Junk Miles?
Did the same workout for the third consecutive Thursday. A slow 4 mile loop in the early morning and a moderate paced 8 mile loop with JH during lunch. Former run was around 36 minutes, latter run was in 64:25.
Since I am taking it easy this week I went back and forth with myself over the point of doing the morning workout. What finally got me to go was, in light of the snow in today's forecast, if I work out some this morning that would be less miles stuck on the hamster wheel this afternoon. But then during my run I could not come up with a satisfactory answer for why I was running, besides padding my weekly mileage. Paradoxically, however, I enjoyed the run. My legs felt very fresh and I felt happy to be outside, perhaps because there was no reason to be out there. So I'll call it a mental health run.
The weather forecasters were correct and it did start snowing at around 11. JH emailed me saying he was going to bag it but changed his mind when I said I'd go anyway. The conditions were fine, as the snow wasn't sticking yet to the asphalt and was not deep so that the few areas where we ran over unpaved surfaces felt soft and springy. We talked a while for the first half of the run and then just ran for most of the second part. Finishing felt good (my legs felt great today) as I imagined I did something heroic in braving the snow to get my run in. We're supposed to get up to eight inches, and the is snow falling outside my window as I write. Now I can say let it snow!
Lots of thoughts popped into my head over the last 24 hours that I contemplated including here.
I went to a seminar on the Mill Creek neighborhood and the interaction of environmental and socioeconomic forces on this neighborhood. The Mill Creek is a stream that was put underground about 100 years ago but still makes its presence felt on the neighborhood named after it, which is a physically and economically run down low-lying area in the northern part of West Philly. The neighborhood moniker isn't too well known, so I was a bit surprised when I recognized much of the landscape in the slides from parts of several of my loops. Suddenly I was putting pieces together and the repetitive traipsing across this terrain let me recognize details that were crucial to the points being made. This synergy between running and urban ecology really excited me, and on the way home I figured that with some minor variations in these routes I can cover much more of this area and maybe it will lead somewhere. Stay tuned.
The other thought I want to put down is that I spent a good chunk of time writing this morning, working on a paper I'm writing on the "geography" of mental illness and spending time untangling various ideas I have on how to frame my results. The whole process felt like a workout, setting up my workspace (I stayed home and worked in the kitchen), fixing a pot of coffee and then immersing myself in it, and then coming out about an hour and a half later. Mentally it really felt like a workout and excited me to the possiblities of applying this paradigm to my writing on a regular basis (this blogging doesn't count, its just for fun).
If I could write like I run, I could do amazing things.
I should paste that last line somewhere prominent where it could alternately either inspire & haunt/taunt me.
Since I am taking it easy this week I went back and forth with myself over the point of doing the morning workout. What finally got me to go was, in light of the snow in today's forecast, if I work out some this morning that would be less miles stuck on the hamster wheel this afternoon. But then during my run I could not come up with a satisfactory answer for why I was running, besides padding my weekly mileage. Paradoxically, however, I enjoyed the run. My legs felt very fresh and I felt happy to be outside, perhaps because there was no reason to be out there. So I'll call it a mental health run.
The weather forecasters were correct and it did start snowing at around 11. JH emailed me saying he was going to bag it but changed his mind when I said I'd go anyway. The conditions were fine, as the snow wasn't sticking yet to the asphalt and was not deep so that the few areas where we ran over unpaved surfaces felt soft and springy. We talked a while for the first half of the run and then just ran for most of the second part. Finishing felt good (my legs felt great today) as I imagined I did something heroic in braving the snow to get my run in. We're supposed to get up to eight inches, and the is snow falling outside my window as I write. Now I can say let it snow!
Lots of thoughts popped into my head over the last 24 hours that I contemplated including here.
I went to a seminar on the Mill Creek neighborhood and the interaction of environmental and socioeconomic forces on this neighborhood. The Mill Creek is a stream that was put underground about 100 years ago but still makes its presence felt on the neighborhood named after it, which is a physically and economically run down low-lying area in the northern part of West Philly. The neighborhood moniker isn't too well known, so I was a bit surprised when I recognized much of the landscape in the slides from parts of several of my loops. Suddenly I was putting pieces together and the repetitive traipsing across this terrain let me recognize details that were crucial to the points being made. This synergy between running and urban ecology really excited me, and on the way home I figured that with some minor variations in these routes I can cover much more of this area and maybe it will lead somewhere. Stay tuned.
The other thought I want to put down is that I spent a good chunk of time writing this morning, working on a paper I'm writing on the "geography" of mental illness and spending time untangling various ideas I have on how to frame my results. The whole process felt like a workout, setting up my workspace (I stayed home and worked in the kitchen), fixing a pot of coffee and then immersing myself in it, and then coming out about an hour and a half later. Mentally it really felt like a workout and excited me to the possiblities of applying this paradigm to my writing on a regular basis (this blogging doesn't count, its just for fun).
If I could write like I run, I could do amazing things.
I should paste that last line somewhere prominent where it could alternately either inspire & haunt/taunt me.
posted by seebo | 4:06 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Seebo,
I heard about your blog from the PR message board and have been following it ever since. Just wanted to let you know that reading your blog has helped me stay motivated with my training!! Thanks and keep blogging!
steve d
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