October 2006 Archives

Last weekend I bruised one of my toes on my 20 mile run. This, in and of itself, is not that strange.

What is strange to me is that it's the middle toe of my right foot. Again.

The big toe? The little toe? That would make sense. The middle toe? That I can't figure out.

I normally run in the morning. Like, before the sun comes up - which is sick, but it's the only time I can easily carve time out for myself, what with the job and family stuff and all.

When I'm out, I always greet the people I see with a "Morning!" Sometimes the exclamation mark is a little quieter, you know, cause I'm running up a hill or away from their dog or something, but I always say it. And I almost always get a response in kind.

This weekend I ran my 20 miler in the afternoon, and I noticed two things. First, I didn't know what to say to people as I went by. "Hi?" "Hey?" "How's it going?" "Nice legs?" "Grunt?" Nothing really rolled out nicely. (I finally settled on "Hi.") And second, very few people acknowledged that I had said anything.

Afternoon runners and walkers - they're an unfriendly lot.

Last fall I got hurt while training for a marathon - I completed everything up to the 20 mile run. 11 miles in to my 20 I shut it down.

So I had some issues with the 20 mile run.

Last weekend I had another chance to get that monkey off my back. Saturday afternoon I headed out to cover the distance. I had one slight problem - a dead AAA battery in the footpod of my Polar RS200 - but otherwise it went great.

I was totally dreading this distance, but it went really well. I felt like I held pace through the whole run, and that I had something left in the tank when I finished. I am very surprised to tell you that the run really charged me up for the marathon. Who knew?

Anyway, running 40 miles last week - and getting out of the "vacation eating" mindset - got me back on track weightwise as well. The chart to the right is updated, click away.

Recently I've traveled to Amsterdam, London, and Chicago. Amsterdam is a great place to run early in the morning. It's very flat. You do have to watch for cyclists and the occasional uneven cobblestone but good nonetheless. London's Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are also fine running spots - a little hilly but very nice. Chicago? Couldn't tell you a damn thing about it. I had my shoes and running clothes in my suitcase and they stayed there until I got home.

Oh well. Sorry Mr. Higdon.