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Late night run before a late night
Written by Nathan on January 7, 2009 at 11:19 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 7, 2009 at 11:19 pm from A Month of Resolve.
I was up very late last night, then up again early. When I got home from work, I crashed hard around 7:30. My wife woke me up at 9:15, I immediately got dressed and ran, then jumped in the car for a late-night work session in the office. I’m extraordinary disoriented, sore and excited to finish a huge project. About a quarter mile in, I had to stop and take out the arch insert in my right shoe. The glue tab must have loosened and the arch was killing my foot. Even with the lost :50, I ended up with a 27:45, and sore muscles that may not appreciate a second late night of work.
This completes my first week of running (recap coming tomorrow). Bush is still in my targets (note to Secret Service: I’m not being literal) and all I need to do now is shave another 8 minutes off my best time. Right.
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Violent Femmes
Written by Nathan on January 6, 2009 at 11:59 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 6, 2009 at 11:59 pm from A Month of Resolve.
I didn’t start running until almost 11:30p and I saw plenty of sketchy looking people out. Strangely, they were almost all women. I’m glad I had my headphones on so that I could avoid any conversations they tried to strike up.
The inserts were helpful to my feet, but now I’m developing blisters. I’m not sure which is worse. Regardless, I ran a surprising (to me, anyways) 25:45 tonight. I started with a 7:30 mile, then sped up to try to run the first mile and a half in 11 minutes. Bad idea. I did come in only seconds under 12 minutes for the first 1.5, but the cost was steep and I lumbered about, sucking air for a couple of minutes afterwards. My last mile was 8 flat. All told, a satisfying run and if this blister doesn’t resurface (bad pun, eh?) then I feel good about my prospects for the month.
Update: The blister is getting bigger. I’ve never really suffered from heel blisters—curse you arch supports! Please let me know if you have ideas on how to repair these quickly.
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Searching for inspiration
Written by Nathan on January 6, 2009 at 3:52 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 6, 2009 at 3:52 pm from A Month of Resolve.
If I want running inspiration, what should I watch? Should it be Prefontaine (starring Jared Leto?!), or Forest Gump?
(I can’t think of any movies specifically about resolve, or about beating presidents at athletic feats, so I’ll start my quest for inspiration with a literal take on the task ahead.)
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Veni, veni, Emmanuel
Written by Nathan on January 5, 2009 at 11:06 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 5, 2009 at 11:06 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Though Christmas has come and gone (unless you’re one of those wacky Eastern Orthodox – Merry Christmas Eve eve to you!), my wife continues to spin the new Christmas album from Rosie Thomas. I’ve found her version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel particularly enchanting, and I’m thankful that my wife keeps playing it. Rosie’s excellent arrangement of the classic carol (do yourself a favor and listen!) has helped me rediscover the song’s third stanza:
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
I went into today’s run expecting something gloomy, per my previous post. My first day back in the office left me tired, my foot hurt all day, and I was exhausted when we got home from church around 9p. But somewhere between getting out of the car and heading back out 15 minutes later to run something changed. Perhaps it was the arch support inserts I bought, or the Rockports (my dad swears by them) I wore all day, or just staying off my feet—but whatever it was, I felt great running.
Of course I’m not equating the birth of Jesus with the sudden relief of pain during my run, but I tasted just a bit of the unexpected and complete relief tonight and couldn’t help but find also a fraction of the joy contained in the Christmas story. I think that joy—and the general lack of foot pain—helped me pull a 27:17 (7:50, 10:45, 8:48).
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Two reasons why I expect today’s run will be difficult
Written by Nathan on January 5, 2009 at 2:13 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 5, 2009 at 2:13 pm from A Month of Resolve.
In no particular order:
- After a long vacation, I’m back at work today.
- The arch on my right foot continues to hurt, badly enough that it’s hard to walk.
My Mondays usually involve work, then dinner with the family out, then church. So I’ll get home late, gear up, then hit the streets.
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Not to be fooled by randomness
Written by Nathan on January 4, 2009 at 10:52 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 4, 2009 at 10:52 pm from A Month of Resolve.
The boy, the basket and the bike.
Just yesterday I emphatically said I wouldn’t run with a camera. I believe it was the day before that I extolled the virtues of the shoes. In each case, just a day later I proved myself wrong.
So perhaps I should predict that I’ll only run three miles slower than 22 minutes. Or maybe that my arch will be hurt the rest of the month. But I think I’ll refrain from either — after all, past performance is never an indicator of future fortune.
