12 Aug Medium Run 5 miles

The run today was full of pain.  So this is the first run of the week given my plan to now do the long runs on the weekend.  I almost didn’t go. In fact I was so tired from yesterday’s run that I ended up not going in the morning.  But at about 11 am, I headed out because I thought that if I didn’t discipline myself to do this, I’d just be making excuses.

I think one’s frame of mind is crucial.  This run, was by far, the most unpleasant thing that I’ve done in a while.  After the first mile, I felt like I was on a all weak in my legs, as if I was suffering from a sugar low or something.   I felt tight in my throat and stomach – sure signs of anxiety.  These feelings persisted into the second mile.  I don’t know why.  Even writing about this now, I feel woozy and lumpy in my throat.  Ook – maybe I’m falling ill or something for real.  But I think it’s more a psychological thing about hating running and having to do it.  I’d much rather curl up in bed with a big bowl of ice cream AND build stamina that way.

The third mile brought a new irritation – sweat in my eyes.  It really hurt my eyes after a while and I had to run with my eyes closed for stretches at a time.  All this is pretty ranty, I know, I was genuinely hating every moment of this run.  the sprinklers lining the pavement didn’t make things easier.  I ended up having to run on the road to avoid getting drenched, while avoiding on-coming traffic, while sweat poured into my stinging eyes.

The only good thing about today’s run is that I did it, even though it was really a slow painful slog.  I am looking forward to tomorrow’s short three-miles: hopefully it’ll be better and bury the memory of today’s run.

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.