Welcome to the theNoosphere.com.
If this is your first visit, please take a minute to find out What We're About, then check out Joining TN and our FAQ. If you like what you see and think TN might be a good fit for you, REGISTER your free account today and let your voice be heard. We hope to see you inside.
|
This blog is all about running. Sort of.
 |
Posted 03-09-10 at 09:45 PM by Henry
Three weeks into training, I'm finally getting some distance out of my runs. Not a lot, but something that isn't embarrassing to admit. The first two weeks all I did was walk. Week One was 20 minute walks. Week Two was thirty minute walks. Week Three, walk-running. And my last run I did thirty-five minutes of five minutes walking/five minutes running. Went over two and half miles.
For those of you who have been following this blog since the beginning you may be wondering why the heck I'm starting out so slow. Marathon training is different than 5k training. Keeping the legs strong and healthy is far more difficult, and so my runs will be much slower, and over much softer ground. Increases at this stage will be pretty gradual. Ok, back to the point of this entry ...
So yeah, I'm finally working up to a decent speed and a decent time ... and then I get a cold. It's funny, but throughout the winter ... through the H1N1 scare of October and November, to the Incomparable...
|
Administrator
|
|
Comments 0
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 02-25-10 at 04:24 PM by Henry
Updated 02-25-10 at 09:32 PM by Henry
I dialed the number. I could hear the phone ringing. This was it. If he picked up the phone there was no turning back.
“Hello.”
Here we go. Full steam ahead.
“Hey Mike, it’s Hen.”
“Hey man, what’s up?”
Last chance. Make something up or you’re doing it.
“Mike. It’s been ten years. It’s time.”
Pause.
“No way in hell, my friend. But good luck to you.”
“Understood.”
And it was done.
I did understand, of course. Mike and I don’t live as close to each other as we did back then. And he’s married with three kids now. But he deserved the first call. He jumped into the breach with me ten years ago when I announced to the world I was planning on embarking on an insane, crazy journey of training for and running a marathon with no previous experience. He ran the long runs with me and kept me going when my knee gave out. He was at the starting...
|
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 1
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 02-18-10 at 05:45 PM by Henry
Updated 02-18-10 at 08:16 PM by Henry
It is time.
I have to apologize, loyal readers, for leaving you all in the dark these past months. Lately, 40 has been rearing its ugly head in my direction. I hit The Big Four Oh in two months, and since my last entry middle age has assaulted me with more bad ankles, kidney stones, a broken wrist, and several yards of impassable snow. So I have reacted to this onslaught the best way I know how: Sit on the couch, eat lots of snack food and nap a lot. Sadly, none of these activities make for very good blogging material. Hence, my absence.
In addition to my lack of blogging, I have to admit mild depression has set in. I didn’t think 40 would bother me when the time came, but I guess it has a little. I blame my various recent ailments (and the snow) but whatever the reason, I have come to realize I am now beset with a full-blown case of Mid-Life Crisis. This has led me to consider how exactly to deal with said Crisis.
My first option, research...
|
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 4
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 07-23-09 at 04:51 PM by Henry
Updated 07-23-09 at 05:31 PM by Henry
Well, here I am outside my house, staring at the straightaway.
It looks a lot longer than I remember. It’s hot outside. High 80s at least. And humid as hell. I should go back inside. I’ve got a perfectly legitimate reason to stay off the road today.
Bah. Just take a step. Go forward. See what happens. I’m not breaking any records today. I’m not planning any heroics. I’m just going to go for a slow walk around the block to see if the foot feels any better …
***
It’s been a full ten days since I last ran. I’ve only run three times this entire month. Some time in late June I noticed a soreness around the back of my left heel. I tried to ignore it and run through it a few times but it just got worse, even when I slowed down to just two 11:30 miles. After a quick search on the internet I found what I was looking for: Achilles Tendonitis. The first thing I had to do was stop running entirely to avoid making it worse, or even rupturing...
|
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 1
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 05-02-09 at 05:09 PM by Henry
Updated 05-03-09 at 12:52 AM by Henry
Friday was Race Day.
After months of training I was finally going to get the chance to test my mettle in true competition. My sister and personal running Guru had selected the Crystal City 5K and agreed to run it with me. It was a good choice for me because the race starts at 6:30pm and I prefer running later in the day. First thing in the morning has never worked for me. The only thing I like to do first thing in the morning is drink coffee. If someone else makes it.
My sister and I met up at the event an hour early to sign up and familiarize ourselves with the surroundings. It was a nice flat course and the weather was absolutely perfect. About 70 degrees and overcast, so no sun would be bearing down on us during the run. It threatened to rain the whole time but never did.
