2024

Some numbers from last year:

  • Running – 124.4 miles. Most of that probably walking
  • Cycling – 1,477 miles – better than I thought. I think mostly outdoors
  • Weight – Started at 215, ended at 225. When I started this blog, I was at 180. 
  • Posts in 2024 – exactly one.

But, my doctor described me as “a very pleasant 50-something male … Normal appearance. He is well-developed”. Which, I suppose is true.

On the plus side, 2022, while being lighter, was far less fit:

  • Running: 102 miles. Definately most walking
  • Cycling: 1,949 miles – this actually surprises me a lot. But, I think much of this was trainer miles in the fall / winter.
  • Posts: 4

So.

I suppose I’m not really complaining, just using the blog to think again. 

F*ck.

So, way back in the day in January, I wrote some stuff about how 2022 wasn’t going to be a crap year like 2020, or 2021.

Well, apparently, I lied.

Anyway, I come not to bury Billy, but to figure out how to save Billy.

Actually, I don’t even really need to figure out how to save Billy – we already know that. Consistency is all I ask. Mediocrity is all I plead. I need to eat less crap and move more.

So, I moved today. Weather was glorious, played hooky from a meeting.

More tomorrow.

2022

Haze grey and meh temperature. Much like many New Year’s Days past, and like many more to come.

Oh, wait one – I was about to write resolutions; ought to go get started on them first.

Alrite – I’m back. Actually ran today, then slow ride to the Y and a K in the pool.

2021 was a good rebuilding year – I think I’ve worked through my ankle issues that have been plaguing me since 2016. I got back in the habit of working out most days, and I’m in a decent mind space. I’ve been doing yoga and seeing changes in posture and muscle.

So, pretty bullish on 2022

Goals:

  • 10 miles / week running; 500 miles total for the year. This is 3 5k’s a week, and I think the legs are up to it
  • 50 miles / week on the bike; 2500 miles total for the year. Without really trying, and with 2 months off the bike when I borked my arm, I came within 100 miles of this in 2021. Least ambitious goal.
  • 2,000 yds/week swimming, 60k total for the year. I’ll be honest – I’m a crap swimmer, but can knock out 1k in less than 25 minutes, and think I can really pick it up. This is 2 swims per week. The yearly total is way off because I think I’m going to travel more, and can’t always find a pool.
  • The new goal is 5x week on doing at least 10 minutes of yoga. The Apple+ workouts have been awesome, and I really feel an improvement in the last quarter.

Oh, also more pictures. Failed that today.

A runner, if you can keep it

Hi.

Two posts in 8 days. Which is something that I haven’t done in, well a while.

This afternoon was small child’s last home cross-country meet in high school. Small child who couldn’t hold his head up by himself when I started this blog. Small child who can now operate a motor vehicle by himself, and who, I hope, will be out of the house starting to adult in a mere 11 months. If college counts as adulting, which is up for debate. But Mrs. Jank and I are really trying to make him drive that process.

So, I ditched work early and headed off to Haley Farm State Park where Fitch hosts their home meets, and where I’ve ran probably 400 times, especially when the men’s group was younger and still running. I love this park. In a lot of other places, and at an earlier time, it probably would have become a subdivision. But, one of the positive outcomes of Connecticut’s style of NIMBY-ism and property taxes is that there’s a whole lot of large-ish parcels of land that get converted into nature preserves or parks close to where people actually live. Haley Farm is one of those. And, Fitch High School borders here, so the XC team has trained here for decades.

Anyway, I can’t recommend XC as a sport for kids enough – next to no equipment, minimal coaching, tires them out after school for several months each year. Usually takes advantage of public land. Kids get out of it what they put into it, and everyone pretty much improves over the season. Spectating is good – sit in a field and watch the kids run and the sun set.

Anyway, good race. Stonington’s got a kid who’s amazing. Crushed it. Minute or so ahead of two kids from Norwich, who were about 20 seconds ahead of one of the kids who’s grown up alongside small child. Kid’s been a phenom since middle school – scored (finished in the top group from the school) in his first race in 6th grade, which is amazeballs. Small child came in 6th for Fitch for the second time this season, which means he’s a letterman again.

Hung out after the race for the traditional roast of the seniors and cake. Mrs. Jank dragged the kid home, and I put on the sneakers and headed out.

The good news is that I think between rehab and almost a year of pretty much not running, I’ve healed my left ankle. What did I do? I:

  • Stayed off it for the better part of 6 months
  • 3 months of pretty dedicated PT and stretching
  • A false start and more pain
  • Losing 10 pounds
  • More stretching
  • 6 months walking in minimalist shoes
  • And a super cautious return to running

I’ll do a post another day on the minimalist thing – I’m still walking and using them for day to day activities, and I think it’s helped, but the experiment in running minimalist didn’t. But, after a month of very slow building, I’m up to 2 miles a run, about 3 times a week.

By running, I mean “Galloway-ing” – running with good form til I’m tired, walking for a minute or two, and then running with good form til I’m tired again. It isn’t the fastest, but it’s keeping me not broken.

