Today’s Run

Time – 1:15:12
Distance – 8.0 miles
Pace – 9:23 min/mi
Elevation – Treadmill at 1%

Longer run on the treadmill today. 1 mile warmup, then 5.5 miles at 9:05/mile pace. Shifted to 7:59/pace for about a half a mile, then cooldown. It was a good “fast finish” run, and the fast part at the end could have gone on for longer, but I was running out of time.

Finding a Balance

Writing a blog is about finding balance. Not the balance between living life and recording it, or the balance between sitting in front of a computer and spending time with family away from the work. The balance I’m referring to is one of content, or rather, volume of content.

It’s a difficult proposition to write for a blog everyday. I would imagine this is especially hard when you rely on the income generated to provide for yourself and your family. I am not one of those individuals. My content is my own as a collection of thoughts and ideas. I like to go back on occasion and see how I was perceiving my topic (in this case, running), and to let the past help guide my future.

I try to write on anyday that I run. I get to record the stats from the run, and my thoughts on how it went. I also have made a point to include a random collection of thoughts, as much for my sanity as anything else. Some of these posts are so that I can download my brain to somewhere, rather that requiring that The Wife listen to me ramble…

What I write isn’t always Pulitzer Prize material, though. It’s not the best content I could produce everyday, because that is a function of time. I like to give this blog a good shot of my brand of crazy, however sometimes the tank is a little dry. So, you get posts like this.

Regardless of the quality, the thoughts continue to be an extension of what runs around in my head, for better or worse. If I were intending to write for fun and profit, I’d pursue the ideas that Susie Lindau had in her post, “18 Best Blog Tips: New Ways to Promote Your Blog, Increase Traffic, and More!”. She also talks about writing less for better quality in, “How To Be Discovered on WordPress!”.

This isn’t my goal, though. More views would be great. Bigger stats and the ability to monetize would be fun. But my goal remains the same: 100 miles the last Saturday in June…someday.

Today’s Run

Time – 35:03
Distance – 3.6 miles
Pace – 9:35 min/mi
Elevation – Treadmill at 1%

Treadmill run set on easy. Just a light jog to work out the legs after the hard group run the day before. The lack of sleep the previous night probably made this harder than it should have been, but the run wasn’t too painful. Just mentally tiring.

Treadmills are for those who want the miles…

Treadmills are exercise for the body and the mind. Mental fortitude is a requirement some days, because you don’t have the luxury of needing to run home to force the rest of the run. I think this is why I get such good mileage when running outside. I’m too stubborn to turn around and run back the way I came, which means I only have to convince myself to start down the next street in order to get some additional mileage.

This is also why I don’t like out-and-back runs most times. If my desire wanes a little bit, I know that I just need to turn around. Doing a loop requires that you keep going in order to get to the end and be back where you started.

Treadmills, on the other hand, just let you step off when you don’t want to do it anymore. This is really difficult to overcome some days. Running isn’t always easy or fun, and the act of pushing through and continuing is sometimes harder than the actual running.

It’s amazing how much can go into accomplishing goals. There’s so much that doesn’t get thought about when planning. Even the simple things, like the willpower to keep going, doesn’t always get added to the checklist. Desire is a huge part of being successful and getting things done. Without it, too many times, activities get started but don’t get resolved.

This is one of my big struggles: the closeout, pushing through till completion. This is also why I like running so much. It teaches me to keep going and get the job done, even when the willpower is flagging.

Today’s Run

Time – 1:00:32
Distance – 6.3 miles
Pace – 9:36 min/mi
Elevation – Treadmill at 1%

Easy treadmill run to start the week. Ran quick 6:58/mile pace at the end for about a minute as a single stride to get the feel for running fast. Otherwise, it was 6 miles at 9:30-ish pace.

We’re in the homestretch (no pun intended)

It’s only a couple of weeks longer until we sign for the house, and there’s still so much to do! We haven’t really started packing yet, although one could argue that we never really unpacked in the first place. We’re hoping that the current rental gets taken over by someone else so that we don’t have to double pay for a few extra months, but we need enough time to clean. There’s still movers to schedule, utilities to setup, furniture to plan for, and painting at the new house to figure out.

Through all of this, though, is the excitement of a new house. And not just any new house, but OUR new house. We’ll be married for 10 years this March, and we’ve never been on a honeymoon, never not had kids living with us, and never owned a home. The Wife and I are ready to start this next phase of our lives, and we are so happy to be able to give this gift to our children.

Despite all the craziness, the stress, and the emotion, we have the joy of knowing that our kids should have a place that they can come home to when they DO get old enough to move out. It’s Christmas at our place with them and their families, and summers back home from college, and marking growing heights on the wall in the garage. This can be a new place to store our memories. That’s the best part!