1/14/08 - 1/20/08 (365 minutes, 1 tempo run)

Sunday, January 20 (30 minutes)
I realized I was already ahead of last week, so I just jogged 30 minutes around the field conveniently located directly outside my apartment.

Saturday, January 19 (70 minutes)

Meeting of the NFTC, pleasant evening run. Learned some core exercises from Ian before a night of debauchery with Kiesz (he wouldn't sleep with me.)

I spent most of the afternoon learning a bit about bike maintenance from Katherine, Matt, and Ian. This was surprisingly (to me) fun. As a guideline, I don't engage myself with things physically. I read books, write things, tell jokes, do math, sit and think, and in general live a life of virtual reality - it's almost all in my head.

I don't remember the last time I built something more complicated than a couple of couch cushions propped up against a box fan. Even when I run, presumably a highly-physical activity, I normally go in circles around the fields. Other runners ask me how I avoid getting bored, which is not a question I would think to ask someone else. To me it's the same - I'm still just running. Only when I'm on the road there is more stuff to get in my way and I'm more likely to get injured on the hard surfaces. The fact that the tree I'm passing now is a different one than that I passed two minutes ago does not register as significant in my mind.

So bike maintenance, even at a simple level, is alien. Stopping to think, though, how different pieces fit into each other, devising a plan of action, and then actually implementing it to see something, however minor, happen in the real world was worth the time.

Thursday, January 17 (2 mile tempo)
Garfield 4 laps. 2:44, 2:40, 2:41, 2:37. Ran with Kiesz for a bit, the end solo. These felt fine. I was pressing a bit, but not taxed by the end, and felt like I could have gone twice as far in race conditions. My hamstrings were unusually sore, although they felt sore even while warming up. Also, before starting I was feeling a bit weak and light-headed, probably because I only ate a large mid-morning meal rather than a small breakfast and small lunch. I'll need to keep refining the way that works. It gets even more difficult to eat properly because I'm not on a regular schedule. My work situation is such that basically, whenever I'm offered work I take it. That means running gets pushed around, and operating on a floating schedule is tough for me.

Wednesday, January 16 (70 minutes)
16 striders in the park with the guys. Afterwards I raced some four year olds and eventually got them to run about 400m with me and Matt, mostly by taunting them, calling them too slow and telling them how tired they looked.

Tuesday, January 15 (70 minutes)
Today I ran for 70 minutes. Did a few long diagonal strides across the North Field at the end. Sometimes when I look back at my log from previous years it seems like I was training much harder in 2006 than I ever did near the end of 2007, even though I was running better then. So maybe I'll go bit by bit on increasing intensity of training. For the time being I'm thinking of working up to just two hard days a week, with miles and strides and whatnot thrown in between there.

Monday, January 14 (70 minutes)
South field at night. A few striders at the end. Still wearing shoes, although hopefully I will be liberated soon. Honestly, shoes now feel awful, and every time I run on grass with shoes on I have a nearly-irresistible urge to remove them, which I can fight only because of the old iron Eichenlaub will.