Thank Jesus For the Steeplechase

Before I get into the happenings of the past few days, I would like to extend a special thanks to Joe Guinness who was kind enough to notify me that today, June 14th, is International Weblogger's Day. This is a very special moment for me, considering this is the first time I have celebrated the holiday as a weblogger. It was special before when I simply enjoyed other people's blogs, but the day takes on a special meaning now that I am publishing a blog myself. Now, on to the exciting stuff. On Monday, I ran 30 minutes in the morning. Around noon, I left on a bus packed with 13 year olds hopped up on caffeine to chaperon the 8th grade retreat. It was held in Maine at the summer home of the headmaster of Epiphany. The house is amazing. It is right on the water and there is a pool, basketball court, tennis court, and a trampoline. Most importantly, there is a large lawn that allows for tremendous games of croquet. I spent the entire day swimming, beating my roommates in croquet, bouncing kids on the trampoline, eating ice cream, playing on a slip 'n' slide, and launching model rockets with one of the 8th graders. And I got paid. When I got back to Boston on Tuesday, I had to go take the first part of a course to get recertified as a lifeguard. I went running after my course finished and everything went smoothly until the last 15 minutes of my run. I was running home on the sidewalk with traffic going in the opposite direction I was running. Ahead of me, I saw two cars bumping into each other. The one closest to the sidewalk was getting run off the road by another car trying to change lanes. As I watched this all happen in slow motion, the next thing I knew, the one car was veering off the road onto the sidewalk and coming right towards me. I have no idea what went through my mind, but I continued to run towards the car and hurdled over its hood as it smashed into the building to my left. I came out without a scratch but was pretty freaked out. There was a woman on the corner up the street from where the crash happened and I yelled "Holy shit! Did you see that?" She replied "I sure did. Boy, you better thank Jesus." I was so shaken up I didn't know what to do and gave her a hug. Then, I waited for the police, gave them my contact information, and finished up my 100 minute run. Not to be overly dramatic but, if I hadn't jumped over that car, I would be dead or in the hospital. Finally, all of the hurdle drills I did for the steeplechase were actually useful. The past two days were very boring and packed with teacher meetings (please don't get mad if you read this Mrs. Daly). When not trying to stay awake at school, I ran 30 minutes in the morning and 90 minutes in the evening on Wednesday and 90 minutes this morning. I just finished running a 30 minute double today. Look for a wrap up of the week on Sunday. Hopefully, I will not have any more near death experiences between now and then.

Catching Up

So this is what I did last week. It isn't much, and I really need to get back on track. I ran 80 minutes on Monday, 110 minutes on Tuesday, and 80 minutes on Wednesday. On Thursday I took off, and can't remember what my rationale was at the moment, although I am pretty sure it was pure laziness. On Friday, I ran 30 minutes, then took Saturday off and ran 90 minutes on Sunday. It was a very poor week but, like I said in my previous post, school gets crazy at the end of the year. Getting grades together and preparing for graduation was basically my life from Thursday to Sunday. My Greater Boston coach says that life is a conspiracy to keep people from training. I am beginning to believe him. Fortunately, I will be able to start a routine of running twice a day tomorrow. I always do better when I have a routine.

Better Late Than Never

This is what I had typed out for two weeks ago. Sorry for the delay in posting; school becomes all-consuming at the end of the year between graduation and grades.
My training has been going very well lately and I have been running much more than I ever have before. In the past, I have run a random 100 mile week here and there. Over the past month and a half, I have been between 90 and 105 miles for all but one week. Last Tuesday, all of those miles really caught up with me. I went to practice fully intending to run a workout but felt so terrible on the warm-up that I decided to bag my tempo run and do an easy 100 minute run instead. I was very tired on my run, but hoped I would recover by Wednesday. I slogged through a miserable 30 minute run on Wednesday, feeling like complete crap the entire run. After getting home, I decided I needed to take some rest to get my legs back under me. I took three days off, stretching from Thursday to Saturday. Each day I rode my new bike on some errands but did not run a step. On Sunday, I ran 30 minutes and felt fine. I followed that up with 80 minutes on Monday and 100 minutes yesterday, feeling solid on both runs. In looking at my training leading up to my unplanned break, a few things stood out to me that I need to change about my training. First, I need to stop worrying about the pace of my runs. I don't think it is a coincidence that I figured out the mile marks for my runs a couple weeks before getting worn out. Second, I need to really be consistent with running twice a day, five days a week. This will keep me from trying to get in extra miles on my second runs. The third and final thing I need to do pertains to my long run. I need to alternate runs of 150 and 180 minutes, because three hour runs wear me out quite a bit.

TV Timeout

Thankfully, my week calmed down after Wednesday. I ran 120 minutes on Thursday and did 30 minutes in the morning and 80 minutes after school on Friday. On Saturday, I ran 30 minutes and was supposed to do a long run today. Those plans fell through when I felt something strange in my left hamstring about 35 minutes into my run. I don't think it was anything serious, but didn't want to take any chances. I called it a day after 80 minutes and was sure to stretch well upon getting home. I ended the week with 710 minutes on 10 runs. Next week I need to be more consistent with my morning runs so I can be at or above 110 miles. Now that my running has been fully addressed, I need to let my loyal readers know about my new favorite TV show. I generally don't watch a great deal of television, just The Office and a few minutes here and there of whatever my roommates are watching, so I decided to make use of my three day weekend by plopping down in front of the boob tube for some quality relaxation time. As luck would have it, The Discovery Channel was having a marathon of the show Man vs. Wild. In this show, a man named Bear Grylls (yes, his name is actually Bear Grylls) gets air dropped into a treacherous and uninhabited wilderness with only a knife and a water bottle. His goal is to get back to civilization in under five days. Before doing the show, Bear spent three years in the British Special Forces and was the youngest British climber to ever summit Mount Everest. The stuff he does on the show is like Boy Scouts on steroids. Here is my top three craziest things I saw in my five hours of watching Man vs. Wild today.
3. Using his pack as a flotation device to go through over ten miles of rapids in a river in the Rocky Mountains. He got into the stream because the ridge he was traveling on dead ended in a cliff and he was worried a bear was following him. He jumped off a 70 foot cliff into the river.
2. In an attempt to get out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains more quickly, Bear unsuccessfully attempted to tame a wild horse to ride back to civilization.
1. Bear was in the African Savannah and was concerned about dehydration since he couldn't find any water. As luck would have it, he stumbled upon a fresh elephant turd. Bear promptly squeezed all the liquid from the dung out into his mouth. Absolutely unbelievable.
You really need to watch this show. The next season begins June 15th at 9 PM. Just in case you don't watch, remember that, when you are lost in the wilderness, you need to go downhill until you find a stream, follow the stream until you find a trail, and then follow the trail until you get to a road. You're welcome.