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.

And now for something completely different…

Let’s recap the last 15 hours or so of weather: Wednesday, 4:00 pm, 60 F and sunny. A gorgeous day. Thursday, 7:30 am, 20 F and FOUR INCHES OF SNOW. We all know how much I love running in the snow. It’s especially a bummer if you were planning to get up and run six miles in the sun.

*sigh*

So, yeah, it was (still is) coming down like crazy outside. Most of the sidewalks had been cleared at some point in the night, so there was only three inches of snow left to trod through. I had to stop and pick compacted ice out of my treads a couple times, too. But, on the flip side, it is pretty out.

Oh, and it’s Valentine’s Day. Buuuuuut, let’s just say that doesn’t really affect me this year. Bummer.

I’ll probably still go buy some awesome chocolate

stupid snow

After a happily-accepted rest day on Monday, yesterday was the start of our speed training. To inaugurate the new habit-to-be, I ran three miles of Fartleks. I hadn’t actually done them since high school, and certainly forgot how draining they can be! That said, the worst part of the workout was the four inches of snow we got the night before. Which brings me to the title of this posting.

Ordinarily, I love snow. It’s beautiful. It makes me want a wood stove and someone to sit in front of it with. You can throw it at other people and not hurt them (most of the time). But one place where I do not love snow is under my feet while running. I think most people will attest to the fact that you run all funky when it’s icy/snowy out. Very different stride and overall mechanics. Worse still, is when you have to try and sprint on it! I imagine myself at the start of each speed interval looking like the Roadrunner – legs spinning around in full circles, dust kicking up behind me, until finally I got some traction and took off…

*sigh* Okay, that’s the end of the that rant….. almost….. this morning was equally icy and I cursed it a few times, too. I’m just looking forward to runs in warm, dry weather again!