Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Yesterday almost felt like a step back and I'm afraid that, along with a weak Monday effort, this week is destined to be a battle to even 30 miles.
I spent the entire day kind of in a slump and was fortunate enough that, since it was a WOG night, I would have no other choice than to simply suck it up and run at least some sort of minutes. At 10 til, I threw on the iBlax and cap and rode down to Reid Park where I arrived just in time for the stretching.
The bike ride over had started to entice the endorphins and I began to consider the pros of a hard effort that evening. Honestly, I'm no fan of hard work because it is hard. Being the vicious Cath-22 that it is, I'd say it's easy to tell why a guy of few motivations like myself hasn't ran a speedy step since around eight months ago.
Then Abdi went by as he was leaving. I'm not even sure where he is competing next (Chicago?) but his presence alone was enough to suck any drive that I had developed on the bike over, right out of me. And this was the real feeling of running insignificance that only someone THAT good can do to you.
I can accept that my days of being ahead of J are over. I can accept that my best odds against ChampionsEverywhere Mike is to hope that the reaper notices he's a decade older than me and, thus, hands me a victory by default in somewhere around the year 2060. Watching high school kids come out and lay the wood down all over me is something that I can live with these days. I can say, with all honesty, that I do not go to races or look at results and, in an attempt to stroke my ego that didn't have the balls to be in this competition, try to figure where I 'would have' or 'could have' placed.
Still, I'd much rather like to at least be able to act like I think I could even fool myself into thinking I'm not slipping (slipped?) into something other than a recreational, weekend warrior-type runner. A jogger. Slowing times happen -- I'd just like to be able to regain the mindset to put in more efforts.
Honest efforts = workouts causing prolonged and often extreme discomfort and focus to complete that afterwards, you can just walk away from and know that it's all in a day's work.
I haven't done a Fartlek in about 4 years. The last time I ran up anything I would consider a hill was before finals in the Spring.
I'm missing that humility -- or I am overcome by it, I don't know.
So anyways, I ended up just doing a run around the bike path at some comfortable pace before biking my sorry ass home. At this point, my week's mileage total is 6. I'm hoping my grump is little more than the results of me being unable to escape this newfound coldweather now that the window in my car is stuck in the down position and my house won't have heating until next Wednesday.
It'll be alright. Sucking just sucks.
I spent the entire day kind of in a slump and was fortunate enough that, since it was a WOG night, I would have no other choice than to simply suck it up and run at least some sort of minutes. At 10 til, I threw on the iBlax and cap and rode down to Reid Park where I arrived just in time for the stretching.
The bike ride over had started to entice the endorphins and I began to consider the pros of a hard effort that evening. Honestly, I'm no fan of hard work because it is hard. Being the vicious Cath-22 that it is, I'd say it's easy to tell why a guy of few motivations like myself hasn't ran a speedy step since around eight months ago.
Then Abdi went by as he was leaving. I'm not even sure where he is competing next (Chicago?) but his presence alone was enough to suck any drive that I had developed on the bike over, right out of me. And this was the real feeling of running insignificance that only someone THAT good can do to you.
I can accept that my days of being ahead of J are over. I can accept that my best odds against ChampionsEverywhere Mike is to hope that the reaper notices he's a decade older than me and, thus, hands me a victory by default in somewhere around the year 2060. Watching high school kids come out and lay the wood down all over me is something that I can live with these days. I can say, with all honesty, that I do not go to races or look at results and, in an attempt to stroke my ego that didn't have the balls to be in this competition, try to figure where I 'would have' or 'could have' placed.
Still, I'd much rather like to at least be able to act like I think I could even fool myself into thinking I'm not slipping (slipped?) into something other than a recreational, weekend warrior-type runner. A jogger. Slowing times happen -- I'd just like to be able to regain the mindset to put in more efforts.
Honest efforts = workouts causing prolonged and often extreme discomfort and focus to complete that afterwards, you can just walk away from and know that it's all in a day's work.
I haven't done a Fartlek in about 4 years. The last time I ran up anything I would consider a hill was before finals in the Spring.
I'm missing that humility -- or I am overcome by it, I don't know.
So anyways, I ended up just doing a run around the bike path at some comfortable pace before biking my sorry ass home. At this point, my week's mileage total is 6. I'm hoping my grump is little more than the results of me being unable to escape this newfound coldweather now that the window in my car is stuck in the down position and my house won't have heating until next Wednesday.
It'll be alright. Sucking just sucks.
