I’ve Come a Long Way, Baby: A Weekend of Runs

It is Monday morning at the time of this writing. I’ve started writing this blog post three times and still haven’t gotten around to finishing it. I’ve been busy; I’m preparing to move out of my mom’s house and into my own apartment (I’ll spill all the juicy deets about that in another post). This involves not just packing up my stuff, but packing up all of my mom’s stuff. And my grandmother’s stuff, much of which my mom kept. Letters, books, clothes, pots, wine glasses. Old bills, broken remotes, thousands of photographs. Preparing for an estate sale (a phrase I never thought I’d say). Donating items. Packing things. Throwing stuff away. Many trips to the recycling bin. Bubble wrap. Boxes. Tape. More tape. And even, some more tape.

Born to Run Fourteen Miles

Fourteen. A good number, if numbers can be good, and I think they can be. It’s the age I turned when I received a cassette tape of Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven on Earth as a birthday present. It’s also the number of miles I ran yesterday morning – my longest run to date.

What Sunday Is For (Hint: It’s Pancakes)

Ah, my first Long Run Sunday in three weeks. The weather was perfect: low 50s, overcast, a cool breeze. I went out on the faster side, at about an 8:30 min/mile pace for the first mile – faster than I probably should have. I eventually settled into a slower rhythm because

1. the bottom of my left foot started feeling weird about 5 miles in (it’s okay now)
2. I ran a race yesterday
3. it’s my long run and I shouldn’t really be trying to set a speed PR
4. I can do what I want

Mini Boomboxes and Major Pancakes

My old Jabra headphones are DEAD. Done. Kaput. I charged them after yesterday’s run but when I went to check on them last night, the charging light wasn’t on. So I figured, okay, I won’t have headphones for this morning’s 10 miler. I realized that I could still play music from my phone – it just wouldn’t be going directly in my ears.

So that’s exactly what I did. I blasted one of my running playlists right from my phone on my arm, like a mini boombox, for 10 miles. And it was great! I didn’t mind it at all – until I got home and realized that the high volume I had it set on drained almost my entire battery. So I may not do it all the time, but every now and then, it might be fun to skip the headphones and entertain passersby with Nine Inch Nails and Madonna and Billy Idol and my eclectic mix of 80s pop.

Everything Hurts and I’m Dying

Ah, my favorite day of the week. Long Run & Pancake Day.

One of the biggest challenges for me right now is speed: speed work needs to be faster and long runs need to be slower. I thought about this this morning. Speaking of which: