I do have a handwritten journal that i occasionally write in, but it's rare. This blog used to be a place i would recount just about all of my runs for a season of my life. Those were good days.
in 2020, our attention span has gotten shorter, and so has our writting - if we do it all. The iPhones and the like seem to be in our hand multiple hours a day, if not almost a third of our waking hours or more if we are honest. Let's just say i'm not proud of the weekly notification on Sunday to report on my screen time. But the world is changing and so are we.
i was thinking just today, about how in the show Entourage from 12-15 years ago where Ari Gold, the agent that was on his phone more than the other characters throughout the episodes which seemed stark back then, probably would be no different than jane doe or john smith on the day to day here in 2020.
and with those smart phones, the writing has been encouraged to shrink into 240 characters, or small bits of information that we can scroll while we digest a few sentences. Hell, even reading a book in this day in age takes a lot of practice just to calm the mind and focus. And when you may read a book you'll probably notice that the chapters are much shorter than the days of old, no doubt to help keep the reader engaged. i guess in someways its sad, but we can see the future and where this evolution is taking us, which, does leave a little of the fraught behind from the troublesome worry that was happening more at the precipice of this shirt during the advent of social media and quicker smartphones.
All that to say, while the running log has been part of mans running since the quill and papyrus, the newest method of a running record, the length there has also been encouraged to become shorter. Well, with the ease of use it has also kept me from longer writing post runs, which always seems to help me unpack my thoughts that often come to me on those miles of solitude. But today, i am banging some keys and am happy to be here.
so, about that running stuff....
...today's run was cool. Always a man of adventure seeking, I left the house not exactly knowing were I was going to go run, but just knew I wanted semi flat, and some shade, and not too far of a drive. As I headed down Ballantyne Commons Parkway, I crossed over Elm Lane and started getting a better idea of where to begin. I turned on Community House towards Johnston Rd, and slid into the Hampton Inn parking lot. Figured I would track south on Community House southward and figure it out from there.
I knew i needed a run that was more than just maintenance. I gave myself the day off yesterday, and went easy on Sunday after my 5k Saturday so the legs needed a little workout, but didn't want to go too hard with a hopeful Mile TT this coming Saturday. And with doing some shorter reps last week, and realizing my threshold runs is where I needed to focus, I decided to do about a 25 min tempo, where I would try and progress from easy moderate to sub 6 min pace. Given the odd number of minutes, and that I only wanted the full run to be about 50 mins since it was already pretty hot and sunny out, after 12 mins of easy warm up i stopped to stretch and decided i would make the tempo broken up into 5 min blocks, trying to cut down each one, would add a 1 min stride turnover fast clip to give me 12 min cool down back for a perfect 50 mins. (realizing now as i type this in my heat haze mind i ended at 48 mins, lol oh well).
My Achilles were pretty sore in the warm up, but once i started picking up the pace after stopping to stretch it was fine. i succeeded in clipping down, but did kind of stall on the 4th rep (hills though). i'll say this was a good run, and that i am handling/acclimating the heat pretty well here in Mid July.
The best part of this run experience was when i was jogging back passing the Hampton Inn, i noticed their outdoor pool (not a sole out there - it was 9:30am afterall), and being hot and tempted, i walked over to the gate, reach over to open it, slid my shoes off, and took a dip. A worker saw me and for a second thought was going to bust me, but instead asked how the pool was and if i wanted some water to drink. I at first said no, but given the unique position i was in thought this would really be the cherry on top, so i said "sure if you are offering!" .... as i walked back to my car, her was in the parking lot, and no doubt was scratching his head as he saw me get in the car and drive off. hahah.
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