a few friends after - Mike, Raj, Diane, Barb, Melanie, Rudy and Randy (the PTs) and many more.

Got home fairly early and saw Dave out front - he was putting in a tree in our front yard to replace a bush I planted a while ago.  Went over where it was going to go.  I went back inside and then Andy asked from the bathroom "Hey Dad, why is the water off?"

I went outside and saw water bubbling up from the ground.  Dave shut off the water, finished extricating the bush and said he'd be able to fix it all.  Someone (me) had planted that bush too close to the water main, d'oh.
Andy finished his shower by rinsing off in the pool.  Fortunately, Jenny did not have any morning clients.  Thomas and I took a dip in the chilly pool to wash up.

 Later in the morning, Dave had finished putting in the tree, hauled off the old bush, and had the water fixed, yay!

 It's life.


Weekend  Plans:
Friday - short easy run, in to work early, home early
Saturday - I'm going to do a long run from 5:30 to 8:00, I'll run on paved road/trail and then some inside Starkey park, however many off road miles I can fit in there.  Have to get back in time to take Thomas bowling.  Then, in the afternoon I go for my first bass guitar lesson, right before Andy does his guitar lesson.  I hope I can get the hang of it this time.  I love hanging out at the music lesson place - Ramblin' Roades, and the instructor is great, always enjoy listening to him play when I'm waiting for the boys.

Sunday - short easy run around the neighborhood.

Question I hear, "Are you back to where you used to be?"  I'd say yes and no.  I think physically I'm close but at the same time I don't want to be exactly where I was before I had to take some time off.  I want to be better than that.  A little bit stronger and more well-rounded.  One problem I had identified, something that is common that happens to many runners, they lose their athleticism - in my mind, the ability to jump, and move on different planes, to feel strong and capable, to feel agile and quick.  The image in my mind when I think of an athlete is a pole vaulter.  I'm not planning on doing any pole vaulting anytime soon, but it's that concept and image and everything involved with that.

Inspiration - Walter is a runner I've know of, although I don't really know him.  I've always known he is fast, but just recently found out his story.  He is a friend I know from Daily Mile.  He has run a PR marathon of 2:31 and is competing in the masters national championship.  What I didn't know was about the terrible car accident he had been involved in during the early 90's.  He broke his pelvis in 32 places after being hit by a drunk driver.  He was paralyzed for a while and doctors never thought he would be able to recover fully.  Here is his story:



Forward progress?  - not sure, but I know I need a vision and plan, but there certainly is inspiration all around!!