1/10/2012

Coldness in the inside, mildness on the outside. I want to eat a pair of down booties.

Could not have asked for an easier recovery from the recent-ish longish run. Incredibly wunderbar. I think I am more thrilled with that than with the actual run. I didn't do anything special - didn't need to. I did take three of the World's Shortest Showers though, each clocking in at a BLAZING sub-three-hours. Something like that.

Yesterday unfortunately disintegrated into a number of stupid/boring variables that meant no running, which was annoying because I was not quite ready for an off day. Today was supposed to be a Tryon/Animal/Lines of Power exploration with Nebuchadnezzar....er, I mean, Luette, but more stupid variables threw knives at my equilibrium and this and that and bullshit. MUST go back there soon and play when fewer proverbial knife-throwing incidents are occurring.

I found (some semblance of) myself at the UMA "Fitness Trails". I used to run there a lot a few years ago, but hadn't returned in a while. They are geographically nearby Bond Brook but for some reason I am in adamant denial that they are as challenging. They always seem to have a welcoming gentle/filtering sunshiney thing going on when I am there, and I never know where the fuck any of the trails goes after the first intersection. Fortunately the entire trail system is relatively small (maybe a mile or two form end to end?), and they are all loops as far as I can tell. They are full of landmarks (which I tend to recognize better than intersections), and the sound of the highway generally always is off to a certain side.

The footing today was not bad -- wide flat doubletrack flowed over constant PUDs with hidden ice patches. Only had to slow down and pick my way a few times. The fact that running 3 miles took 40 minutes was entirely due to the fact that I do indeed run that slowly, of purpose, for real. If it pains you to read this, you can pretend that my technique is modeled after a Kenyan during initial pre-marathon warm up. This would be a fallacy, but this would also the be the internet, so it would be good practice for not believing everything you think you thought you read or perceived.

Right shin was a little funky. Same one as always. I was doing a bunch of technique stuff which does tend to irritate it. Pretty sure it's all just strength issues though - the area is under disproportionate strain I think since my foot likes to pronate, but I like to try to keep it in check.

I shambled past an old haunt: the music building.

Awkward moans and wails emanated from electric guitars as second-semester freshmen attempted to copulate some affection out of them. The low throb of the oft abused bass drum pulsed wretchedly as more youngsters haplessly humped the sin out of every (approximate) downbeat. Or maybe those were the sounds of every vagina for miles slamming shut in sympathetic fear that those guitarists were going to try them next.

But I digress.

The run seemed sort of pathetic but I didn't feel like running more, I felt like something else, so I went across the road (literally an figuratively) and lifted a bunch of heavy things many many times. Now when I put on soft music and go to oil my pecs in front of the mirror at night, there will be something there to oil.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2pm there will be running happening at Bond Brook in Augusta. Not sure who's going to be around, but this will be the fourth edition and so far I've not run alone. There is a chance that Trek For Peace is rather ecstatic about this.

I am becoming increasingly interested in spreading the word among cool people. Slowly. Possibly surely. ("I am serious. And don't cal me Shirley!" -Leslie Nielson) There aren't many trail runners around here. Might need to proselytize some select road runners. Maybe there should be a questionnaire. Do you like mud? Are you good with a headlamp? Do you like views, fake parkour and emergency bouldering? Are you okay with getting lost? Are you at peace with cannibalism if we get that lost? Are you wicked badass bub? Are you starving for whatever the fuck it is that makes us want to do this stuff that we do?

~40 minutes
~3 miles
More hills than I'd like to admit, but not enough that I'd prefer to discuss
Two longsleeved tops, pants, gloves part of the time.
Sunny, 27 degrees F