All manner of runners were there to sign up. Young and old, thin and fat, and whole lot of regular Joes like me. At one point my sister asked “why is that guy wearing a... |
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 6
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 04-27-09 at 04:27 PM by Henry
I’ve never been much of a drinker. Well there was that stint in college but that was decades ago. These days, sharing a beer with my wife at dinner is a crazy party. So the other night, the night after my birthday when my lovely bride fixed me a Gin and Tonic, it was quite the event. (After years of diligently aging, I have pulled to within one year of four decades. These days on my birthday I wake up, go to the mirror and shout “YES! Made it through another year! Good job, me!), The second Gin and Tonic was pretty good too. So was the third one. Some time later I’m pretty sure I did a shot of tequila. And then I slept well.
I awoke the next day to the harsh reminder that I’ve never been much of a drinker. For some strange reason I felt exhausted all morning. Two cups of coffee didn’t help. On top of that I was pretty achy and was having trouble focusing. Somehow I managed to get the kids out the door to school and trudge up to my office and collapse at my desk. Making...
|
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 1
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 04-16-09 at 04:53 PM by Henry
Updated 04-16-09 at 07:45 PM by Henry
Yesterday marked the nine-month anniversary of the day I stepped onto the pavement for the first time in eight years and staggered my way through one mile of utter running hell. Since then I’ve run my way through blistering heat, frigid cold, equipment upgrades, course corrections, bad music, wardrobe malfunctions, backaches, knee aches, leg pains and minor surgery.
Tomorrow, I will run three miles, and my lungs will be fine. My legs won’t hurt. My attire will fit properly, and won’t be too hot or too cold. In other words, it will be a hard-earned routine day.
In a couple weeks, May 1st to be exact, I plan on running my first race in almost nine years. Weather, family and old age permitting, of course. A Friday 5k in Crystal City. There’s nothing spectacular or fancy about this event. Apparently it’s a weekly thing that is generally only attended by regulars, so I’m fully preparing to finish near the back. But after nine months of running in circles,... |
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 4
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 03-19-09 at 04:43 PM by Henry
Updated 03-19-09 at 04:54 PM by Henry
I got the watch, and I know it works.
So now I have to actually use it.
I have to go out into the world and run. After I’d made the decision to get the thing I was excited at the prospect of having such freedom. Of being able to run anywhere I wanted and have this device keep track of all the details for me. But last week as I stepped off the sidewalk and stared down the road I have to admit I felt some trepidation. Other than a very few exceptions I’ve been running the exact same route these past nine months. The same one-mile lap over and over, every run. Like my old shirt, the route had a certain familiar comfort to it. I knew every turn, every hill, which neighbors would wave back at me and which would scowl, which trees to duck under, which hedges hid beehives … you get the idea.
But as of today that was no more. I was going into uncharted territory. Today, I was a brave explorer of the Unknown. Roads not traveled (well, not run on anyway)...
|
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 1
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 03-10-09 at 09:09 PM by Henry
So the other day I ran two miles. Medium fast, about ten minutes a mile. I’d been feeling pretty good lately and the next day I decided that, even though my legs had trouble keeping up with running every day, I could at least walk on my off days. So out the door I went and walked two miles.
That didn’t work.
My legs ached terribly that night and the next day my left knee was throbbing in pain again. Needless to say this left me a bit frustrated. How am I ever going to become a world-class runner if I can’t even WALK on my off days? That night I consulted my Personal Fitness Guru (my sister) and she told me that I needed to stop running on sidewalks. In the past I always scoffed at the notion that a concrete surface is sooo much worse for one’s legs than, say, dirt. Or even asphalt. But my knees were no longer laughing, so I had to admit that I might need to vary my courses in order to soften my running surfaces.
Last week, due to an unseasonably...
|
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 9
Trackbacks 0
|
|
Posted 02-17-09 at 01:24 PM by Henry
Updated 02-17-09 at 01:35 PM by Henry
Following my Trial By Ice last week I had two uneventful 3 mile runs. Nothing spectacular to report other than the fact that I got through them without any trouble, which considering the reduced frequency of my running in the cold, is actually pretty spectacular.
Now I haven’t forgotten my ultimate goal of running three eight-minute miles. And I have been adding some two mile tempo runs here and there when I get the chance, but I haven’t really cracked the 9:30 minute-per mile barrier. Given the weather in January it’s a miracle I’ve been running at all. Anyway, my standing rule is to try and get in one 2-mile tempo run a week, and so on Friday I went out he door in the hope that I could match the pace I kept while sprinting through the Tundra the week before.
Unlike the week before, the weather was perfect for running. 50 degrees and sunny. No dodging ice slicks or outrunning Swirling Winds of Death this time. Feeling encouraged by this development I set... |
Administrator
|
|
|
Comments 3
Trackbacks 0
|
Noosphere Translation powered by 
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 08:21 PM.
|
