It has been a while since the last post, and while I am not sure I have attracted any sort of prodigious audience in my several posts up to this point, alas I continue. When you spend hours upon hours out running all over this great country, there is no way to possibly chronicle the mind of a runner during those times, but at least with this blog I can begin to record a few thoughts here or there specifically worth remembering from the thought salad that emerges as my legs take stride after stride...
On the subject of my training, it is finally going well again and I am back on track to be training at the level I would like to be at for the Steamtown Marathon. My weekly milage going from the week of 5/16/2011 — 5/22/2011 was 24.5, 24.5, 26.4, 30.5, and finally this week was 47.5. I haven't done any long runs of marathon-caliber length yet but the fact that I am consistently putting in milage day after day and not having to deal with nagging problems is a blessing in and of itself. The fast times in shorts distances also shows I still have speed (1600: 5:06; Downhill mile: 4:42; 800m: 2:11; 2mile: 11:24) which is something that I was worried about.
Looking forward I am excited to start doing a bit more trail running in my schedule. I ran today 11 miles near Gambrill Road and I can safely say it was one of my best runs ever. Running on trails is just such a different experience compared to road running. When you run on trails it is just you and nature, alone (or with friends) out there enjoying a serene type of bliss that I have rarely experienced. Your awareness is heightened, and every step is critical, or it might be your last. Root here, stump there, sharp rock here, fallen tree hurdle there...
I once read in Runners World (which I have learned all to well to take with a grain of sand) that once you start running trails you will never go back to the roads. I can certainly feel why someone would say this, although I am not quite ready to give up following a painted line on asphalt while dodging cars quite yet. I have unfinished business on the roads, and it involves a certain race which occurs on the third monday of April every year. After that, who knows what the future holds? I can say that as trail running grows on me so too will the prospect of trying to go to Boulder, CO for a grad program there at the University of Colorado. Initially I really wanted to limit my choices to top ten schools (current top choices are Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, and UCSF) but I have since then expanded my choices to "Well, if I can't get in to those places where would I like to go?" schools. These schools essentially boil down to places that it seems like I would absolutely love to live in with not Top 10 but still strong Biochemistry PhD programs. Other than the aforementioned, University of Washington is on that list.
A random thought: is there really something so strange about running shirtless? I don't get it often, but especially from non-runners I get a skeptical-scowl look. Really? It's hot out and wearing a shirt feels like wearing a sweaty 30 pound straight jacket. Sorry, but the shirt will remain off.
On another note living here at the Mount during the summer has enlightened me more than before to that fact that is pretty much sucks to not have anyone to run with most of the time. I guess during the year when the track/cross country team is on campus there is at least this sense that there are some other like-minder runners around, even if I rarely run with them. But with hardly anyone on campus at all that is certainly not the case. It's not so much that I don't enjoy running by myself, because that is not true. I have come to love it. But still it would be nice to have someone to share the amazing experience of running with, and connect to them on such a special level. Now I'm getting all sentimental, a very uncharacteristic side for me so I'll stop there.
That aside I am very much so looking forward to the rest of the summer. More trail running, more running in general, more fast races at the steeplechasers Wednesday night races, and maybe a Boston Qualifier in October if I can manage to train and prepare myself well enough.
"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner"
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