Running Journal 22

Home from work earlier than usual on a Friday to forget, I contemplated running but fell asleep in the wicker chair and took a 20-minute nap. When I got up, I changed into shorts and got out the door at 6:18, right on time.

The pace found its own rhythm going out the alley to Park Street and out the three-quarters of a mile to the pond in Boyer nature preserve. With minimal effort and minimal walking, I circled the pond counting laps on my fingers and strides with my breathing - two steps inhale, four steps exhale - six times around. All the way back on Park Street was relatively pain-free (1/3 x 6) + (3/4 x 2) = 3.5 miles at 12-minute pace.

The pool was winding down and only a few family groups, including my friend Jeff doing his usual 30 laps and his two sons and their seven friends, were there by the time I arrived on my bike for eight laps and call it a day.

Off to a rough start on Saturday, Gven and I eventually settled  on a plan to go to Comfest around seven, in time for a drum circle scheduled for 8:30, but of course it rained on and off all day, so it was hard to tell if Goodale Park would be a massive mud-hole or not. So I hedged my bets and went for a bike ride (40 minutes) and a swim (20 minutes) and ate a piece of quiche. The rain persisted, so we went to a movie instead, and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" was funny and entertaining and full of surprises.

Having slept well, I got up Sunday morning in time to start a batch of bread and work out briefly before going to church and Java Central, where St. Teresa took the trouble to turn the table where I always sit  to the angle I like, and when I pronounced my approval we all got a good laugh. So the feng shui was just right, and Mike joined me  at "my" table bearing David Halberstam's high-brow book about baseball, which launched us into an extended discussion of the readability of authors from Dostoyevsky to Joyce to Faulker to Salmon Rushdie. Quoting Hawthorne, I maintain that part of the writer's job is to do the hard work of making it easier for the reader to get inside the narrative.

I had just enough energy to sit outside and read the New York Times and eat lunch, but not enough to weed the garden, which has come to resemble a rainforest. So I could only stake up the tomato plants and weed a small portion of the front bed by the street, which is perpetually out of control. It is sad to see things get so chaotic, but as time ticked away, I chose to let it go and opted for a short bike ride (30 minutes) and swim (20 minutes) before heading home. The gin and tonic, baked salmon and potatoes, and salad with avocado were well worth it. The birds sang lustily in the pine tree, the fireflies hovered over the groundcover. Life is short.

Running Journal 21

The World Cup is taking place in Brazil. Factions are moving toward civil war in Iraq. Ukraine is fragmenting into Greater Russia in the east and EUkraine in the west. And I'm not so self-absorbed that I can't discuss my precious workouts in the context of global events.

Speaking of my workouts, I seem to be stumbling into a new, not necessarily improved, summer routine. Because I teach on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, and Wednesday is usually spent working late to meet a Thursday publishing deadline, any running, biking and swimming is limited to weekends. So in my weekly planner I pencil in [run/bike/swim] in the narrow space for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On a good day, I'll do one or two out of three.

Let's be clear: there are no triathlons in my future, however, I enjoy the effects of cross-training on my legs and back, hips and shoulders. I always feel better after a workout, any workout, and when I come home after a run and a swim, for example, I'm ready for a nice supper and a drink to my health. Now that it's officially summer and therefore gin-and-tonic season, the warm weather and sweating make rehydrating especially satisfying. Sometimes I have two!

This weekend was not typical because I used a couple of vacation days on Friday and Monday to celebrate the summer solstice, and the long weekend gave me more time for yardwork, and there was a lot to do because of the abundant rain the preceding week. Workouts tend to be an end-of-day ritual anyway, so Friday I biked only, Saturday I swam only, and Sunday I biked and swam. Do you see a problem here?

Of course there's a problem here: there is no running in my running journal. It has morphed from a RUNNING journal into a running JOURNAL. It's a little like my Sunday morning ritual of stopping for coffee at Java Central on my way to church. Java Central with a muffin, a book and a notebook is becoming the prime reason to get up early on Sunday, and Church of the Methodist-Buddhist Master is in danger of becoming an afterthought.

I love a good dilemma, and both of these dilemmas are the right kind of problem to have. If some kind of workout - ANY kind of workout - gives me a reason to write, I'll take it. And if some kind of community can be found, if not in church then on the way to church, I can live with that.

Running Journal 20

I ran twice this week, because (a) I needed it, and (b) I had the opportunity. Neither run/jog/walk was outstanding in quality or quantity (12-minute miles x3), but they gave me an excuse to go to the pool and cool off.

Friday, I went out the door at 6:12 and made it to the Nature Preserve on East Park St. without incident. I chose to walk a short distance before starting the first of 5 laps, and I stuck to that pattern by walking a bit after each lap around the pond. The soft pea gravel trail and the pond itself are a pleasure for the senses and a lot more interesting than running on the street or the bike trail. Based on counting strides around a 400-meter track, I estimate a lap of the pond to be about a third of a mile. Using the same standard, it is two-thirds of a mile from my back door to the pond, so do the math. Five one-third-mile laps plus two-thirds out and two-thirds back makes three miles.

I am the Count, and I love to count. 

Saturday, I didn't.

Sunday, I went out the door at 6:10 with bread in the oven and dinner being prepared for the grill. I again made a bee-line for the Nature Preserve and adhered to roughly the same pattern - slow laps punctuated by short walks - and didn't push to go either faster or farther. Then I went for a swim at the nearly empty Jaycee Pool on Otterbein Street, and came home to a Chang Thai lager, a brot with mustard, and one of the best potato salads I've ever tasted. 

It was all so good I burned the bread and didn't care. 

I'm not going to get much stronger at this rate, but I'm not going to get much weaker either. I have taiji classes Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, so I get home and eat supper instead of running. Wednesday is usually a long workday before publishing on Thursday. Two or three good workouts on the weekend is all I'm going to get at this point, and I'll take it.

Running Journal 19

Conversation was more intense than usual at Church of Java this morning, probably a result of sharing a table with Mike, which Theresa and Kathy sat at the table by the windows. Consequently I didn't get much reading done until after the real, official church service at Church of the Master, where Todd will be present for another couple of weeks. The intermittent rain gave me an excuse to keep reading for a while before heading home to take care of a batch of rising bread dough.

I think the drizzle affected my mood, and since I couldn't weed the garden or mow the lawn, I made soup, took a nap, and swept the den. By the time the bread was in the oven, I was ready for a short run, but my calf muscles were not cooperating, so I stopped at about two mile and went for a swim. Not a great day.

Running Journal 18

Friday, a short bike ride turned into a somewhat longer one. Instead of heading home from the Inniswood Gardens-Hoover Reservoir-Hoff Road Park loop to the east, I headed west and tacked on the County Line-Worthington Galena-Park St. loop. There was plenty of daylight left, and I had enough angst to work out, so why not?

Saturday started early with a short bike ride to the bank and post office, followed by loading and unloading about a ton of free firewood - yes, FREE FIREWOOD - from a house around the corner where they cut down an oak and a wild cherry. It was high time to plant tomatoes, so I still had to prepare the beds and move last year's compost, which took most of the afternoon. My reward was a swim and a gin and tonic.

Sunday was bittersweet, listening to the farewell discourse of Rev. Todd Anderson at Church of the Master in Old Methodistville.The hot afternoon was a good time to plant tomatoes in garden beds and basil in pots. I still had time for a three-mile run east on Park St. in Boyer Nature Preserve, followed by a quick swim.