Getting the Itch

Training Summary

This was a very cold and snowy week; Monday through Friday was cold and the weekend brought a heap of snow. Probably the best part of the week was getting in a solid workout on Tuesday. It isn't anything jaw dropping, but it marks a dramatic change from my previous three workout disasters. Also, working the GBTC Invitational on Sunday was a good way to get myself itching to race. It is easy for me to get into a mindset where I am content with just running every day without working out or racing, but the thing I like about running is competing, much more than training. I put in the miles to be fit to race, not just for the heck of it. My plan is to start racing in two weeks at the Marathon Sports Super Sunday 1oK in South Boston. Finally, I finally got in that 80 to 85 mile range that I have been talking about for months. Now the trick is to keep it there.

Monday
70 minutes
Tuesday
25 minute WU, 5 x K in 3:11, 3:07, 3:08, 3:07, 3:08 with about 2 minutes rest, 40 minute CD
Wednesday
100 minutes
Thursday
90 minutes
Friday
60 minutes
Saturday
120 minutes
Sunday
80 minutes
Total
600 minutes (about 85 miles)

Holler of the Week

One interesting thing happened to me this week that wasn't really a holler but sort of counts. I was coming back home through Mattapan on Monday night and a guy in a wheel chair asked me if I could help him get through an alley to get to the street on the other side. I agreed and pushed him through about 200 meters of slush that would have been almost impossible for him to make it across on his own. As I struggled to maneuver the man and his chair across the ice and snow, he asked me if I had run Boston and congratulated me on completing the marathon. He thanked me many times and introduced himself when we finally got to the sidewalk. The reason this interaction stuck with me is because I was apprehensive to help him when he asked. It wasn't the best area of Boston and the alley was out of plain sight. The guy was black, was not clean shaven, and his clothes were a bit worn. The rest of my run, I tried to think over why I was hesitant to help him at first and which parts of the situation caused me to be a bit leery about pushing him through the alley. I've ended up thinking the situation over on most of my runs this week and I don't think there is an easy answer, at least not one that I have come up with yet. It seems to me there is a line somewhere that divides being rightfully cautious and being racist or discriminatory and I don't know that I could say where that line is.

Epiphany Story of the Week

During recess on Friday, one of the Epiphany graduates started showing some of the younger kids a few dance moves. This eventually developed into a full fledged dance circle with the highlight occurring when a pair of twin 5th grade boys got in the middle of the circle and started dancing to Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyoncé. Just watch that video and picture two ten-year-old boys who look alike doing that dance with huge grins on their faces. It probably one of those things where you had to be there, but I was absolutely dying. I can't even watch that video without laughing out loud. My goal is to get a video of the boys doing their dance with the real video projected behind them.

Song of the Week
Broken Social Scene's album, You Forgot It in the People, has been getting steady play on my iPod for the past month. It isn't new by any means and is definitely another instance of me hopping on something well after it was popular and faded out of the lime light. Of all the tracks on the album, my favorite is probably Shampoo Suicide. The video is kind of dumb but the song is great. Other tracks to check out include Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl, Looks Just Like the Sun, Cause = Time, and Lover's Spit.