Good Weekend, Good Monday

The cool thing? This post represents 11 miles, which is huge. The not-so-cool-thing? 7 days since I was last on a bike. The completely uncool thing? I cannot recall the last time I swam.

Friday

Three-ish miles on the cliffwalk with guys from work. There’s two guys on my team here at the lab. Both only a year or two out of school, both pretty fit in the rock-climber/gymnast anerobic kind of fitness, both novices as runners. Given that I’m in shape in the sense that “round” is a shape and need to get back on the wagon (not that it’s gone that far down the road), I figured I’d try to recruit these guys as running partners.

We hit the CliffWalk after work – three miles from First Beach down to Ruggles and back. Good times, good times. Jon, a EE (pronounced “Double E”, so it is proper to use ‘a’ instead of ‘an’) has a thing for jumping onto and over stuff, which is fun to watch. Weather was pretty crummy, 40’s, grey, and windy, so the walk was pretty deserted.

Saturday

That morning, I took the kids to swim class at the Y. My wife had headed down there a bit earlier, and the plan was to leave my car at the Y while we went and hunted the wily and dangerous Easter Egg. The hunt was successful – eggs were found by both boys, and no fists were thrown. Lunch and a nap for the youngest followed, and I set off to retrieve the car.

It was a bit odd doing the home-to-Y run, as I’m used to doing it the other way. But, it was nice, being that it’s downhill from our house to the Y. I think I’ll miss the Y after global warming washes it away, but it’ll be awful nice having the beach just down the street instead of a couple of miles away.

I stopped at the coffee shop as I jogged through downtown. A buddy of mine was fixing the front door (he’s a friend of the owner’s, and hangs out ther on Saturdays). I helped; we chatted. A doorknob was replaced, free coffee was offered, and I finished the jog down Route 1.

Funny postscript – sitting in church the next morning, another transplanted southerner by way of the Navy (my oldest’s got a crush on his daughter. As in the kind of 7 year old crush where the boy just wants desparately to be noticed by the girl and doesn’t realize that the girl just really isn’t that into dinosaurs or bugs) turned around before the service started, and said “Hey, I saw you running yesterday.”

“Yeah?” I answered.

He continued “Yeah, I was just heading out; we were getting ready to send off some folks who found new jobs, and I was on my way out to get ice and…” he just kind of trailed off here, in that weird kind of limbo that folks get in the south when talking about booze in the presence of the Lord. “uh, stuff”.

“Cool,” I said. “Good sendoff?”

“Yeah,” he said, happy to have someone else who speaks his language.

Monday

I’ve finally picked up running at lunchtime again. Jon B. went along again, and we added Jon K, my running buddy from last summer.

Something is in the air, for sure, ’cause for the first time in 3 springs here, there was literally no room to turn around in the men’s room/locker room in the basement of my building while we were dressing to head out. Crowded, crowded.

On the road, the day was phenomenal. Not too windy, not too cold. Which isn’t to say it was perfect – mid 40’s and on the verge of being blustry. There were a couple of legs of the run that still felt like a winter run, but there were a couple that were amazing. Jon B. ended up walking the last mile, but that’s OK. Jon K. and I offered to walk with, ’cause we’re both seriously out of shape, but B. waved us on. Only took once, ’cause it just felt good to be out.

Postscript

I think my ankle problems are a stride-related thing. I’ve gone back to being a heel striker, and I’m not sure if it’s a shoes thing, or a lazyness thing, or what. Regardless, I’m starting to wonder if maybe I shouldn’t try a pair of motion control shoes once I wear these out, or end up in too much pain to keep running again.

I’m also playing with my gait – picking back up on the “run on your toes” mantra. I watched a couple of other runners over the last couple of days, and the guys who were passing me never seemed to be touching their heels to the pavement at all, but running on the balls of their feet. Thinking about soccer last Sunday, it struck me that most of that running was ball-of-foot based. Sprinting and turning fast. Not a lot of heel there, and I felt fine Monday and Tuesday of last week.

I tried it a bit on Saturday and today, but am not sure if it’s going to take. I can only go about a quarter to a half of a mile that way. May have to look into Pose/Chi, ’cause I think that there may be the need for a total rebuild of my stride here.