Back on the Course

Training Summary
The race last weekend wore me out a lot more than I had expected and I ended up not doing any workouts this week as a result. Despite not running anything particularly fast, I still managed to get in some enjoyable runs. On Tuesday, I got to duck out from school in the early afternoon between lunch and swimming to get my run in. I did a loop through Milton that cuts through Blue Hills Reservation. We caught quite a bit of snow on Tuesday into Wednesday and it was coming down pretty hard on the run but it was great to run through the woods in the snow while having the solid footing of asphalt. I was initially planning to workout on Wednesday or Thursday but I felt tired and sluggish on both days and decided to bag my workout for the week. The long run on Saturday was probably my best run of the week. I met up with a big GBTC group at the BC T station and did an out and back on the marathon course. Fortunately, I felt much better than I had earlier in the week. We kept the pace easy on the way out and then picked it up a bit after turning around. Terry hopped in with the group for about 9 miles in the middle after he wrapped up a tempo workout and it was great to run at a quick but conversational pace. I had forgotten how much fun it is being able to clip of miles at a fast pace and still be able to comfortably talk with other people in the group. It was fun to be back out on the marathon course and there were tons of people out enjoying the nice weather. My guess is that it will only get more and more crowded over the next two and a half months. The drivers out there must hate this time of year.

My plan for the upcoming week is to keep the mileage about the same, maybe bumping it up a bit to around 90. I'll try to workout on Tuesday and Thursday, with one session being a fartlek and the other being hill repeats, and get in a 17 to 20 mile long run over the weekend.

Monday
50 minutes
Tuesday
90 minutes
Wednesday
100 minutes
Thursday
80 minutes
Friday
50 minutes
Saturday
140 minutes
Sunday
70 minutes
Total
580 minutes (between 80 and 85 miles)

Holler of the Week
I met up with Eric on Sunday for an easy 10 mile run through Milton. I woke up worried about what I would wear since my tights were in the wash and was pleasantly surprised to see that the temperature was 45 degrees. It was awesome to run in shorts and a t-shirt. Towards the end of the run, we were on Talbot heading towards Codman Square when we passed two guys waiting at a bus stop. One of the guys starts clapping and shouts "Congratulations guys. That's good work. There's no way I would ever run that f#*king far!" I don't know how long he thought we had been running, but the interaction only confirmed my suspicion that good hollers are largely dependent on good weather.

Epiphany Story of the Week
My principal has graciously allowed me to leave during my free time in the afternoon to go run on days when I have class. Her flexibility about my schedule has been a huge help and I really wouldn't be able to fit in anything more than a quick 30 minute run otherwise. Things got a bit thrown off on Thursday, but I made arrangements so I could meet the 5th and 6th graders at the Dorchester YMCA instead of taking the bus there. I was running behind the bus for the last 5 minutes of my run and lots of the kids were waving at me or just pointing and laughing at me. I got a lot of funny questions and comments when I met up with the kids, almost all of them about my tights.
"I didn't know they made leggings for boys. Where do you buy leggings for boys as tall as you?"
"You look like a superhero."
"Why are you wearing those things?"
"Are you going to wear those tights swimming?"
"You wear those in public?"

Song of the Week
The halftime show of the Super Bowl was a bit of a disappointment for me. I knew Bruce only had 12 minutes and I knew the plan was to cut out verses from songs to squeeze a few songs into that time, but I couldn't help but hope that he would pull a musical filibuster and give the folks at Raymond James Stadium a real rock n' roll baptism. In all honesty, the show was a bit depressing. It was the ultimate sell out and the condensed versions of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, Born to Run, Working on a Dream, and Glory Days were far from satisfying. Even Bruce shoving his crotch in the face of a nation of viewers couldn't redeem the show (and apparently some folks in Arizona had two experiences with male crotches showing up on their TV screens. Still, the show was just enough of a taste to get me itching for an authentic E Street concert experience.
Monday provided me with the perfect opportunity to rectify the situation with tickets going on sale for two Bruce shows at the TD BankNorth "Don't just call it 'The Garden,' because there is only one of those and it's in New York" Garden. I went to the Live Nation website when the tickets first went on sale at 10 AM and was continually unable to purchase tickets. I gave up after 15 minutes, frustrated and disappointed. To make matters worse, there were already tickets for the shows on Craigslist for over twice face value. Ugh. Anyhow, below is a video of Thunder Road from the legendary Passaic show from 1978. I guess this the closest I am going to get to a Bruce show for now.