Today’s Goal: 6 miles
Actual Distance: 8.1 miles
Time: 1:22:56
Weather: Sunny; No humidity; 70 degrees
Time of Day: 8 AM
Notes: Ran the hills on both sides of the valley; Didn’t want to stop; Added two extra miles.
Tomorrow’s Goal: REST DAY
Today’s Goal: 4 miles
Actual Distance: 4 miles
Time: 39:23
Weather: Cloudy; A few drizzles at times; 70 degrees
Time of Day: 1 PM
Notes: A lot on my mind, which affected my motivation; Ran strong overall.
Tomorrow’s Goal: 6 miles
Today’s Goal: 5 miles
Actual Distance: 0 miles
Time:
Weather:
Time of Day:
Notes: MIGRAINE
Tomorrow’s Goal: 3 miles
My day was wrecked by a migraine at 9 AM. It started at the exact moment I walked through the door into work. I kid you not. By the time I walked from the door to my desk, my vision was half distorted already. All day, I thought of how I was going to overcome the situation and run. I survived at work until 1:30, which included an hour long mid-year review discussion with my boss (which left me rather bothered). Then I had to call it quits and go home. I thought, If I sleep a few hours, maybe I’ll have more energy to run later. Nope. First, it was tough to get to sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about several unfairly negative things my boss had to say. (Is it any wonder I get migraines?) After I did sleep, I awoke as a zombie. (Still not much improved at the time of this writing.) And, well, rather than write more descriptions of this condition, here’s a drawing to depict how I felt. A picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, “barf,” “decay,” “slime,” are a few of the sunny ones that come to mind.
Today’s Goal: 3 miles
Actual Distance: 4.1 miles
Time: 42:06
Weather: Sunny; no humidity; 83 degrees
Time of Day: 11:45 AM
Notes: Energy was lacking today. Hamstrings are super sore from Sunday’s long run. Had to walk a few times. Got into a pretty good groove after mile 2.
Tomorrow’s Goal: 5 miles
Here comes the cat…
Since I started running with a fair amount of consistency close to four years ago, I have found that I have thoroughly enjoyed running 5Ks a handful of times per year. Having a race on the calendar within my foreseeable future motivates me. That race day is a goal to work toward that offers the reward of achievement – and usually a free t-shirt and bagels!
This makes me want more. And by “more” I mean “longer.” I need more miles. I have run two 5 mile races within the past year, one on a really cold day in November, and the other over hills that were more than I had bargained for. But I need more.
So, where’s the cat, Snyder?
Just before I open the bag, let me say that I was registered to run a half marathon in New York this past March. But I couldn’t pull it off. My 12-week training plan started January 1 and got clobbered by snow and ice left and right. Attempting to train through winter for my first long distance race was not a good idea. However, a bigger obstacle that I could not overcome was a lower back/hip problem that I seemed to have inflicted upon myself after a night of bowling, of all things! I have always hated bowling, mainly because it presents a high risk of public embarrassment. Something I have experienced first hand. The harsh memory of crowds of strangers laughing at me as my grandfather’s old 16-pound bowling ball slipped off my hand and skidded backward away from the alley some thirty years ago should have been enough to keep me miles away from any bowling establishment forever. (That notch carved out in the thumb hole may have worked well for Pop in his day, but it became the cause of my public demise… lurking there for years… waiting… coaxing me to slip my thumb in and give it a whirl. It was a thorn of kryptonite in my achilles tendon, so to speak.) So, last December, I gave into peer pressure. I went bowling. Bowling won again. I could barely walk the next day and running became unpleasant. Add to this my stubborn resistance to seeing a doctor for three months and it all equals race failure in March.
Now, I let the cat out of the bag…
With the advent of warmer weather, abstinence from bowling, and an anti-inflammatory prescription for what turned out to be sciatica, I was able to nurse myself back into shape for consistent running. I have since registered for my second half marathon. Well, the second one I’ve paid for, the first I will actually run – provided I avoid doing anything stupid like bowling. Sunday marked 9 weeks to go until race day.
So, what’s the big deal, Snyder? Who cares?
What? You don’t like my cat, man?
The deal, regardless of how big it is or isn’t for anyone other than me, is that I need a means of accountability. And this gosh-dang website is going to serve as the forum for that, since I own this place. Read it, if you want. Leave comments. Make all the Forrest Gump wisecracks you want. Tell me I’m dumb. Tell me I suck at bowling. (Like I haven’t heard that before.) This is more for me than it is for you. So there.
The cat is out of the bag. My intention is to post a daily update of my progress (in the above format) from now until October 19, or the day thereafter, if I survive the 13.1 miles. If I can get to that day without injury, I think I can make it to the finish line… with my mantra being, “T-shirt and bagels! T-shirt and bagels!” or maybe, “It’s better to run than bowl!”
I was running along in the 90-degree afternoon when I saw two baby turkeys staring at me from the side of the road. There turned out to be several little ones and two adults. The small ones flew when I got too close.
(But the real turkey is the guy who didn’t think quick enough to hold his phone horizontally. Damn.)