End of the week post

Weekly Total:31.08

Aug 30, 2005	3.60
Aug 31, 2005	7.17
Sep 1, 2005	4.56
Sep 3, 2005	15.75

This past week, at least as far as running goes, was a good one. The week before I took it easy and recuperated. This was necessary, and relaxing but boring. This week the batteries were charged up and I decided to fire off all the guns at once, as it were.

I've pretty much settled into a routine I like to call the Modified Beginner's Higdon. I think I do this mostly in an attempt to fool non-runners into thinking I know what I'm talking about when it comes to repeatedly putting one foot in front of the othere, but what it involves is waiting around for the Hal Higdon beginning marathoner's training plan to catch up to where I am now as I train for Vegas. While I'm waiting for Hal to catch up I feel free to improvise a little. Riona is in the homeland currently so she can't send me the warnings she has the full moral authority to send about exceeding my weekly mileage and getting ahead of myself, and besides, like they used to say, if it feels good, do it - right?

Anyway, what I do is run fast once around the lake on Tuesday. Its 3.6 or 3.7 miles around (depending on what mood the forerunner is in). I’ve taken to doing a lot of stretching and a little pre-run jog to warm up before I do my official once around. This past Tuesday I ran around the lake in 28 minutes and 47 seconds - faster than I ever have – faster than when I was in high school cross-country track. Yay thirty-two year old me! (moment of self love there). Wednesday I do my second highest mileage for the week, or two lakes. Thursday is the last work day of the week for me as we do four 10s in the summer. I usually do five slow miles in the heat of the day and then go home for a shower before going back to work for a few hours. Why its important to run during the work day on Thursday I’m not entirely sure but I think it is related to why frat and sorority student now hold drinking parties on Thursday nights – starting the weekend early. Friday is generally a day for getting the stuff done I can’t do when I’m working 10 to 16 hour days (depending on whether or not I have night school). There is usually some lazy time in there too. Then comes Saturday. This is the day I pour it on. I try to push myself to a new height each Saturday. I realize this will become a unobtainable goal as time goes one but for now, in the beginning, it is a heady pleasure. Sunday and Mondays are days of rest for me (I get two). By Tuesday I'm usually itching for my fast run.

Today I ran from my house out to where we used to live at the beach and back home again. I logged 15.75 miles on the forerunner, drank 32 oz of sugar water, and did two goo packets while preambulating. The hydration belt I got off the Internet (after flatman bought one) worked just fine after Brit sewed a few new Velcro patches into it (slipped over my non-gadonkadonk before the tightening up). I ran at the pace of a snail (and not the one from Never Ending Story) but I still ran about a mile and a half farther than I ever have in my life.

I can now run places. Running is a viable means of locomotion for me. I feel like I did at ten when I got a ten speed and could suddenly ride my bike to friend’s houses and again as a teenager when I could drive places. Now I can run to real places like work and back or to the beach. Soon I’ll be capable of running to neighboring communities. I probably won’t do that often but I’ll know I can do it. I’ll be walking around in my normal street cloths but I’ll be thinking, “Yah, if I wanted to right now, I could run to Kalama.”

Also exceeded 30 miles for the first time this week. Now I'm really thirty something!

Thanks to all of you who have participated in the shirt design project so far. One Internet friend told me that working on the shirt and thinking about Vegas in general helped lift her out of a week-long blue funk (Yay Part II!). I'm thinking we should keep soliciting input and then order the darned things in about the middle of October/early December.

If you’ve made it this far in this way too long posting, you qualify for Dear Reader status.

Thanks Dear Readers and good night.