Bends Toward Justice

First, here's an email exchange I had with a friend. I leave his gracious comment on in the spirit of hopeful self-congratulation: Jeff, Good, thoughtful analysis, as always. I just talked to Scott. He had a similiar take to yours. Pat ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeff To: Pat Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 9:46 AM Subject: Re: Celts moves > --- Pat wrote: >> The real question, what do you think of the C's >> moves last night? >> P > > I've gotta stay ever-hopeful. I was bouncing from the > computer out to my car to listen to ESPN radio on AM > last night until I got the confirmation of the Ray > Allen deal. When I saw you had written "moves" I had > to go see what the rest of it was. I think Glen Davis > has great NBA potential. Pierce was reportedly > lobbying for immediate veteran help, and they got that > with Allen. Then Davis, I'm almost surprised he fell > far enough for them to get him. >

Suddenly in the middle of the day on Monday. Well, there had been moments of twingeyness the past couple weeks, but then it was real fine on Sunday. Then POW! So I blew off basketball on Tuesday. Had planned to join Pete's Wednesday speed sessions, but had to pass on it this A.M. However, I did all the right things, I guess, culminating in floating around in the municipal pool this afternoon, after which it felt good. So I went to volleyball tonight, and it felt fine, and it still feels fine. So I'll go to basketball tomorrow, and try to keep doing the good things and cut back on the bad things (like slumping in this chair typing on this computer), and maybe I'll be OK for a good long while to come.

This blog isn't just about me and my cheese sandwiches. Dan Dowling ran the above-named race on Saturday. Click on the post title for full race results. He only runs one race a year, he claims. I think he did a great job. 38 183 DAN DOWLING 48 M 10/23 M4049 HANOVER MA 24:21 7:51 38th overall, tenth of 23 among males 40 to 49, and the time of 24:21 is right there with my best time this season. Congratulations, Dan!

Dragged my sorry self down to the Boulevard around 9:00 this AM, and around it to the 3 1/4 mile post, then back around, starting and ending with just under 1/2 mi. of walking, so I think I ran (and I use the term loosely) 10K. Due to all kinds of factors it was a relatively miserable experience, though the beauty of the weather, music from Meg's iPod, and the distraction of other Boulevardiers helped quite a bit. Right now (3:45) my sorry self is dragging again. I think I need a little more caffeine.

1. On my AT cyberhike, I'm now in New York state. 2. Taking my workout level from so-so to spectacular may not have been a great idea. The storm did blow through, so volleyball time was the sunniest part of the day. It was one of the longest days of the year, and very competitive volleyball, so we played five games. At basketball yesterday morning my legs were dead, and I eventually felt some strain in my achilles, so I left a little early (I had just been joking that I had things to do and couldn't stay for more than five or six more games). 3. Another bike ride today at lunch. I put the old Shogun Stumpjumper in the shop, so I was riding the Peugot, a real speedy machine. 4. I'm negotiating with Pete about joining his speed workouts. 5. I have to run long all by myself on Sunday, because my long run is a short jog for Pete and Scott. 6. Just another number, with nothing else to say.

1. Meg rousted me this morning to revive our summer bike ride tradition. It was beautiful out when we rode. The back cove and Casco Bay were glassy. It's wonderful to sit outside on Commercial St. when hardly anyone is around yet (we get there around 6:30, just before the early commuter ferry docks). Now it is sprinkling and we may get a thundershower this PM, but I got a seven-or-so-mile bike ride in, and an hour plus of yardwork, too. 2. If the storm blows through fast enough, we may still get to play volleyball tonight, which would take my activity level from so-so to spectacular. 3. The reason the age classes were so small at Close-to-the-Coast is that all the serious runners there were in the 10K. New strategy for finishing high in my age group: run 5K's on weekends when there is a "big" 10K, 5-miler, or other (It wasn't just the 10K taking away competition; the Doc's Tavern race was the evening before, and the Maine Mile was the same weekend too).

