3 point updates

Due to circumstances completely within my control, I didn't update much this week, so I have three runs to talk about right now.

Wednesday, 4 miles on a treadmill. My plan for this one was to pick one thing and just focus on it. I'm moderately proud to report a mediocre success. I wasn't able to just concentrate on one thought, but my mind didn't flit around aimlessly for 40 minutes either. I spent a good bit of that time thinking about a potential new job, but that has since become a moot point. Another bit of time was spent thinking about a bit of fiction that I would one day like to write, but I pretty much hate everything I came up with in retrospect. So, my basic idea for that one is intact, but any of the specifics I thought up on the 'mill have been trashed. I think there was one other thought that I focused on, but I can't remember what it was right now. Maybe it will come back to me sometime.

Thursday... uh, let's call Thursday a carb-loading day. Yeah, that's what it was. My department at work threw a happy hour. I should have gone for a four-mile run, but instead I went to the Oceanaire and drank many beers. And a Shirley Temple with vodka. I got there at 4:45 and didn't leave until 9:00, so a run was not in the cards. I may have overloaded on carbs and calories, but I had a good time.

Friday, 4 miles outside. I switched my Thursday run to Friday, to make up for missing it and the massive caloric intake in the form of hefeweizen. I liked my run up Westlake so much last weekend that I decided to modify it so that I could do a four mile out-and-back. Even though I calibrated my iPod, I'm still not completely sure of it. I need to re-plot the route on walkjogrun.net but zoomed in as far as I can go. That should help me see how close it is. This is the first time in forever that I have done any sort of exercise on a Friday, and I have to say that I didn't completely hate it. And again, I wasn't the only one out there doing it. Apparently a lot of people like to go for a run around the lake on Fridays after work.

Saturday, 3 miles on the 'mill. This one was different somehow. I was so frustrated by things at the beginning that I almost just quit. First, I started off and had enough tightness in my groin-ish area that I had to stop and stretch it out a little bit. I've been having some uncomfortableness when I start off, but it goes away after a couple of minutes of activity. I'm going to have to start stretching both before and after my runs I think. Although, I've seen some articles that say that stretching before is not necessary and may even been counter-productive. Then, once I got that stretched out a little bit and started my run over, my swinging hand managed somehow to stop the big red STOP button on the 'mill after only .6 miles. So, damn! What am I supposed to do? Part of me wanted to say "screw it" and just walk for a while, but I bumped the speed back up to 6mph and started going like a trooper. Crap, I just dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back.

I had a little more success on my "1 thought" efforts after I finally got going. Instead of thinking about something unrelated, I focused on my breathing and my stride. This was of course while Paula Dean tried to distract with smoked brisket and freaking berry empanadas! GIMME THE EMPANADAS AND NO ONE WILL GET HURT!!!! I know that a lot of the literature says that you should take shorter strides for increased stride efficiency, but I found it somewhat easier to run the last mile when I focused on taking longer strides. My long strides, even though I'm average height for a guy, are probably still considered short. I've seen myself run, and I'm definitely not a full extension kind of runner. I'll see how that works out for me tomorrow when I do my Tour de Seattle.

I have to be a bit careful with what I let my mind do to me. I'm determined to run this marathon, but my mind keeps trying to trick me into giving up or quitting. Now, I'm smarter than my mind, sometimes, so I'm not giving in to its insidious plot. Just because I'm tired is no excuse to give up. I'm keeping my eye on the prize. I'm going to focus on finishing my first marathon and how that's going to feel. And how much I'll get to brag about it afterward, although, there probably won't be too much of that at work. In my little 18 (give or take a few) person department, I know of two current and one former marathoners. So they'll give me a big fat "been there, done that." Still, aside from them I don't know anyone that's done it.

I'm kind of bummed about the Rock 'n Roll Marathon. I totally should have set my goal at the beginning of the year to do the 1/2 marathon at that one instead of giving myself a long lead time to work up to the Seattle Marathon in November. To be perfectly clear, that was my former goal. My new goal is to run the whole damn thing. All 26.2 miles of it, hence the name of this blog. Anyway, the RnR was going on today and it was all over the news. I had the opportunity to buy a bib earlier this week (or maybe it was last week), but I didn't take it and all the available ones got sold fast anyway. I should have signed up for it on my own. I know my longest run so far has been 6 miles, but I'm sure I could have pulled off 13.1 today even if I hadn't had any time to prepare. Oh, well. Next year, I'll run RnR. I'm not sure yet if I'll do the 1/2 or full, but I'll do one of them. I'm going to want a collection of cool medals once I get my first one.