When I started writing thoughts in my head on this blog, it was mostly because I got tired of telling myself I should do it. The Mrs started running on a dare years ago and invited me to join her after a local marathon she did not finish. You see, when she started running races, I was her cheer squad. At first, it was just being at the finish line, but then I wanted to be more part of it, so with each course, I became more emboldened to find places along the course to cheer her on. The more spots I could find with each race, the better I felt, and the more I saw her surprised smile. Internally, it became a challenge for me to review the course, plan a strategy, and try to execute it. Remember that this was before we had the intelligent trackers we do today. I knew her basic pace time and guestimated how long it would take her between points.
While we didn’t have all the tracking technology, we had the basics, and even I strapped on a step counter with a distance tracker, and we realized that I was going a similar distance as she was. So she asked me if I would run with her, and I said sure, thinking running a race with her was a casual thing that couples do.
Where am I going? Well, I have never run with anything other than the thoughts in my head, and they always shouted little tips n tricks I wanted to remember for the next run. It could be how my feet felt, something I wore, wondering if there was a better way. And with each run, I said I should vomit the info into a blog to use it for the next time.
Here I am, a couple of weeks in, and today is the first day I tried to do just that. Can I use the data from the 11th and improve the run today? Well, I did improve, but at the same time, I failed.
Today’s Distance – 5.03 mi
Time – 1:02:23
Average Pace 12:24 /mi
The 11th Distance – 4.57 mi
Time – 1:03:19
Avg Pace – 13:51 /mi
Yay! Pup n I improved! We went a little further and a little faster.
What went wrong? Things I knew was that the pup could use a little fuel and water to give her a boost. I took neither on the run this morning because it was raining, unlike a week ago. So I failed to apply a lesson learned even though on Friday I took both water and food for her on the hike (which was a longer distance and time, so it made sense.)
Maybe for a one-hour or five-mile outing, it is ok?
The weather was a wild card that threw a wrench in my plan. I dressed for warm weather, and when I let the pup out this morning, there was rain on the deck, so I changed. I contemplated the impact on the pup and me but went for it. As it turned out, the rain stopped when I changed clothing and was only impactful as the trail was wet.
So, have I learned something? Is the blog helping me? I think a little, and when I think about it, it seems like it could be more, better, and less free thought. I will ponder how I could structure each post with succinct data, maybe a pic, and then the text, so three parts to every post. It reminds me of Harvard Graphics and overhead projectors, but that is a different story from another life.
For now, let’s put a pin in this, and I’ll noodle how to be better.
Thanks for reading.
Mama’s Friend.