Mike called yesterday just to tell me, "You blew it." Turns out they were giving away pies to the top few finishers in each age group. You had to be there to win, and lots of people weren't, so eventually they called my name. I coulda hadda pie! Actually, the results are posted at http://www.coolrunning.com/results/07/me/Jun16_Freepo_set3.shtml I finished third in my class (of six, so la-di-frickin-da). Meg was sixth in her class (of fourteen, and with a pace twice as fast as the fourteenth place finisher). Now that I look a little closer at the times, I think if I'd known I was in a head-to-head duel with these old farts, I might have been able to take every one of them and had the first-place-pie for our class! Anyway, the first four of us were relatively close together.

Meg and I ran the Close-to-the-Coast 5K on Saturday. We had planned to train up and try the 10K, but we aren't there yet. Both of us posted slower times than we did back on Mothers' Day, and blamed it partly on running on trails parts of which were covered deeply with chipped wood, and other parts of which called for close attention to avoid tripping on a root. I did 25:16 and Meg 27:11, if I remember correctly (the results still aren't posted online). We got shirts, printed by Mike Loughlin; he seemed disgusted with the design of them. His son Henry turned in a great run, finishing seventh overall.

I seem to be fading back to five days a week: going hard on Saturday and Sunday like a weekend warrior, skipping Monday then sandwiching Wednesday's volleyball with Tu/Thu runs before blowing off Friday. After school gets out on Monday, I know I'll change up a little, playing basketball Tu/Thu AM and maybe bike riding with Meg on MWF if she wants to do it again. Maybe I can keep the afternoon runs going too. That could really kick everything up a notch!

http://www.firelookout.org/towers/nh/green.htm Last year on Memorial Day weekend Bob, Chris, Lorene, Mary Beth and I climbed Green Mountain in Effingham NH and visited with the firewatcher in the tower. When we told others back at camp about the hike, many wanted to return there this year. Well, this year on Memorial Day weekend we were too far away, but we did plan to do the hike this weekend. When push came to shove only Meg and I went on the hike. And a nice start to the season it was, though we did not find the trail to the ice cave (reason to return).

For anyone keeping score at home, after the nine straight days of significant aerobic exercise, I went without on Monday, then three days in a row only by counting mowing the lawn and walking to and from a bar as a workout on Thursday. Today I got back on track with a walk to USM, long basketball session and walk back. Tomorrow should be a return to the concept of the longer long run, maybe from here around back cove and back to here.

Cyber-hike wise, that is. I just crossed out of Pennsylvania into NJ on the Anthem Rewards site. Pennsylvania is a long, long haul on the AT. My goal is to make it to Katahdin electronically by the time I go up there for real next September.

Yes I was proud of making it to nine days in a row of significant exercise. Then the weather threw me a whammy on Monday; I just couldn't convince myself to go out in the rain. Then Tuesday some serious thunderstorms boiled up right at workout time and I thought it was going to happen again. Meg and I decided to wait until later to run. The storms blew through, we had supper, the sky cleared, and we ran. The rest day helped me feel good and run fast and easy.

So here I am on Sunday having worked out every day for more than a week. Is there anything less inviting than waking up on Sunday after staying up too late and drinking too much too late too fast on Saturday, with the plan of going for a run. South Boston, the sugar bowl, Castle island, and Day Boulevard were never viewed with a more jaundiced eye.

Yesterday, Meg and I went for our neighborhood 3+ mile run. The last day that I didn't do some kind of exercise was last Friday. Basketball and walking on Saturday, running Sunday, bike ride Monday, running Tuesday, volleyball Wednesday, and running again last night. If I haul my butt out for something today, it'll be a week straight, and with the weekend coming I could stretch it to nine days easily. I noticed about the runs that even though I never felt that great about doing them, they were easy to do. I fell back from my intention to stretch my long run day and add intensity, but I think it was OK to have a plateau week, especially since in a sense my "mileage" did go up. All this sounds like even more reason for me to get out of the house and stretch my legs right now.