If the Thunder Don't Get You. . .
Then the lightning will.
Okay Scott, what song is that lyric from? Good to see you this morning, btw, as we were running in your neck of the 'hood.
I was pleased with myself for getting in my workouts over last weekend's ski trip. At the time of my last blog entry, I figured that I'd just fall back into my usual routine. I figured wrong. Without going into details, I couldn't get up either Wed. or Thurs. mornings. Took a dnr on Wednesday to rest up from the weekend, and my work schedule conspired against me to keep from making up my workout on Thursday. Thursday's workout was tougher to miss because it lost a track workout. Friday I overslept again and knew I was on a slippery slope. When I get to this point, it gets really hard to turn the momentum around. Especially yesterday, with a raw north wind blowing hard and my having to run in the afternoon, I was not in the mood to do it at all but I knew I had to.
The run was as bad as I thought it would be. I planned to do 15 around the Drives with the Drives part at marathon pace. But I was not feeling energetic and upon hitting MLK felt the full force of the quadri-directional headwind, so I decided to just run it and to cut it down to 13.5 by going over the B-N hill and back through Fairmount Park. The whole run was basically a long lonesome slog, with my hip still nagging and the only consolation being that I finished the run. Time was 1:47:50.
Similar cycle again this morning. Yesterday morning I foolishly posted on the Philly Runner's message board that I was going to do 2 river loops at marathon pace. After yesterday's run I changed my mind and decided to go up to Bryn Mawr to run with the store guys at 8 am, but my transportation arrangements fell through at the last minute. That led to plan C, in which I joined up with Erin, KJ, English Mike, Jim & Marita, who were to do one of Erin's favorite jaunts up through the far NW corner of Phila (hence the run in with Scott). Wind was from the South today, which meant it was a bit warmer but it really wore me down on the Cobbs Creek leg all the way down to Woodland Ave. It brought up flashbacks of Grandma's Marathon in 2004, which was 26.2 miles of Lake Superior headwind. My legs felt absolutely dead and my hip continued to ache. The two didn't appear to be related, but I can't tell that for sure. The loop was 14 miles, and I wanted to tack on a few afterwards, but my digestive system vetoed that idea at the last minute. My watch said the 14 went in 2:02:59, but, while we were slow, it didn't feel that slow.
I finished the run feeling very depressed. January was a great month and now at the end of February things feel like they're on the verge of falling apart. I have had no energy this week and I have a hip problem that's on the verge of forcing me to take time off. All this with the racing season effectively two weeks away.
So I'm planning to run with the Philly Track Club guys tomorrow on their long run from Manayunk. Weather calls for the winds to continue unabated. I suppose I'll either feel alot better or alot worse.
Round, round, Robin run around
Gotta get back where you belong
Little bit harder, just a little bit more
Little bit further than you gone before
I also caught up on my trek across America today. I had about 150 miles to plot. That was just about the distance from where I was to Matewan, WV. Matewan is on the Tug River right on the West Virginia-Kentucky border and was one of the flash points in the coal miners' struggle to unionize. There is a rich history here, which I spent awhile reading up on. That part of West Virginia went from pristine to industrial in a very short period of time, leading to miserable conditions for the miners and what appears to be an incredible fervor to organize. Following the events alternately known as the "Battle of Matewan" and the "Matewan Massacre", the miner's organized in an armed rebellion estimated at around 5-10 thousand persons in the largest insurrection this side of the Civil War. Damn. Walmart workers should read about this.
Did they teach you that stuff in history class, Ian?
Matewan is also ground zero for the Hatfield and McCoy feud, commemorated with a marathon that finishes in this city. I remember seeing this article about it in Running Times; the author, John Kissane, is a guy I ran cross country with in college. Of course, whenever I see a marathon website I go right to the results, and see that less than 200 people ran it last year.
Alot of links today. Shows I learned something, which is why I do this virtual run across America. Now to figure out where to go next.