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How to roll a best and worst into a single 3-mile run
Written by Nathan on January 4, 2009 at 8:29 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 4, 2009 at 8:29 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Today’s was by far the best and worst run I’ve have. My son’s been begging me to let him bike with me, which is a generally bad idea for a number of reasons. But my the arch of my right foot has been killing me today, and I decided that I should take it very easy so that I can wake up and still run tomorrow. So I had a companion for the first time thus far in this project – my 4-year-old son, Basha.
For reasons largely concerning him, this was the most fun I’ve had so far. He biked along with me for the first mile. In that time he collected flowers, rocks, grass and various other miscellany along the way. I was able to literally stop and smell the roses I ran past while waiting for him to catch up. Of course, he did manage to crash headfirst into a parked motorcycle toward the end. We met my wife and daughter for pizza a mile in, then I finished the course by myself. Basha was going to go further with me, but a second crash that drew blood ended his riding.
On the downside, my time was 58 minutes. That’s pretty terrible. In fact, it’s longer than it took me on the previous two days combined. Granted, I did walk almost the entire distance owing to the terrible pain in my right foot. Oh, and I wore my dress shoes since they have better arch support than any other shoes I own. Speed was never really my goal anyways – just getting the miles done and getting through until tomorrow.
So it was by far the slowest 3 miles I’ve done – in fact, 3 times slower that W. But it’s the most fun I’ve had, so I’m content. I’ll be even happier if I wake up without arch pain tomorrow. If you have any tips for recovery, please share. Right now I’m rolling a frozen bottle of water courtesy this article.
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Scene from my run
Written by Nathan on January 4, 2009 at 12:41 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 4, 2009 at 12:41 pm from A Month of Resolve.
There are some great scenic vistas on my run, especially when I hit the road at nighttime. This particular scene won’t last much longer, but while the lights are still up it’s one of my favorite parts of my course. (I retook this later in the night – no way am I going to run with a camera on!)
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Accounting errors aren’t a thing of the past
Written by Nathan on January 3, 2009 at 11:02 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 3, 2009 at 11:02 pm from A Month of Resolve.
After three successive days of with surprisingly fast third miles, I decided to review my running course for accuracy. Originally I’d plotted my course with Map My Run. The interface was clunky and the application was hard to use, but I soldiered on figuring it was adequate. I decided to replot with a map from Walk Jog Run, and quickly discovered the inadequacies of Map My Run. My course was .15 miles shy of 3 miles. That’s not the fault of MMR’s map calculator, but rather the software’s infelxible mapping process. I couldn’t plot my course very precisely and somewhere along the way the same general path inflated by a small fraction of a mile.
But I’m back on track, and with the extra distance I ran a full three miles in 27:18 today. (I ran a 9, 10:30, 7:45.) The first mile was horrid. My legs absolutely refused to function normally, which I expected since they’d been dysfunctional most of the day. But midway through the second mile they started loosening up and they felt great until the end. In fact, right now I feel pretty good except a little pain in the arch of my right foot. So I’m hopeful tomorrow’s run will start smoother.
I feel moderately stupid for screwing up plotting my course, but given our economy is currently in dire straights owing to equally foolish accounting follies, at least I know I’m in good company. Well, maybe not good company, but I know I’m not alone. Though I could try to shift blame to MMR, like so many tried to pin blame for their faults in damaging the economy elsewhere, I’ll go ahead and man up and take full ownership.
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Ye shall know a man by his leather
Written by Nathan on January 3, 2009 at 5:50 pm from A Month of Resolve.
Written by Nathan on January 3, 2009 at 5:50 pm from A Month of Resolve.
There are many ways in which I’m ill prepared for this running project. I haven’t run in months. I don’t even know the specific time that Bush ran that I’m trying to run.
But I don’t think my shoes will far among my list of mistakes. I don’t have running shoes—in fact, I haven’t owned a pair in ages. I did think about buying a pair, but in the past my experiences with running shoes have been mixed. New-shoe blisters, awkward builds, ugly style (I’m looking at you Asics).
So I’m stuck with my Nike Total 90 Shift indoor soccer shoes (they’ve gotten uglier in the last year!). They’re proved adequate during the indoor soccer I’ve played, and work well when I’ve worked out in the recent past. They’re new enough that they’re still ok to run in, and old enough to be free of surprises.
Of course, these are the same line of shoes that were reportedly behind England soccer star, Wayne Rooney’s broken foot a year back, so perhaps this is a bad move. I did also seriously injure my right ankle 18 months ago in this pair of shoes, but I think that was largely the product of the weight of the person who landed on my ankle.