9 Aug – Medium Run – 5miles

I did the loops on this run. I’m writing this three days after the event so things aren’t that clear now. But I remember that the soundtrack was interesting. I was listening to Elizabeth Cotten play her finger-picking guitar. The alternating bass-line was especially helpful on round three, though it may have caused me to run a little too quickly meaning that I was a little winded on round four. I’ve realized that when I’m tired it’s easier to take smaller quicker steps to keep up the movement but not feel as if I’m straining on each stride. So I did this in round four, especially on the uphill portions.

7 Aug – Medium Run – 5 miles

The medium runs are now longer in this final stage of the training schedule.  I woke up at about 6.30 but felt quite fatigued from going to bed late last night after watching the musical “Wicked”.  I really wasn’t too motivated to run this morning and I’m glad that Edna decided to run as well, as that meant that there were no excuses.

Instead of running the Hawk Island route, we did big loops around the neighborhood.  Each loop was 1.2 miles so we did four loops and ran a .3 mile stretch at the end.  The disadvantage, for me, of running loops is that it’s really boring.  After a difficult first round, I managed to be sufficiently distracted by the Pat Humphries album that I was listening to to complete a second round.  I think the first two loops were like a recovery run after the 9 mile on Tuesday, so they were quite painful.

The last two loops were much easier.  I actually was quite amazed at how easy the last loop was.  I definitely could have gone faster on the final round or run another loop, but I decided not to in order to preserve my legs and not mess up the incremental nature of the running schedule.

I think this loop running is good discipline for the mind, even though I hate it, and I’ll probably do the same route when I do the 5 mile run next.  I’ll need that mental discipline to keep going despite the boredom when I run the longer distances anyhow!  And I think the mental discipline is handy when I need to write a thesis chapter and just can’t bring myself to plodding along on it.

Practical note: I should get a cap cause the sweat pouring into my eyes makes running difficult.  And I should pay Hawk Island a non-running visit just to get some pictures of my route. Maybe I’ll go tomorrow.