Liftoff

AM: 20 miles, 7:06 avg. Met Mike for the Clearwater bridge tour - pretty much the best hill simulation you can get in Tampa Bay. In an 8 mile radius are three big ones. We started easy and worked into it. I'd really like to do this run once more before Twin Cities.

PM: 2 miles with Elise on her bike.

AM: Early flight into BWI near Baltimore. Busy day at client site.

PM: 12 miles. Great find- there's an 11 mile trail circling BWI within a stone's throw of my hotel. For a trail running around an airport it's very nice. Gently rolling and cuts into little wooded glens off and on through the loop. Only problem is no water to be found. It is also such a relief to be running in cooler air.

AM: 12 miles, another BWI loop.

PM: 6 miles after work. A long day at the client - the intricacies of managing health care data never cease to amaze me. I often find myself in conversations when HealthCare.gov comes up and is cited as an example of Gubamint Fail. The task of mapping the innumerable entities involved in health care enrollments and claim processing to each other is so vast that immediate success would require a miracle. The structure of the records is inherently complex - if any simplication can be made to the entire system it will require a reduction in the number of entities in the care management landscape. This is why most industrialized nations have some version of a single-payer.

Wednesday evening ruminations. Normally I don’t have enough time to think through the things I write on here. So I just post whatever seems apropos at the moment. Since I’m traveling this week, I have enough time to slow down and think a bit.

I ran another 12 miles on the BWI loop after work. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t run and thought I should probably take a day off. I’ve been feeling a little beat up and unrecovered each day – normal signs that an off day is needed. Work was long and stressful, and as I was driving back to my hotel I saw many cyclists and runners on the trail. It hit home that I really wanted to be out there. If I was a professional runner, it would be my job to make the 100% logical decision and focus on recovery. Since I’m not a professional runner, I ran the loop at a decent clip and had a great time.

It’s easy when training for a goal race to think that it’s the gravitational center of my running. But it’s not. Even when one of those rare great races transpires, the value of that moment is limited. You can go back and caress the medal every day, but the moment constantly recedes.

On the other hand, the process of training gives you a well you can return to. Today, I knew I should probably recover, but what I really wanted to do was run 12 miles at a decent clip and just enjoy the ride. Getting into that flow is something very few people have access to, unfortunately. It’s one of the best mind-body connections you can have without illicit substances.

Going back to recovery- normally by Wednesday I’d have done a workout. I’ve been holding off because I’m planning to do my peak workout (16 miles @ MP) on the BWI loop before work on Friday. I expect this to be challenging, and I need every edge I can get.

On the matter of plans, I’m mostly convinced the above is the right thing to do, but I have my doubts. I would hope that anyone reading this, who happens to disagree, would feel free to do so. The topic of disagreement is on my mind since I’m currently working with a client in a role that requires mediation. Often, programmers code a process and become attached to that design. Critiquing the design is akin to critiquing the person’s intelligence, merit, value, etc. I have always had a disconnect with ideas – I feel that they can and should be debated separately from value judgments about the parties involved. There are lines of course – you don’t engage in personal insults in an ideas discussion. But why would you, if the debate is about ideas?

Going back to my plan for Friday – I’ve been scoping the loop on my easy runs for places to plant water bottles, best start location, etc. Although I’ve done a few 10 mile MP runs, I’m pretty unsure about my prospects here. This loop is mostly flat but does have enough roll that I’m concerned my lack of hill training will be exposed. I have enough thoughts on that for another post, so I’ll end there.

Day off. Busy, but mostly off just because I really needed it.

I did the only-slightly-famous marathon Simulator workout today, 16.3 miles at target MP. I did a warmup of just under 3 miles.

Normally this would be a weekend long run, but since I'm wrapping up work in Glen Burnie, MD (just south of Baltimore) it made sense to do it here. My loop had some minor roll, to better simulate the Twin Cities course. And selfishly, my start temps today were 72 F / 69 DP. Not comfortable running weather, but after 3 months where the morning baseline is about 78 F / 75 DP, these conditions felt a whole lot better.

I'm relieved to say it went really well. I held up on the ups & downs, and the pace felt manageable. I did notice a decent uptick in level of effort around mile 14, so I was glad to stop when I did. Probably the hardest thing with this workout is maintaining focus - I found my mind drifting and pace slowing pretty frequently. Time was 1:36:29 for 16.3 miles, right about my 5:55 target.

Thankfully, now I can go to the airport now and look for someplace to sleep.

8 miles. It's good to be home. I didn't run until close to noon, when the girls headed to a classmate's party. I ran on the Miesner Bridge for the first time in ages. It's quite overgrown along the path - pretty cool. I was running slow, but I hit the bridge to keep rolling terrain in my diet. I'm going to try to do that as much as possible over the next couple weeks.