Seven Days in a Week – Advent Day 7

An unusual thing to think of when one considers fitness gifts, but 7 days in a week works out extremely well for periodization.

Monday’s a success just to get out of the door, and can be turned into a great day with a great workout. During the fall and darkest winter, it’s also usually a pretty great day to spend an evening in the pool when others are plunked down on the couch watching the gridiron.

Tuesday’s great for continuing momentum, or as a second chance when Monday just doesn’t happen. Natural day to ride if you’re doing a 4 or 5 day per week running program (Easy run Mon, ride Tues, Track run Wed, ride Thurs, race pace Friday, long run Saturday, long ride/easy run Sunday). And, it’s not Monday.

Wednesday – Stupid camels. But, it’s halfway to long-run Saturday, and a great, great chance to either kill an early AM hard workout, take a long lunch and do a mid-week stretch workout, or still salvage a slow start to the week.

Thursday – Full of grace. Good time to do some Pilates and think about long, lean, and strong, or ride, or spend some time in the pool working on smooth strokes and tight flip turns.

Friday – School’s out for summ… er, yeah. Great day to make sure everything’s loose and ready for long run Saturday.

Saturday – Fire up the smug, ‘cause when you get to your kids’ soccer game, everyone will be in awe that your big mileage is done. The downside is that the alarm doesn’t stop for the weekend – good runners are good parents. The sweet, sweet reward is not feeling guilty one bit when the feet go up on the couch or hammock, and the eyes go shut until the first “Hey, my brother just…”

Sunday – Honor the Sabbath and keep it rolling. A-Merckx.

RoadRunner, I’m in Love With Massachusetts – Advent Day 6

Until about 6 months ago, I’d never heard of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. Then, Wilco does a night of covers at Solid Sound 2013, and once I’d gotten over the brilliance of “Get Lucky”, I picked a new favorite song. Roadrunner, with its name check of Stop and Shop (Groceries) and cold weather, and driving past neon lights full of angst.

Obsession again, would’ve worn out a cassette tape of the concert if we were still living back in 1987. Then, my internet man-crush on the cataloger of complete world knowledge doubles back on itself, with John Hodgman getting involved with the Bay State’s legislative process to make Roadrunner the official state song of Massachusetts.

Oh, yeah – running.

One of the joys of my work is that I get to go talk to folks who are like wicked smart on a pretty frequent basis. Friday, I got to head up to MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory for a day of getting my mind blown. On my way out, a colleague who knows I like to go strange places and run says “Hey, are you running this afternoon?”

“Sure”, I say.

So, we trundle off to the base gym, change, and he points me over to the MinuteMan Trail.

And for the next 40 minutes, I, like Jonathan Richman and John Hodgman, was in love with Massachusetts.

New England late fall is gloriously gloomy – dark early, grey skies, biting cold – and yesterday was about as textbook as it gets. Whisps of fog blew across the ancient track, past the spot where Paul Revere was captured by the British, past stone walls older than the country, and past anything other than the sheer joy of oxygen, gravel crunching underfoot, and feeling coming back into my cold fingers. The ghosts of the Regulars and Minutemen came into mind from the fog, and the hoofbeats of horses carrying news of a single lantern were echoed in my sneakers.

Running in a new place is a joy. No better way to get a feeling for a location. I’ve had the pleasure of traveling all over the world, and my finest memories tend to revolve around sneakers and exploring. Even places I know take on a new look when the ground’s passing underfoot at 80 steps/minute.

Finished up the run as the last light faded and the fog turned into rain. And spent a quality drive out of the state with rock ‘n’ roll cranking out of the speakers.

(At the risk of too much Masshole-ism, don’t forget to listen to “Case Your State“, which is NSFKids, but is comedic genius.)