ouch

Still tired/sore from last week’s cross-country hiking/camping/rock climbing escapade, yesterday’s long run was actually quite painful.  An unforeseen series of events in the morning resulted in a slightly awkward start, too.   I planned to run early (8ish), so I had eaten a light breakfast at 7.  I also wanted to get new shoes beforehand.  So, I took a trip over to my local store and found they didn’t open until 10.  As a result, I ended up sticking around home/reading until 10, biking over to get new shoes, throwing them on, and heading out.  So, now it’s about 10:30, and I haven’t eaten since my light meal at 7.  Within the first two miles, my stomach was growling and I knew it was going to be a long run…I also miscalculated how much liquid I had/how much I could drink and when.  I finished my fluids with an hour left to run, and was desperately yearning for a drink at the end.  The food situation was actually okay, though.  I had my two Accel gels, and though my stomach was growling for the last half mile or so, it wasn’t too bad.  My legs/body, though, was quite sore and tired.  I think I’m still pretty beat from the driving/living outside last week. So, today I’m pretty darn sore. BUT, the good news is that I ran EIGHTEEN miles!  Ha, a new distance PR, and I’m stoked.  2/3 of a marathon!  And I think it ended up being at a pace of ~8:15 or so.  Also good. I had a lot of work to do last night, and didn’t do any of it in lieu of having a good time with friends.  While it may make this afternoon stink, it was really nice.  I do, however, have to get my things in line over the next couple of days, because this weekend is another “recruiting weekend” for the grad program.  I’ll be leading another hike and probably partaking in as many free meals as possible.   

ok, I think I’m back…

Man, it’s actually been really hard to post so infrequently. I have this work/grading to do, and all I can think about is “Geez, I’d really like to write up a quick post now…”

Alas, I’m doing my best to prioritize this semester. BUT, here I am. Through a random series of events [went climbing late last night, forgot I had to read a bunch of applications/grade them, didn't get to bed until 2:00 am, realized that waking up at 7:30 wasn't going to give me enough time to run] I’m not running this morning. Unfortunately, I decided this upon waking. Otherwise, I might have picked up an extra 30 minutes or an hour of sleep. Oh well.

So, there has definitely been at least one significant update since last time. Sunday’s long run was an amazing sixteen miles! New distance PR! And, I finally decided it was silly for me to be running such long distances without food or liquids. So after a bit of online research, I picked up a nutrition belt from Nathan on Saturday. I went with that one because it was pretty small/simple, and I believe I can add more bottle holders if necessary.

Boy, oh boy, did that ever make a HUGE difference! I set an alarm for 45 minutes while running, and chowed down an Accel Gel and one bottle of water/Gatorade mix each time. I’ll admit that it was a little awkward trying to run/eat/drink, but I’ll get better at it. Needless to say, about twenty minutes after I had the first one, I could tell that I was feeling better.

Long story short, by the time I got to the last mile, I felt like I still had some juice and even kicked in a little bit. While I was kinda thirsty, it wasn’t NEARLY as bad as the previous long runs. Overall, it was great. And, the whole thing took me about 2:07… an average of sub-eight minute miles. Kick. Ass.

Our break is next week, so I think I’ll be able to get back on a normal posting schedule. Here’s hoping.

a converted atheist?

I’m not really the religious type. At all. My only formal experience with religion was getting kicked out of Sunday school at some point during the first few years of my life. That said, yesterday’s run made me almost feel like I had found a religion… of sorts.

I’m a physicist, so I have a really hard time with the “explain nature and the universe via a big dude upstairs” thing. But, my less sardonic take the situation is more like this…

• religion is something you devote time to, in order to enrich your life
• faith inspires you and compels you to perpetuate its existence
• religion has a ‘house’ that manifests the seat of the source of your faith
• faith tests your will and devotion to your religion (see bullet #2)

And I could go on. However, it occurred to me yesterday that for all the crap I give people about faith in God and organized religion, I, too, follow a doctrine that satisfies all these criteria.

Running is my religion, and the road is my church.

It hit my by surprise and I almost had to stop on the side of the road. The parallels are uncanny. I deliberately spend a couple hours every Sunday morning at my ‘church.’ I won’t drag the analogy out too far, but I think anyone who runs a lot can sympathize with what I’m getting at.

Just a thought. (Though, a biggie in my opinion.)

So, think the inspiration for that entire diatribe was yesterday’s 14 mile-er. Another distance PR for me (by 2 miles this time!), and I actually ran a good pace. I’ve been having trouble keeping my pace to 1-2:00 slower than my normal, weekday pace. However, I FORCED myself to go (what felt like painfully) slowly for the entire 14 miles. Turns out that what feels like a turtle’s pace was actually 8 min/mile, which was great! Not only did I feel better while running (I was barely breathing hard at any point along the way), I also felt great all day. Well, tired, but great, nevertheless. So, that’s even a little faster than I would have liked (8:30 would be perfect for now), but it’s a step in the right direction.

Ok, so that was the good stuff… now one bad thing to even things out:

It snowed three inches Saturday night. ‘Nuff said. However, it’s worth mentioning that I got TWO full-on, muddy, slushy, freezing showers thanks to the DOT’s plows. That sucked.

Finally, a closing thought. I was running due West about 3/4 of the way through Sunday’s run, and as I passed a numbered street sign (all the cross-roads are numbered, in order) I thought “Sweet, only 54 blocks to go!” That’s when I knew I had fully converted to my new religion.

good way to start a day

It’s just a hair shy of midday, and even though I haven’t gotten anything work-related done, I’m still feeling pretty good about today.

A bit of backstory… yesterday’s rest day was incredibly welcome after the blistering long run I had on Sunday. I had intended to do my 12 miles at approx. 8-9:00 min/mile, and ended up clocking about 1:27, or about 7:30 min/mile average! Not only was 12 miles a new distance PR for me… that pace is undoubtedly the top fast/far combo I’ve ever done! And since I spent all of Saturday skiing, I was pretty stoked about the whole thing.

So, rest yesterday, speed today. Fartleks, round 2. This time, however, I felt great. Well, it was actually quite painful; the end result felt great, though. Thankfully, there was no snow and it was actually super nice outside. Perfect speed weather at about 30 F. Then I made a great egg scramble for breakfast, and headed to school (where I am currently procrastinating).

I have lofty goals today, so I’m going to get back to work. Tonight Jorge Cham (PhD Comics) is speaking on campus, so I’m pretty pumped to see him. If you’re a grad student and you haven’t read the strip, you need to start. It’s aimed more toward natural science/math grad students, but there are a few cameos from humanities/social science characters.

Here’s hoping the rest of the day is productive!