Houston: The Aftermath

Training Summary
Well, I didn't come anywhere near doing what I hoped to this week with respect to running. Much of it was due to a lack of sleep on Saturday night because of a very early flight back to Boston on Sunday, which threw off my sleep for the first few days of the week. After my run on Monday night it was pretty clear I wasn't going to get to my mileage goal for the week. The outside of my left shin hurt bad enough that I ended my run early and took the next day off. By Wednesday, my shin was feeling much better and I was able to salvage the week a little over the final four days. I had a fast but enjoyable run with Eric on Friday evening that probably went a bit overboard on pace, though it felt nice to run uptempo at the time. On Saturday, I did the new South Boston loop that I have been running quite a bit lately and is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is great because the scenery is always changing and you get a nice mix of city streets and beach sidewalks. Sunday was the weekly GBTC long run. We met up at the Boston College T stop and did an out and back on the marathon course. I felt off the entire time and was never able to get into a rhythm. Still, I managed to hang on until the final mile and a half of the 16 mile run. I poked my head into the Epiphany gym when I got home from the run and there were about 15 guys in there playing basketball, so I quickly got changed and went over to play. I am sure it will catch up to me eventually, but my team won five in a row so I ended up playing for about two hours straight. It was a ton of fun, though unfortunately it will probably be the last time I play for a while if things go well with running.

At the beginning of the week, I was feeling a bit frustrated with how my training was going so I looked back at my log. I was a bit surprised to see how consistent I have been over the past three months. I have slowly increased my mileage and I had a six week stretch with no missed days. When I first decided to go to grad school while continuing to work at Epiphany, I knew I would be very busy and my training would not be ideal. Still, I think that I am putting myself in position to run well when my schedule clears up a bit. A few things for me to focus on in the coming months are getting in one solid workout a week and doing strides at least three times each week. Two workouts would be ideal but I need to get in one and have the second one be gravy if it works out. Strides will help my body remember what it feels like to run fast which will make it easier to hop right into track workouts in May.

Monday
30 minutes
Tuesday
off (left shin sore)
Wednesday
30 minutes
Thursday
70 minutes
Friday
100 minutes
Saturday
90 minutes
Sunday
110 minutes
Total
430 minutes on 6 runs (just over 60 miles)

Holler of the Week
I ran with Eric on Friday evening and the weather was amazing. The wind was very strong, especially along Carson Beach and coming back home along Dorchester Ave., but the temperature was quite mild and I was able to run in shorts and a t-shirt. As we made our way towards UMass Boston, we cut through some neighborhoods by the Savin Hill station. At one point, we came upon a park with a group of boys playing pick-up football. As we were crossing the field, one of the boys yelled to me "Did you pay for the other half of those shorts too?"

Epiphany Story of the Week
One of my duties at Epiphany is teaching swimming lessons to the 5th and 6th graders twice a week. On Tuesday, it was just me and one of the 5th grade boys waiting on the bleachers for everyone else to get changed. We got to talking about what each of us did over break (he played a lot of video games and watched a lot of TV, which seemed to be the standard Epiphany boy February break). I told him I went to Houston and he asked me where that was. When I told him Texas, his eyes lit up. He immediately asked me "You didn't by any chance meet a girl named Jessica, did you?" His question killed me. He was playing "Where did you go to college? Oh, do you know...?" with the perspective and life experience of a middle schooler. Against all odds, I managed to not meet his cousin's girlfriend.

Song of the Week
Ted told me about a band called The Gaslight Anthem on our long run on Sunday. I checked out their MySpace page last night and bought their album today. They are a New Jersey band and make no attempt to hide the Springsteen influence on their music. The song below is called "The '59 Sound," which is the title track of their latest album.