A place to store my thoughts until I figure out what to do with them.
I ran across a website today that has gear reviews for runners. I was particularly interested in the shoe reviews. I have written one review and will be working on another one later.
There are many other things the site offers, but the shoe reviews interested me the most. I thought I would just point it out to other runners who read here. It was new to me.
Today I read an article written by Dave McGillivray, the race director for the Boston Marathon. He was talking about the use of iPods specifically, but what he meant was MP3 players in general. However, he does point out that the iPod was the biggest brand he consistently saw.
The rub is whether headphones are good and healthy for runners. As a race director of a USATF sanctioned event, he has to lay down the law and say that no headphones are allowed. This is for insurance purposes, but also has social reasons. He does a good job of pointing out the reasons why one should not wear headphones while running. I agree with many of his reasons.
However, I run almost all of my training runs with headphones. If I am fortunate enough to get someone to run with me, then I will not take my player with me at all. Or, sometimes during speed workouts I will ditch the player. Those are times that I am focusing on the event and not the podcasts. But at all other times I wear my headphones during training.
I used to wear them during races too. After my 3rd race or so, I gave up on them. I wanted to experience the atmosphere as a whole and do my best while running. I really enjoy chatting with other runners. While I am not a competitive runner, I do try to push myself at races.
There has been quite a bit of discussion about this topic at another site that I visit regularly.
Today was a “speed work” day in my training. I had planned to trot down to the track that is about 3/4 mile from my house and then run 2 X 800 meter repeats. I needed to run a mile for my speed session. Last week I did 4 X 400 meters. My training plan does not specify how I need to do the speed work, it just specifies the distance.
I got to the track to find the gate was locked. That is the first time that has ever happened. I am not sure why it was closed unless it will be closed for the 2 week summer vacation that the university has. I hope not.
As a result I did a bit longer of a loop and made it back home for my warm up run. I then stretched for a bit and got ready to just run around my house for 1 mile. No, not in my house, but in the streets around the house. I have a 1 mile course laid out for such occasions.
I did not give myself much of a break before I started off on my speed run. I was supposed to cover the mile between 8:36 and 8:55. I ended up with an 8:57 mile. So I was on the slow side, but not horrible. However, I was quite wiped out after the run and just did a 10 minute cool down walk instead of a cool down run.
Tomorrow is a rest day from running. I will put the dumbbells to work. I will get both my sisters to clean the house and wash the car.
Yesterday morning on my run I almost sent a little dog to the grave.
I was coming up to an intersection which had a dog sniffing through some trash. Apparently I run quiet enough that the dog could not hear me until I was right on it. When he saw me it scared him (no comments please). He took off running away from me, right under a VW Jetta. The Jetta tried to stop when the dog realized his plight and turned to run back towards me. Because of this, when the Jetta hit the dog with his tire, it just squeezed the dog out and to the side of the road. He jumped up and scurried off behind me. He looked to be fine.
While I am no great lover of dogs, I don’t want to see them killed or maimed in this way. Especially 3 feet away from me.
Of the dozens of dogs I see each run who are under no human care, this one was actually a nice looking Cocker Spaniel. Seemed to be well groomed and fed. It was by no means a pure bred dog, but it did appear to be someone’s pet.
“Hot and sweaty” is a phrase we say a lot around here. Our daughter (3 years old) has gotten to where when she sees us all hot and sweaty she asks, “Are you hot and sweaty?”
This morning I had come in from running after the kids were sitting down for breakfast. They had already prayed for their meal and were enjoying their eggs. I sat down and was, of course, hot and sweaty.
When I bowed my head to pray our daughter was just starting to say “Daddy is hot and sweaty.” With my head bowed she added, “and tired.”