Small wheel turning by the fire and rod
Big wheel turning by the grace of God
Every time that wheel turn round
Bound to cover just a little more ground
Okay Scott, what song is that lyric from? Good to see you this morning, btw, as we were running in your neck of the 'hood.
I was pleased with myself for getting in my workouts over last weekend's ski trip. At the time of my last blog entry, I figured that I'd just fall back into my usual routine. I figured wrong. Without going into details, I couldn't get up either Wed. or Thurs. mornings. Took a dnr on Wednesday to rest up from the weekend, and my work schedule conspired against me to keep from making up my workout on Thursday. Thursday's workout was tougher to miss because it lost a track workout. Friday I overslept again and knew I was on a slippery slope. When I get to this point, it gets really hard to turn the momentum around. Especially yesterday, with a raw north wind blowing hard and my having to run in the afternoon, I was not in the mood to do it at all but I knew I had to.
The run was as bad as I thought it would be. I planned to do 15 around the Drives with the Drives part at marathon pace. But I was not feeling energetic and upon hitting MLK felt the full force of the quadri-directional headwind, so I decided to just run it and to cut it down to 13.5 by going over the B-N hill and back through Fairmount Park. The whole run was basically a long lonesome slog, with my hip still nagging and the only consolation being that I finished the run. Time was 1:47:50.
Similar cycle again this morning. Yesterday morning I foolishly posted on the Philly Runner's message board that I was going to do 2 river loops at marathon pace. After yesterday's run I changed my mind and decided to go up to Bryn Mawr to run with the store guys at 8 am, but my transportation arrangements fell through at the last minute. That led to plan C, in which I joined up with Erin, KJ, English Mike, Jim & Marita, who were to do one of Erin's favorite jaunts up through the far NW corner of Phila (hence the run in with Scott). Wind was from the South today, which meant it was a bit warmer but it really wore me down on the Cobbs Creek leg all the way down to Woodland Ave. It brought up flashbacks of Grandma's Marathon in 2004, which was 26.2 miles of Lake Superior headwind. My legs felt absolutely dead and my hip continued to ache. The two didn't appear to be related, but I can't tell that for sure. The loop was 14 miles, and I wanted to tack on a few afterwards, but my digestive system vetoed that idea at the last minute. My watch said the 14 went in 2:02:59, but, while we were slow, it didn't feel that slow.
I finished the run feeling very depressed. January was a great month and now at the end of February things feel like they're on the verge of falling apart. I have had no energy this week and I have a hip problem that's on the verge of forcing me to take time off. All this with the racing season effectively two weeks away.
So I'm planning to run with the Philly Track Club guys tomorrow on their long run from Manayunk. Weather calls for the winds to continue unabated. I suppose I'll either feel alot better or alot worse.
Round, round, Robin run around
Gotta get back where you belong
Little bit harder, just a little bit more
Little bit further than you gone before
I also caught up on my trek across America today. I had about 150 miles to plot. That was just about the distance from where I was to Matewan, WV. Matewan is on the Tug River right on the West Virginia-Kentucky border and was one of the flash points in the coal miners' struggle to unionize. There is a rich history here, which I spent awhile reading up on. That part of West Virginia went from pristine to industrial in a very short period of time, leading to miserable conditions for the miners and what appears to be an incredible fervor to organize. Following the events alternately known as the "Battle of Matewan" and the "Matewan Massacre", the miner's organized in an armed rebellion estimated at around 5-10 thousand persons in the largest insurrection this side of the Civil War. Damn. Walmart workers should read about this.
Did they teach you that stuff in history class, Ian?
Matewan is also ground zero for the Hatfield and McCoy feud, commemorated with a marathon that finishes in this city. I remember seeing this article about it in Running Times; the author, John Kissane, is a guy I ran cross country with in college. Of course, whenever I see a marathon website I go right to the results, and see that less than 200 people ran it last year.
Alot of links today. Shows I learned something, which is why I do this virtual run across America. Now to figure out where to go next.
Small wheel turning by the fire and rod
Big wheel turning by the grace of God
Every time that wheel turn round
Bound to cover just a little more ground
posted by seebo | 8:44 PM
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