Running Ruminations

And here we are, more than halfway through the year. July was pretty busy and seemed to pass rather quickly, with just shy of 200 miles (198.1, one of the higher months this year), a 5 miler on the 4th in Ohio, my first Wharf to Wharf (and a top 100 finish), and of course, the Big One, the SF Marathon. The kids and I were in Ohio until about halfway through the month, visiting my family and soaking in all the quality time we could, which was awesome on all accounts.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve written pretty exhaustively about the aforementioned races at this point, particularly the marathon, so I don’t have much more to add, especially on the high-level side of things. Since SF, I’ve taken the past two weeks now pretty easily, running only twice in the week after SF (on Tuesday and Thursday, during swimming, for just about a half hour each) and then going to Disney and walking all day/night and pushing a double on Saturday-Monday. It’s a little weird to not be running a ton at the moment, but I think these two weeks of relative downtime will help me enter into CIM/XC training mode itching to go. In the two weeks post-marathon, I’ve run exactly four times. That’s it. (And honestly, the break was awesome).

 

 

 

Even with everything I’ve already said about SF, about being grateful to have been able to run in the first place, given the events 6 months ago, to have had an “off day” and still be in the 3:20s (and BQ mightily, etc. etc.), I feel kinda shitty to admit that I’m disappointed about how I ran. That also makes me human, so there’s that. It’s frustrating but obviously not the end of the world. This isn’t me looking for pity or the but SF is such a hard course! sentiments or any other justification; it’s more of me simply commiserating with everyone who has ever trained hard for a race and come up short. We can control a lot when it comes to training for and racing marathons, but there are also many aspects outside our control. It’s sorta part of the process. It’s cool.

The nice thing, naturally, is that you can pick your perspective on the situation as well as your focus. (There’s also loads to be said for process versus outcome-based goals, too, obviously). The best thing I can do is chalk up SF ‘18 as a learning experience and apply the lessons learned to subsequent training rounds, which is what I plan to do. I’ll start CIM/XC training here shortly, so I’ll have plenty of opportunities soon to test my knowledge. Can’t wait!   

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Running: The aforementioned July 4th 5 miler; Wharf to Wharf; and SF Marathon in July. I also got to meet-up in Ohio with my old high school track training partner and got to share some miles with her for the first time in 17 years! It was a blast running with her on an incredibly steamy morning and super fun to compare notes and stories from when we last saw each other nearly 20 years ago. She’s training for Marine Corps., and she’s going to do so well. (We’re basically leading somewhat parallel lives, albeit on opposite sides of the country. We had this going for us in high school, too.). I won’t be pacing the 3:33 group at the Santa Rosa Marathon this year, so I think the only races on the calendar for August are a couple XC meets.

Listening: Finding Mastery had a great conversation with Des Linden that was pretty interesting to listen to; I can’t remember off the top of my head (nor do I have it in my notes), but I also heard a really interesting podcast with Des and her agent, Josh Cox, in the past month. The latter may have been on the Rich Roll show. Also, NYT’s The Daily did a two-piece podcast on the history of Roe v. Wade that was pretty illuminating and something I found especially timely, given the upcoming confirmation hearings of Judge Kavanaugh and his potential to seriously threaten the longevity of the ruling. Ali on the Run also had a series of short podcasts with returning guests Ali Kieffer and Sarah Sellers that I liked, too.

Reading: I was on a reading tear in June, and once I finished my books in July, I hit a bit of a rough patch. I finished Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind which was worthwhile but weird as hell (I’ll never look at a mushroom the same); I wish he’d tour extensively about this book because I’d love to hear him live. Madeline Albright’s Fascism: A Warning was a must-read for anyone remotely interested in policy, international relations, politics, and the like. You get little glimpses of her life story, too, which I knew nothing about. I’ve since started The Handmaid’s Tale (my obligatory fiction read of the year, apparently) and am so far kinda eh toward it. I had heard such great things about the book and the TV series that I think I’ve come into it with unrealistic expectations. (And I’m one of those people who refuses to read the book AND watch the show; I’m either one or the other.) What have you been reading lately that’s worth picking up? Life’s too short to read stuff that we don’t find captivating.

 

Watching: I took my last couple days of tapering seriously and caught up on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (eh) and finally got around to watching The Greatest Showman, which I’m pretty sure has completely rocked my seven year old’s universe forevermore. (The soundtrack is basically in our DNA now, too). I started La la land but haven’t yet finished it and also got around to seeing Wonder Woman, which I left with conflicted feelings. I saw Incredibles 2 and Hotel Transylvania 3 with the kids and my nephews in the past couple months as well, and my kids have been obsessed with the “bad guy music” from the latter. I continue to be 1000 years behind on the latest and greatest in viewing entertainment, but I welcome suggestions.  Maybe I’ll get to them in the next decade.

 

Anticipating: The last week and a half of summer before both kids start school. I feel like we’ve had a great summer with all the travel we’ve been able to do and the quality time we’ve gotten to share with family and at home. The beginning of the year is always controlled chaos with all the different hats I get to wear, but it’s also a lot of fun. There’s nothing like new starts, right? Enter into the equation starting marathon training as well, and I look forward to how well I’ll be sleeping at night.

 

 

Dreading: Nothing especially comes to mind; I mean, I could probably think of something, but nothing leaps out right away, luckily. I’ve got some non-invasive medical follow-up stuff coming up in the next few months related to the prolific GI issues I had last year, but I’m not anticipating much there. (famous last words?) Oh, and it’s a ways off still, but my 35th birthday present to myself is … drumroll … a baseline mammogram. Hoo-ray. Thank you, insurance.

 

And now, we August.