Ever Have One of Those Days?

Had this for a while, but it still rings true

Selected Reading from The Runner’s Field Manual

 

This NEVER Happens…

Yes Please!!

 

Get dirty this weekend kids!

Ugggg, how did I use to do this?

When I started running, there was a period of 3 months where I did mainly stair climbing at an outdoor set of steel steps (300+ of them).  I’d trot to the stairs, and trot home, occasionally adding a few extra kms here or there generally building my strength base before tackling any major mileage.  At one point (to break the monotony of the continual up & down) I started having a beer (or three) before I left the house, then hit the stairs grinning like the Cheshire Cat at my private joke. Eventually I started running seriously and practice fell by the way-side…mostly.

Last night we had a few friends over for dinner, and to be honest I had no idea how long the evening would last. I had 6 easy kms on the schedule but whether or not I’d actually get to run them was still up in the air.  Fortunately everyone had things they needed to do and everyone left in a timely manner, UNfortunately though, after a few drink over dinner I decided it’d be a REALLY good idea to finish all the “left over” beer before I went for my run…after all,  it was just an “easy 6km” …(I’ll take “drunk logic” for 200 please Alex).

The run itself went fine, albeit slow, but this morning was a different story.  I don’t know how I used to do this on a regular basis and enjoy it, but I can tell you that surprisingly (or maybe not); it sucks now.  Live and learn, live and learn…

Now I’m off to run some lunchtime trails and hopefully sweat the poisons out of my body, and clear my aching head. Why do I constantly have to be the example of what NOT to do?

Use your brain kids 😉

NIKE – Find Your Greatness

Dr. Daniel Lieberman’s 5 Do’s and Don’ts of Running

Stolen from Pete Larson over at Runblogger.com

Sweat Your Thorns Off 5km

Hey all,

I ran the Sweat Your Thorns Off 5km virtual race today, well…that is to say, I was out there moving my feet and trying to purge every once of water from my beautiful body, and I did one of them successfully.

I managed to pound out a 25:30 5km which seems to be my typical time for this race; I’ve done it twice so far, once last summer and another one this past winter , and I seem to finish right around 25:30 no matter the terrain/course/mindset I choose.  Unfortunately, every time this virtual race comes around it seems like I’m in the wake of an injury or simply too busy to take it very seriously, it’s no slight to the race, but it never seems to jibe very well with my calendar.  Regardless, it was nice to have an external motivator to force me to get out on a 30C (40C) day that would have seen me hiding from the giant blazing orb in the sky otherwise.  Sweat be dammed, I had a good time.

Thanks Adam, hope the event went off without a hitch.

Keep cool kids, it’s a hot one out there!

So how have you been?  As I’ve alluded to over the past couple of posts, July has been a bit of a gong show, nothing major has happened but AGAIN I find myself trying to find some motivation and direction.  My vacation was good, I managed to keep active throughout the week with trail runs, bike rides, kayaking, swimming and lots of walking, but by the end of the week I was simply exhausted.  The week after that was filled with catch-up tasks from our week away and in conjunction with the summer (hell-on-earth) temps, my training took a significant hit.  Once it cooled a bit I was able to get back out on the trails which felt awesome.

Shortly after I tried to do some speed work one day at lunch, and by mid afternoon the nagging pain in my left hamstring told me that I had pulled it.  As an aside, I’m really starting to notice my need for a significant warm-up before workouts lately.  I used to be able to simply crank out my run as soon as I was out the door, but now it takes me a full kilometer to get into the groove.  Jumping right into 100m sprints simply to save time leads to injury kids, write that down, that is gold.  You’d think that after hurting my back deadlifting without a warmup I’d have gotten the message…apparently not.  Dumbass

Long story short, since then I’ve fallen off the wagon.  Once injured I packed up the tent and went home, and looking back it’s kind of embarrassing how easily I gave up but it’s in the past and all we can do is learn from it or ignore it.  On that note, I’ve started back running again and hoping to remember what I’ve been taught by experience.

Have a great weekend kids