Gratitude Post - Things I'm Grateful For About Running

Been a while since I've posted here, though all's well. Had a nice trip to Europe last month and in between it's all work, work, run. Work, work, run.

Marathon training under the tutelage of my coach has gone very well. Not flawless, as I my shin can be a whiny baby when the speedwork ramps up and I just got over a nasty cold, but very good. I'm running similar times for my key workouts that I did 3 years ago when I PR'd with a 3:18, but am doing it on higher volume. Not to mention, I'm older now, so I "only" need a 3:20 to get to Boston. So there's that.

At any rate, I feel like doing a gratitude post: Things About Running I'm Grateful For:

1.) My Zensah calf sleeves. I wear them a lot. It's like a snuggy for the knees-down. I need to either order a new pair, or try out similar stuff from 2XU or CEP Compression.

2.) The quiet in my head after long runs.

3.) Runner's World Magazine. Even though I most skim the how-to articles because I run to my own drummer, I love the feature stories. This month's on Scott Jurek is awesome, but truth be told, I feel that way about their feature stories pretty much any month.

4.) My coach, Missy Foy. I haven't been coached since college, and it's been a great experience for me. Most notably, it makes me tougher on the key workouts as I think about how much I don't want to e-mail her crappy times, so I push it harder.

5.) My Garmin. I can't say I love it all the time. I took a Garmin break in Europe and enjoyed it, but it's a simple way to know how you're doing when you want to know how you're doing.

6.) Rest days. I don't really like running, but I really like having run. A rest day is the pinnacle of that achievement.

7.) Endurox. I get sick of most of the drinks, gels, etc, but not Endurox. It tastes like a job well done, to me.

Popular posts from this blog

The gun in my basement.

Image
In my basement, I have a safe. And in that safe, under expired passports and birth certificates, there's a gun. It's unloaded. Hasn't been loaded in probably twenty years, and yet every time I take it out, I check to make sure. If you're a gun nerd, it's a 9 shot .22 revolver. On this website , it says that "it is true that many people have been killed by a .22 LR in the course of history," but the writer concludes that this weapon is a bad choice for self defense. I didn't buy it for self defense. I didn't even buy it. It was my father's and after he died, my mother gave it me, along with an Elgin watch he'd worn for years. The watch was weathered and worn and I took it to be restored. The jeweler refused, saying it was worthless. Two decades later, the watch is still in my jewelry box. There's no need for it to be locked up. I have no idea if this gun is in my possession legally. No idea if my father had a permit for it, or w...
Read more

Happy D-Blog Day, Uh, I Guess...

So according to diabetics blog-wide, today is D-Blog Day, the day when those of us affected by diabetes are supposed to blog about it. Or draw awareness to diabetes... Or something like that. I'm really a bad poster child for the disease. Not because I'm not in great control (actually, I am), but because I've just never been bothered by the disease so much. Red sums it up well in Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living, or get busy dying." So if living means three blood sugar tests a day, so be it. If living means being hooked up to an insulin pump, go to it. That being said, I feel for anyone with diabetic kids... I'm a tough guy about the disease. I wouldn't be if my kids had it. If either of my kids had diabetes, I'd be screaming about the politicians who are spending money on wars instead of research, and I'd be yelling about the schools that make it difficult to be a diabetic in the classroom. But my kids don't have diabetes, so instead I ...
Read more

The Bright Side

“ And if you ever get scared, look on the bright side: You’ve got a new life.” – Amos Lee Last month, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Since then, I’ve tried to write this essay a few times. The first attempt followed a narrative arc rife with suspense, with a few years of frustrating doctors’ visits, mysterious symptoms that came and went and the all-around sentiment that the batteries that powered my body were no longer able to sustain a charge or be fully refueled at the end of the day. But if you Google Lyme disease, you realize there’s nothing unique about that story. In fact, the reality that my own diagnosis came only two years after all of this started makes this a much shorter story than it is for many. The theme of the second version was more pitiful, tinged with regret about what this had taken from me over the past two years and what it might take in the future. But honestly, that one didn’t get far at all. If there’s a good time for something like ...
Read more