Run anyway

Today, all the voices were working against me. All the excuses were wailing at me. It's too cold. [It's 59°.] My feet are sore, and my back hurts. [That's almost always true.] I should take a rest day. [Then just run two.] Skip it and run trails later tonight. [Later never comes.] All these voices, I'm proud to say, were shouted down.  I ran anyway. Maybe that ought to be my new motto for the second half of 2010 -- Run Anyway.

This weekend was tough and exhausted me.  I ran and played with my daughter at her school picnic Friday.  We ran/walked through a scavenger hunt, had lunch, and ran/walked on a hike to see a remote control plane demonstration.  I don't think I logged many total miles, but it was a busy day.  Then, on Saturday, I ran a tough trail run with a group of Louisville hashers.  The shiggy was thick, and at times, I ran at a crouch through the underbrush like an honest-to-god harrier.  This was after a day of shopping at our city-wide yard sale.  Finally, on Sunday, I wanted an easy day, but the daughter still managed to run me ragged with adventures, expeditions, and shopping. 

I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Sprints.  I haven't run in them yet -- I'll let you know when I do -- but I have walked quite a bit in them to break them in.  They are very comfortable.  For now, I recommend them.

O HAI

ORN: Fivish miles in something like an hour. Or so. I was hashing so time is a bit of timey-wimey, jumbly-wumbly stuff. I ran in the woods and got filthy, OK?

These pages have been gathering dust lately, and in truth, so have my running shoes, in a manner of speaking.  I only ran about 20 miles for the whole month of January. February is shaping up to be a little better.  Pretty shabby for a running blogger, but I think thanks are in order for not forcing you to endure entry after entry of commiseration and whining, bitching about being unmotivated, complaining about weather.  You're welcome.

So what have I been up to?

• Getting fat. I've gained back all the weight I lost from Chicago marathon training thanks to lots of beer and a shabby diet.
• Socially running.  I started running with a group from our local Hiking Meetup.  They get together every Tuesday and run in Iroquois Park, so that's one training day a week at least.  I've also started hashing with a local kennel, giving me another training day per month.
• Treadmill work.  The crappy weather has kept me from wanting to run, and so in order to stay in shape, I have resorted to the treadmill.  I've done about six treadmill workouts.  I think it's helped my speed, but I hate it so much that I seldom run more than 3 miles on them.
• Working. Seriously.  Work has been a problem lately.
• ???