A Good Day for a Run

Today is Friday, February 26, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

Yesterday was speedwork day, and another 5-mile tempo run. Since I only have one currently-run-able five mile course laid out by work, I was back on it again. Prior to yesterday’s run, I had done three of my last six runs on that course (and after it, four of seven, obviously) so I was getting a little bored with it. It’s not an especially interesting route, a lot of long, straight stretches and along roads with not much to look at. Plus as a loop route that I am doing two laps of, I get to look at it all twice. In an effort to spice things up, I decided to run it in the opposite direction I had been doing before. This also had the benefit of using what I learned on my last interval run, and setting things up so the fast part of the run was more downhill and downwind, with the warmup and cooldown on the uphill and upwind portions.

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Today is Tuesday, February 23, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

Here I am, watching the Olympics again, and they are blissfully taking a break from figure skating to show the cross-country skiing portion of the Nordic combined team competition. Fantastic. They just showed the American team training and in one part, they were cross-country skiing indoor on a treadmill. Amazing. It was like a super-wide treadmill with a flexible belt, and the guy was using skis with wheels on them. I guess I never thought about what it would be like if I was in a sport where you absolutely could not participate in it year-round. Running in the snow is not ideal, but I can do it. But you just can’t cross-country ski without snow. Even playing Ultimate Frisbee, which I choose not to do in winter, I still could play indoors if I had the time and money to do so. Speed skating and hockey and other ice sports can be played indoors on man-made ice. There are snow machines, sure, but it would be a tall order to create enough snow for a full 10k cross-country course.

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Today is Monday, February 22, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

Yesterday was long run day, and the last day of week two of marathon training. For once, the run wasn’t the sole focus of my day, because it was a day that I had marked on the calendar for months: the Iowa-Wisconsin wrestling dual in Madison.

I haven’t gotten to see the Hawkeye wrestlers in person since they came to Madison two years ago for this dual, and this year Iowa wrestling has just been tearing through opponents, especially in the big ten, which is hands-down the best wrestling conference in the country. So I’ve been looking forward to it for a while. I was not going to miss it, but of course, I’m not about to miss my long run either. So to accommodate both, I planned to head out almost right away when I got up, so I could be done in time to get to the meet.

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Today is Thursday, February 18, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

I was intending to head out right at noon but I got tied up with work stuff. I am really busy at work right now, so finding the time to work out is occasionally tricky. If I was the kind inclined to find excuses not to work out, I would have plenty of opportunities for slack. Fortunately, I am not that kind.

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Today is Tuesday, February 16, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

I did run today, but I’ll get to that later; I still haven’t written about Sunday’s long run, and here it is already Tuesday. Let me say this: it is hard for me to get any writing done when the Olympics are going on. As it is I don’t have a lot of time to write, anyway, given that I’m working most of the day, and then spending time with the kids after work, I really only get the chance between their bedtime and mine; usually about a couple of hours. And of course there are plenty of other things competing for my attention during that span, as well; as it stands right now, one of those things happens to be watching winter sports.

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Today is Saturday, February 13, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

No run today; Saturday, as usual, is a rest day. My latest run actually happened on Thursday. I hadn’t had a chance to write about it until today, because Thursday evening I went out for a work outing, and last night I spent watching the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics.

I am a big fan of the Olympics. Right now, Henry and I are watching ski jumping together. Of course, the summer games tend to be my favorite by virtue of the track and field events, but there is plenty to enjoy in winter, too. With a lot of sports about trying to go fast in slippery, snow-and-ice conditions, I can definitely identify.

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Today is Tuesday, February 09, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

The first official marathon training run of many was today—six easy miles—and I feel good. I feel positive. Six is more than I would normally do on a Tuesday, but the plan is the plan. And this isn’t maintenance miles; this is marathon training, so it’s time to take it up a notch.

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Today is Monday, February 8, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

No run today, as usual, Mondays are cross-training days for me. But I am posting anyway for a few reasons: first, because I finally finished compiling my stats from last year’s running!

2009: My year in running.

I am a runner, but I am also a nerd. So I keep a pretty detailed training log and take way too much pleasure from making spreadsheets and graphs and all manner of other mostly useless statistical analysis. I have finally gotten around to compiling my stats for last year’s running, and here are the highlights:

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Today is Sunday, February 07, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

There are illnesses afoot in my household, and while I have so far managed to dodge the infectious, child-borne bullets, I feel that I may still be grazed by them. Last night was a difficult one (although admittedly less for me than my admirable wife) as our youngest son slept only in short bursts due to the cough that kept waking him, and consequently, us. I was lucky that today was my sleep-in day, as we trade off our weekend mornings between the two of us when we have the chance, and Sunday is my morning, since I get up and let her sleep in on Saturdays. It works out well for me, since Sundays are also my long run days, to give me that extra bit of rest in preparation. Tomorrow morning, I will not have that luxury, however.

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Today is Friday, February 05, 2010, and it is a good day for a run.

Today I felt good. For better or for worse (and mostly for worse), my mind the past few weeks has been always coming back to my left foot. (By the way, I have been striving to avoid Daniel Day-Lewis jokes, but even my doctor can’t stop himself, so what can I do?) Today when I walked around, and my thoughts turned to my heel, I felt good about it. Because today when I walked around, my heel felt just fine. And I was going to go for a run outside. No matter what.

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