Run was ideal – the weather was low 70s and dry; the course was mostly dry but not dusty, and the light through the trees was dappled and beautiful. Breeze was blowing, but not enough to be a headwind. Grass on the trails had been mown probably late last week.

Run was good. I didn’t feel pressure to push through sketchy sections, but being out on the trails was good. Set a third personal fastest time heading up one of the hills I haven’t run in 18 months, which is nice.

It’s so nice to see that I might still be a runner after all.

Shamed into a 5K

So, I’m kind of back to square 1 with running. There’s a lot of backstory that I hope to cover as I get back to blogging, but suffice it to say, today was kind of a breakthrough.

A friend from WAY back shamed me into signing up for a 5K for a cause from the town I went to high school in. One of those friends I couldn’t say no to. So, I did, with the thought that I could walk it, worst case. Had a week to do it, and waited until almost the last minute.

And it was awesome.

Today’s probably the first real day of spring we’ve had, as opposed to a warm winter day. Sunny, gentle breeze, tons of tourists. Did some work this morning for a friend who’s started a charity to fix up homes for lower income people. Then did some work around the house (but not too much, because who actually wants to be finished with work around the house?)

Finally, it’s almost supper. So, it’s either run or let down a friend.

Out I go. And, strangely, the legs seem to work.

Just before the turnaround, I run into a friend I haven’t talked to in years walking his dogs the other way. So, I tell him I’m almost to the turnaround, and I’ll stop in a couple minutes. Hit the turn, which is longer than I’ve run nonstop since August, run back to the friend, and have an awesome walk for about a quarter mile catching up.

He gets to his turnaround, we say some goodbyes, and I run back to the house.

The legs were good. The ankle is good. The day was perfect, and the run was better because I didn’t stress about the run.

More, please.

A Perfect Mile?

Forgive me, please.

I used to be a golfer. Kinda.

I was born an Air Force Brat, so, I think teaching me to golf was something that my dad had to do as part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Growing up down south, the town I was in had a robust set of municipal courses, and was dirt cheap for high schoolers. So, I spent a lot of Saturdays with a buddy looking to get picked up as a fourth with some of the older golfers. Some of it was a love of the game; a lot of it was old white dudes like to feel cool by sneaking young white dudes cold brewskies.

Anyway, one of the things that’s stuck with me from my golfing days is the concept of the perfect shot. The shot that makes you sing in your loins.

Yeah.

So, the conceit is that at least once each loop you’ll hit a perfect shot.

The perfect shot is instantly understood – everything feels smooth, the sound of the club connecting with the ball resonates, and even before you finish the follow through and raise your head to the heavens to watch the ball arc through the sky, you know the ball is going exactly where you wanted it to go.

A good golfer gets a couple of perfect shots a round. A pro might get one per hole and make a career out of it. But even a duffer, even a beginner, even a middle class white teenager buzzed off of two Michelob Lights sweating in the late morning summer sun in the South, is going to get at least one per loop.

And that’s enough to get you to come back the for the next round. Maybe enough to get you to go to the driving range in the middle of the week to work on the swing.
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I think there might be a similar thing with running, and I think I hit it tonight.

It’s not the fabled “runner’s high”, which is, itself real – that hits towards the end of a long run, when occasionally the body will choose delirium instead of quitting, and it is glorious.

Instead, it’s a mile that just goes right. It doesn’t not hurt, it doesn’t feel effortless, it’s not necessarily easy.

But it’s a mile that just kind of floats by, exactly like it should.

I think I had a couple of perfect miles tonight after the sun had set behind Jamestown. I was moving, not pushing, but feeling the effort. I was aware of the wind, the crunch of the gravel beneath my feet. I made eye contact with rabbits, and tried to will them to stay still as I ran past, then felt kinship with them as they hopped away from the trail.

It was unexpected – I was pretty wiped from work today, and had pretty much planned on phoning in a mile on the treadmill and calling it another day on the streak. But, as I went to get changed out, the air just felt right, and I decided I may as well make it a real run.

I’m glad I did – there was at least one perfect mile, and it makes me want to chase the next one.

Movember Moment

I think that #rwrunstreak is beginning to catch up with me after 18 days. I knew I was a little tapped out today, but jumped on the treadmill after work to stay on task. Did 1.1 miles at about 11 minute pace, which, were I rested, should barely get my heart rate above Zone 1; instead, the average for the run was in the upper half of my Zone 2. It didn’t hurt, so I got it done, but definitely will not be staying up late tonite.

After logging the mile, I jumped on Zwift to actually make some progress on their Movember challenge. It’s not really a huge challenge – 9.9 hours of some sort of exercise during the month of November, but it still kind of amazes me that I’ll actually log fitness to get some sort of virtual swag, as opposed to logging fitness because it’s actually, well, good for me…

Whatevs. The cat kept me company – she’s been being more social lately, which is kind of odd.

OK, got this done, so let’s actually write for something worthwhile.

What am I running from?

