Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

Archives for August 2008

Par for the course

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We hit the trail after a full day of scrapbooking together. I use the term scrapbooking in a very loose sense. What I actually did was write the stories for the pages in my running scrapbook which were scrapped over a year ago. It is hard to remember all of the details from these races. Since I had not yet begun to blog back then, I could not fall back on my writing for the reports.

I might have been able to keep busy by creating a few new pages however, given the fact that my blogging has taken over my scrapbooking time, I haven’t even printed the photos which I needed to do this. As Cindy feverishly worked on a book for her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, I tried to remember back 4-5 years ago. I am happy to report that I did make progress in recounting even the briefest of stories for the scrapbook pages. I even added them to my collection of race reports.

By the end of the day, Cindy, YaYa, and I were tired of being indoors. We went back to the same trail which we ran on yesterday for an evening walk. Almost immediately, YaYa was begging me for a piggyback ride. There was NO WAY that I was going to say yes to that request. As we came to the first of the Par Course stations, I suggested that YaYa give the exercise a try. He completed the first exercise. Then he did another, and another. Soon, Cindy and I were also working the stations.

We had covered 3+ miles, did all the exercise stations, and had a great time. By the time we finished stretching, YaYa had found another activity to occupy him. He was busy with a lizard which he named “Liz” (if it was a girl) or “Richard” (if it was a boy). It was par for the course; I swear this boy makes friends where ever he goes. Sometimes, I forget how young he really is. He had a hard time leaving his new found friend to go home. With a promise to return another time, he wiped away his tears, and we finally left for home.

In the long run

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I thought about my blog post, and how I would describe my run. I worked out the little phrases I’d use and the descriptions of how I felt as I plodded along. All of those thoughts have since escaped me. I have only the following dull description of my run for you:

Having not been able to join the team for this weekend’s coached run, I made plans to do my long run early. After all, what good is a vacation if you cannot go long on any day of the week. Wendy had graciously offered to have YaYa over while I did the deed. I left straight from her home in the effort to make the best of the time available.

Just prior to the starting out, I pulled out my iPhone to select the entertainment. I was a little disappointed to find my playlists had not transferred when I switched the computer which I sync it with. I decided that a sampling from my entire music selection would have to do.

With my varied taste in music playing in one ear, and the blowing wind playing in the other, I set out towards the trail. The music acted as a backdrop to the thoughts that went in and out of my head. I evaluated how I felt about the various things that entered my mind. Was I still angry, sad, or frustrated? There was a familiarity with this exercise. It was nice to come into the present. Sometimes a song would trigger a thought, and other times it helped me to escape one.

I wasn’t breaking any records during this run, but I felt good during the majority of it. I kept to the dirt whenever it was available, and kept my pace nice and easy. My only consideration was to be back at a reasonable time for Wendy. I sent her text message updates from each of my gel stops.

As far as my knee went, I only felt a twinge on only a couple of occasions. The first was as I stepped up onto the sidewalk, from the trail, while stopping for gel. It was no different than the feeling I get when entering my own house. Another time, I felt it as I was starting up again.

Around mile 10, the “bonk” began working on me. There were several suspects to blame for my bonking. First off, I could blame my light breakfast. I have not had much of an appetite before my long runs during this training season. Secondly, I only had two packets of Hammer Gel with me. Taking into account my light breakfast, three gels would have allowed more frequent fuel replacements. Rather than water, or Gatorade, I was trying out Perpetuem. Given all of the other factors, I cannot tell whether it had a positive or negative effect on my during this run. I can say that having it, gave me a false sense of security fuel-wise. The final suspect for my bonking was my lack of exercise during the past two weeks. This is nothing that I would change; my knee needed time to recover.

Needless to say, I was not interested in doubling back on the trail when my mileage came up short. I decided that a 14 mile run would be adequate and, if I felt that 16 miles was required, I would do a short run later in the day. This proved to be a wise choice as my stomach began cramping with gas pains and I was beat. I collected up YaYa (who had a fabulous time with Wendy’s son), and headed home for some post-run pampering which included a nice long nap.

On staycation

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We all wish for a little time to ourselves now and again. Solitude offers us time for a little introspection, a little reprieve from shuttling the little ones here and there, and time to just sit around and do nothing. It is a time to develop an appreciation for what we have.

Being alone is not all bubble baths and glasses of wine. It has it’s drawbacks too. There is such a thing as too much quiet. The profound loneliness of my empty nest, however temporary, was a reminder of a future that I don’t want to face. I realize that I have plenty of time between now and the time where both boys will be moving out. Still, 1 1/2 years has already gone past and I am no closer to moving on. My mind cannot even entertain the thought of a relationship with anyone else but Tom, and yet I know that I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life. BoBo is already entering his junior year of high school, and YaYa is only 6 years behind him. What IF I am still alone by the time both kids are moving out? Hopefully, I’ll be better at being alone by the time my nest is emptying.

After two full weeks of time to myself, I had my fill of alone time. I was ready for screaming boys, and mouths to feed. I was even ready for empty cartons of milk in the refrigerator, wet towels on the bathroom floor, and ongoing requests to shuttle here and there. I was certainly ready to give up the early calls from YaYa in NY, and late chats from BoBo in Hawaii. My son’s vacations were exhausting me.

BoBo’s flight arrived first, and I was thrilled to hug my son who now towers over me once again. YaYa’s plane arrived the following day. He also seemed to have grown in the time that he was away. I soon found myself driving down the freeway with a car-full of testosterone-driven farts and burps, bickering and name calling. As the radio was overtaken by music foreign to my ears, I wondered just how long it would be until I’d want some solitude once again.

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Whistle while you work-out

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There hasn’t been a lot of running going on since my knee started ailing me. I skipped my long run and didn’t do much in the way of cross-training. By the time the track workout rolled around, my knee pain and popping had quieted down considerably.

Earlier in the week, I had managed to talk BoBo into joining me at track. Not only did I want to show off my boy, I also wanted him to kick some 20-something year old arse. My hopes, however, were knocked to the ground when the boy failed to lift his own tushie up high enough to clear a large rock which rope swinging. The resulting abrasion would not only prevent him from running comfortably, it would also prevent him from sitting. I made him tag along anyhow.

The workout started off-track with a 15 minute warm up on the trail. We returned to the track for your drills and dynamic stretching. Afterwards, we began a fartlek workout that was whistle driven. During this workout, the coach blew the whistle signaling us to run fast. He then blew it again for the runners to slow down. The whistle blowing continued at random intervals for 30 minutes.

I only felt my knee during the warm up run. I hit the track ready for an intense workout. I had wanted to show my son how hard I was trying to get back into shape. It was funny, but I wanted his approval. So, I was a little disappointed when he grabbed the keys and retreated to the van. Even though it was cold outside, and he didn’t have a jacket, I wanted him to stand by and watch.

I quickly got over the disappointment of my teen acting like a teenager, and got on with my task at hand. Once I figured out that the longest interval was only 1 minute, I was able to push myself even harder. And I was pleasantly surprised when I came up the straight to see BoBo standing on the sidelines watching me. He’d found my spare jacket in the van, and came back out into the cold. I smiled, waved at him, and kicked a little 20-something year old arse.

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