S March 12, 2006
I officially cross trained today. I was feeling like my knees were sore. I am not experiencing pain, just a tightness in the joints. I was not interested in enduring the mild discomfort in the beginning of the run and the thought of running for 6 miles was equally uninteresting. Andrea was all set to go with me on her bike but that was not enough motivation for me to get off the couch. I was trying to finish yesterdays blog which I couldn't finish yesterday because I had to go out drinking instead. I didn’t want to forget my bird identification flow chart in case you have occasion to wonder if you are seeing an eagle. After reading your comment on reading about runners I became interested in what they might write that differs from my ramblings. I found some websites on runners, some articles but mostly blogs. My god, why would anyone want to read about that? Here is an excerpt:

Ran an easy, untimed 4 miles today. Weather was a clear 50d. Felt really well today considering I tried to filet my left middle finger. Next run is St. Pats 5K Run. It'll be a first mile decision on whether I enjoy the run, or try to run a time.

The only interesting thing about this was the finger filet, but he doesn't explain that.

Ran a fairly hard 3.7 today. Decided to forgo the speed today for a good hard run. Intended to run 4, but cut it short upon an attack of side cramps. Ate a cheeseburger today (ouch!). Really felt nauseous at about 3.5. Hopefully will be able to run a slow long one tomorrow. (no cheeseburgers) Just some thoughts...as a lifelong baseball fan, my heart goes out to the family of Kirby Puckett…

The more blogs I read, the more I learned about how runners seem fixated on their time. Time, time, time, speed training, miles, target heart rate, pace. All this like they are in some kind of race. Not much moonlight, no bunnies, who know if they have any idea what an eagle looks like, and no one bothers to count the dogs. There was a little bit about shoes. You know I liked that. I did read one collection of tips that actually suggested that you write the date of your race on a calendar so you know where you are headed. I want to meet the person who was actually helped by that suggestion.

I am officially training as a NOVICE. My mother thinks this is funny. Not the me being a novice so much as me having to train to become one. This is a bad week for me though. I will be in Bremerton on Monday, and Queets on Tuesday & Wednesday. I could run while there but I like knowing what my route is. I suppose I could set my watch to beep every 11.5 minutes to keep track of the mileage. Maybe it is not so tragic that I didn't have a long run this week.