So, I’ve been blogging again. And running consistiently again. Being a pessimist at heart, I’ve got to wonder “what am I running from?” These are some of the thoughts that went through my head while looking out over the Mystic River at the Naik Family YMCA (Seriously, the renovated gym really does look out at the sunset below, and the treadmills and bikes are all in front of a giant window).

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End. Less summer.

Part is NaNoWriMo – I think this is the first year in a while I haven’t even contemplated being a novel writer. But, I do still feel compelled to hammer out text. Which, as of late, has been going too much into Twitter. Not that I don’t treasure the twitter comerades that I have; I do. But it’s starting to feel like the Gen X version of Fox News. Not enough truly deep thought.

Second is momentary avoidance of the work I should be doing for grad school. This quarter is actually going pretty well – I am going to finish all my assignments on time, and be able to pass my first comp, but I’m not truly throwing myself into it. I do tend to make better progress on days when I write here though. Maybe the gears just need to be loostened.

I’m also running away from the guy who it would be so easy to settle into. I’ve always struggled with my weight, but over the last couple of years, it really has started to get away from me. I’m still not obviously fat, but I’m not necessarily obviously thin. Age is starting to catch up – there are many days when it would be so easy (and accepted) to stop struggling against gimpy joints, chafing, time constraints, whatever, and leave the shoes in the closet and the bikes hanging on the walls. To pop on another video, open another beer, and just … rest.

but mostly I don’t think I’m really running away. Mostly, I think i’m running towards:

  • Towards my lovely Boston qualifying wife. I don’t think I’ll ever get there, mostly because I’m not willing to sacrifice food like she has, but darned if I’m not going to make sure I can keep up with her on the bike.
  • Towards the me that I know I can uncover again. As long as i can keep moving, I have the potential to dig the skinny me out again.
  • Towards life after the kids leave the house, and after I no longer have to work full time. Sure as heck don’t want to spend all those years on the couch.
  • Towards setting an example for my kids.

Generally, I’m not a fan of the “life is a journey” metaphor. Journeys have a destination, and the only thing we’re guaranteed to reach is the grave. Screw that.

Maybe life’s more an exploration. With things to run towards, and things to run from. With new things to find, and with places to which you want to return. People you want to travel closely with, people you’re happy to stop awhile with, folks you want to wave for, and folks to avoid.

Whatever. All I know is that I banged out my 3 miles on the treadmill this evening because Nike told me to. And, somehow, I wasn’t in the same spot I started.

 

One Whole Hour

#rwrunstreak

It’s officially on. Actually, it’s always been officially on, I just finally got around to reading this month’s Runners’ World (I know they put the apostrophe in the singular place, but they shouldn’t. It should be inclusive).

Also, do you read SMBC? If not, you should.

www.smbc-comics.com/comic/hey

I will be happy when Siri can make sure I don’t buy the Haribo StarMix when I check out using my phone. “I’m sorry, cashier, but Bill needs help avoiding stress eating…”

Anyway, today’s run was outstanding. Nike+ said to do 6, so I did 6.

A couple of years ago, I kind of gave up on planning workouts and really stressing about training plans and so on. Part of that was getting Lyme disease, part of that was a change in work, etc. Whatever. Instead, I fire up the Nike Run Club application (formerly Nike+), pick the race I want to train for (or one of the 4 or 8 week training programs), and do what the machine tells me to do.

Today’s program was 6 miles. Since I’m historically slow, I knew that would be a little over an hour, so I popped on one of the guided runs in the app. It’s kinda silly, but having Coach Bennett in my ear helped the miles glide past.

It also helped that the day was about as perfect a running day as they come. Sure, it was right at freezing when I headed out about 930, but the air was still, the sun was shining. Strolled down to River Road (where i should have taken pictures but didn’t). Got to the midpoint of the run, then pushed a little bit past to run to the IH-95 bridge, because I knew that if I did that, I could walk back up the hill the house is on when I got back to the neighborhood.

And everything went according to plan. The sun shone, the breeze blew, and the sneakers slapped down on the ground.

Streak intact.

#rwrunstreak

Pretended I’m a runner and I looped it

So, the pre-streak is still alive after seven whole days. I’m actually kind of excited about that. So, what I’m trying to do is get a jump on the Runners’ World Run Streak for 2019. Easy rules: at least a mile a day, every day between now and the New Year.

Why?

Why not.

No, mostly it’s to celebrate no longer having a gimp ankle, to mourn being overweight and slow, and to rage, rage, against the dying of the (day) light (savings time). (Have I mentioned before how New England really should be in the Atlantic time zone? Sunset at 16:30 is BOOOOOGUS).

Anyway, today’s run was, well, pretty good. 4 miles is what Nike+ recommended, 4.2 miles is what I did. I even put in a tough effort for a half mile towards the end. Navy installations play “Taps” every night at local sunset. I’d set off knowing I would be ending about Taps, and when I heard First Call sounded, I put the hammer down for the five minutes between first call and Taps, and ended up with the last full mile at below 10 minute pace. Not historically fast for me, but I’ll take it.