I'm pretty good at taking naps. I was surprised that at the end of the run I still managed to run up the hill to my house. It's quite a steep hill and usually at the end of the run I walk the hill. But since I'd got to every mile marker without walking I figured I might as well try and complete it. I had to slow the pace a bit - getting to the top of the hill without going into cardiac arrest always seems like a preferable outcome - but managed it. Lookng at my time it seems that I should, theoretically speaking, be able to shave 3-4 minutes off my time for my more regular route.
Today I took a break from walking and running around town so went for a hike in the mountains. It was good - it's always good to get into the mountains. I'll probably run again tomorrow. In the meantime I've been tinkering with shimming my walls. It's much slower than I hoped. Partly because I'm not spending huge amounts of time at a time, but partly because nothing is straight and just when I think I've got it right I find a long level doesn't sit level across it all. The biggest problem is getting a baseline set up so I can build on it, so I don't end up with a small mismatch at one end of the room resulting in needing six inch shims at the other end of the room to keep things level.
Fast run today. I hadn't planned on it being a fast run but Friday's run indicated I should be able to do my 5-mile route appreciably faster than my personal best, and what felt like a natural pace at the beginning of the run turned out to be significantly faster than normal. When I clocked the first two miles much faster than I have in a while I figured I'd push harder and see if I could set some new personal records. And I did - I shaved a nice chunk off my PB for 5k and for that particular route. Now it's cooler I need to do some more anaerobic work - I've been finding that my legs feel like they have more to give and I'm limited by breathing and pulse.
I hate you, with the love of Jesus, of course. That is awesome. Wish I had the discipline to even think of that regimen. On another note, we finished the study last night, got the bookcases moved in, and I unload 12 boxes of books and got them shelved. So, only one more bedroom, one more bathroom, a hallway, and the "bonus room" left to paint...
When you're done painting you're welcome to come and help me paint. Truth be told a couple of years ago I wasn't into running at all. I ran at the gym probably 20 years ago but after I gave up on the gym I never thought I'd come to love running. But with the COVID lockdowns I took to walking, then walking faster, then running short parts of the route (mostly the downhill parts), then added the flat parts, then tried the uphill parts. That wasn't fun for a long time and still isn't a whole lot of fun. It was actually a challenge from my fitness tracker that got me to attempt a longer run, then I figured I wanted to find a way that I could improve my overall time that was more sophisticated than simply running until I couldn't run any more, then walking until my pulse recovered, then running until I couldn't run any more. Just figuring out how to pace it, how to moderate the effort and not constantly hit anaerobic limits made a difference. As I got fitter I got to enjoy it more. Now I even find myself in the grocery store ignoring all the junky stuff I used to seek out because I know that the thing that takes 30 seconds to eat then takes 3 miles of running to burn off again. It's strange to think that, largely because of COVID, I'm probably fitter than I've ever been in my life.
Update from Florida and Ian. I've made it through safely. I sheltered with my sister and her husband, they have a concrete block house with hurricane windows. Got a lot of wind and rain, still getting it but not as heavy. No damages here. Not heard from my house. But I'm safe but not going anywhere soon. Some flooding on our street and a big tree down across the street blocking the only access so I'm here for the duration.
Now you have a perfect excuse to Not Go Running Seriously, good to know you're OK and have a safe space to be.
Speaking of Not Going Running, I failed in the task. I went running again. Just a gentle run today, looking to keep my heart rate lower than I usually let it run. It still ended up averaging a little higher than I wanted, but my average was just into my "threshold" zone 4 and I only spent 6 seconds in my "anaerobic" (aka maximum) zone 5. It's so much easier to run when it isn't hot and humid.
Just dropped Manny a text to see if he's doing OK. Hope the number I have for him is still good. If not I just dropped a stranger a text to see how they are doing.
Maybe the stranger needs to hear it, if so. My original "do what I need to do to cope and nothing more" has failed via circumstance re: dysphoria. So, with that bit of naive optimism firmly dead I guess I need to really actually accept what's going on.
The rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated. Or something like that. Good to hear you all remembered me. It’s been so long.
I'm almost done with my wall shimming. It's been tediously slow, largely because I'm endlessly trying to hold a long straight edge in weird positions so I can test how much I need to shim each individual stud. But at least now all that is left is the very corners. I stopped yesterday without doing the corners because I used the last of a piece of wood and didn't feel like digging in my stash of salvaged wood to find another piece. Hopefully I can find a piece that will provide enough wood for the remainder of the job. Then I need to move stuff out of the front room so I can make sure the ceiling is straight and reasonably level. I'm really not looking forward to that bit.
Definitely remember you. I have an electronic picture frame and your picture occasionally pops up on it.
Went out running again today. The last couple of days have been wet and dreary. Towards the end of the run I was looking at my time and wondering if I could set a new personal best if I extended the run, and figured I could shave maybe 30 seconds off my personal best for 10k if I did. Then I got to thinking about the best way to extend the run so I didn't end up running the last mile on a mostly uphill section, and figured a loop that would include both uphill and downhill sections. As it turned out once I got running the extra loop my system just didn't want to slow at all so my pace was higher than I expected. Having hoped to shave 30 seconds, maybe 40 seconds, from my personal best I ended up taking off nearly 2 minutes. That was a nice surprise.