Well, THIS is New

Little bit of backstory from my RunningAHEAD log:

6/12/2010
OUCH!!! Endured some odd Achillesational [Achillenear???] discomfort to starboard today ... could be residual acheyness from the wicked "wake me up from a deep sleep" charleyhorse the other night [that I KNOW Shar wished upon me, :-P]; combined with my Time Trial effort on Tuesday and bad cycling form all week ... ow well, this too shall pass

6/14/2010
The charley-horse to starboard isn't so much of a limp-inducing muscle ache anymore ... now it just feels like I got whacked in the back of the leg with a hockey stick or a pedal or something ... should be good to go tomorrow AM

***

Time of day: 5:30PM
Activity: Run
Workout Type: Silly

Yes ... that says 5:30 PM ... like After Work!!! I overslept this morning and didn't get my run in, as I had planned since the whole Soleus thing seems [seemed?] to have righted itself. The Commuter Gods smiled upon me and got me home in time to change quickly and go for 3 miles, before I had to pick D'Kid up from her BFFs. What is the expression? "Someone who wants to do something will find a way; Someone who doesn't will find an excuse"

I should have either not wanted to, or found an excuse.

My inability to take time off, came up and shoved me with that "hockey slash" ache coming back all of a sudden [the first mile and a half plus change, were fine] I walked a couple hundred yards then started to jog it home ... cruising along nicely, and only about half mile out, I had not just finished saying "All in all, a good run" when I felt a vicious TOING!!! to starboard ... yeah, my day was done, and I hobbled in. Next up??? No clue .... This is new to me ... In 28 years I've never suffered a running injury, while actually running. I've had things go CRUNCH!!! that forced me to take some time off, but that didn't happen "on the road"

Let's see how this plays out

Race A Train? Sure! Why Not!

I woke up very VERY late this morning [5:39AM to be exact]. There was no WAY I was gonna miss another bright, dry and cool morning, as I had yesterday. I got out of bed as stealthily as I could, but I happened to wake up D'Wife in spite of my best efforts.


"Are you going to run?" she asked. Before I could reply, she added "Have a good one."


With that thought in my head and a smile, I eased through my punk-yoga stretching routine and slipped out the back door [I've been using the slider to not wake her up by going out the front door, which is sort of below our bedroom].


It was almost exactly 6AM when I tucked my cross necklace around behind my back [it rattles around less that way] and started off


I did some math and decided today was only going to be three miles; but for FUN it was to be a FAST three miles … well moderately fast. My primary goal was NOT to get stuck on the other side of the RR tracks when the NJ Transit train came by at 6:24; my secondary goal was to already be home by then.


I made the first daily checkpoints in good time – stoplight at 5 minutes; Blessed Mother at 9 minutes. I didn’t stop to say my “Hail Mary” today, but did a “rolling” one to save time. For success, I thought should make it to the mile-and-a-half marker at 12:30 or so [even when I’m using my watch, I’m still kinda sketchy about pacing myself to the clock]. I rolled up the crossing at the ballfield and made the right-hand turn at 6:12:something.


“Halfway out, halfway back” I said to myself.


As much as I wanted to hammer this stretch [it always feels so inviting to just drop the hammer here, for some reason] I held to my pace. The birds in the overgrowth in the chainlink protecting the tracks were my little cheering section.


“GoRandyGoRandyGoRandy!”


I reached the turn onto the big street home at the 16-minute mark. This is where my Left Side of My Brain – who’d been semi-conscious this morning keeping the time-checks, such as they were; versus totally unaware like on most mornings, when Right Side takes over and just runs around looking at all the pretty clouds and all - woke up and started “Math-ing”


“Sixteen minutes done, and you usually get from the light back home in 5 [well, to get TO the light, if you know what I mean] so that’s 21, giving you 3 minutes to get from here to there for 24 or 4 minutes for 25, which makes more sense, unless you can get back home from the light in less than 5, but it's a little less than a whole mile, so …”


And so on …


I was fortunate enough to arrive at the intersection just as the light turned green for me and I was able to get across without breaking stride, just as it was. The last few hundred yards were an exercise if both maintaining my effort and trying NOT to look like a slow old man for the Public School kids waiting for the bus.

I set my arms in motion to muscle a few seconds off the clock … 6:24 was the time I looking to come in, but I wasn’t sure what the rounding would work out to [I had started the timer on my watch, but forgot when seconds-wise]. Figuring I’d be on the late side to 24 minutes I chugged up the little rise to the end of my street, took the corner like a champ and sprinted as best as I could for the driveway. I reached over and hit the “STOP” button as soon as I passed the mailbox.


Totally out of breath – and happily so – I made several little counterclockwise turns across the street in front of my house, before strolling up the to the porch, kicking off my shoes and grabbing my beverage and iPod. Just before I put the buds in my ears, I heard the horn of the NJ Transit train I was “racing”


“First of all; you’re late” I whispered to the locomotive and its commuter cars, almost a mile away, “Second of all …


“I would have beaten you, anyway!!!”


****

The Details [for people who are into that sort of thing]

Time: 6:00 AM
Distance: 3.1 miles
Time: 23:36
Pace: 7:37 minutes / mile

Yeah, that's a new v2.0 5K PR!!!

Runnerversary 2010

I’ve told this story before, so y’all know how it goes:

It was on this day, [which was also a Tuesday, as luck would have it] that I woke up around 6AM and went for a little jog with some of the "dads" in my neighborhood. 28 years later, thousands of miles, dozens of pairs of running shoes and a few triathlons & half-marathons later, I'm still at it.

This year I did something a little different. Not only did I perform my ritual run at dawn [ritual in that I do it pretty much every day, NOT that I do it only once a year], but I also emailed two of the “kids” whose dads dared me to join them on that muggy morning.

One replied: “Hey....that is great! And so classic....imagine the headbands and wristbands you guys were sporting...”

“HA!!!” I countered “I think the ‘Dads’ may have been wearing elastic terry-cloth wristbands & headbands, but I would have been sporting something a little more punk rock; a cut up concert T-shirt, perhaps??? ... This was BEFORE the Union Jack muscle shirts & shorts Def Leppard made popular”

Yeah, I definitely had my own “style” back then



Note: It wasn't until 1985 that I entered my first race - a Summer Sunset Series five-miler on Kelly Drive.

ETA: 626.8 miles from June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010 ... about 2/3 of 2008-09

Earth Day 2010

“Gravity is a Harsh Mistress” – The Tick

Today is Earth Day 2010 ... On this date, FORTY years ago; I celebrated the FIRST Earth Day by colliding with Our Planet, breaking my arm and earning my VERY FIRST trip to the Emergency Room!!! There would be many more, as documented here

I don’t remember the exact details of the crash, only that it involved a Schwinn StingRay, a steep hill, a temptingly cambered curb and an Evel Knievel mindset.

Dix Road in Wethersfield rose up to meet Ridge Avenue at what seemed then to be a tremendous height. From end of this street [in fact, from the end of all the streets in the neighborhood I lived in up there] one could look across the “valley” created by the Connecticut River and see quite a ways away.

When I hit the curb at speed and launched myself into the air, I truly felt like I was flying; even though, in reality, my rear tire couldn’t have been more than a foot off the ground.

I guess I was too busy admiring the view to remember what I had seen on ABC's Wide World of Sports so many times. That being: “If you don’t keep your front wheel straight, you’re gonna get acquainted with the ground real fast”

Sure enough, my front wheel struck the sidewalk at an angle, wrenched the handlebars violently to the left and I departed over the chrome, as I was bucked forward onto some poor retirees lawn.

I didn’t hear or feel a “Snap!” [as I would with my collarbone, when I fell off the monkeybars later that Summer], but a persistent ache, accompanied by bruising and swelling that inspired my Mom to take me up to the Hospital.

I think it was then that I fell in love with my first nurse.

March Comes In Like ...???

Chevy Chase:
Last week we made the comment that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Now here to reply is our chief meteorologist, John Belushi, with a seasonal report.

John Belushi:
Thank you Chevy. Well, another winter is almost over and March true to form has come in like a lion, and hopefully will go out like a lamb. At least that's how March works here in the United States.

But did you know that March behaves differently in other countries? In Norway, for example, March comes in like a polar bear and goes out like a walrus. Or, take the case of Honduras where March comes in like a lamb and goes out like a salt marsh harvest mouse.

Let's compare this to the Maldive Islands where March comes in like a wildebeest and goes out like an ant. A tiny, little ant about this big.

[holds thumb and index fingers a small distance apart]

Unlike the Malay Peninsula where March comes in like a worm-eating fernbird and goes out like a worm-eating fernbird. In fact, their whole year is like a worm-eating fernbird.

Or consider the Republic of South Africa where March comes in like a lion and goes out like a different lion. Like one has a mane, and one doesn't have a mane. Or in certain parts of South America where March swims in like a sea otter, and then it slithers out like a giant anaconda.

There you can buy land real cheap, you know.

And there's a country where March hops in like a kangaroo, and stays a kangaroo for a while, and then it becomes a slightly smaller kangaroo. Then, then, then for a couple of days it's sort of a cross between a, a frilled lizard and a common house cat.

[Chevy Chase tries to interrupt him]

Wait wait wait wait. Then it changes back into a smaller kangaroo, and then it goes out like a, like a wild dingo. Now, now, and it's not Australia! Now, now, you'd think it would be Australia, but it's not!!!



[Chevy Chase tries to interrupt him]

Now look, pal! I know a country where March comes in like an emu and goes out like a tapir. And they don't even know what it means!!! All right? Now listen, there are nine different countries, where March comes in like a frog, and goes out like a golden retriever. But that - that's not the weird part!!! No, no, the weird part is, is the frog. The frog- The weird part is -

[has seizure and falls off chair]