1*31*07 training run

7 mi today.
never that fun in the dusky chill but after a couple miles you settle into it and just keep going. Went up to the Tabor reservoir and circled it again, getting a perfect view of the SW hills and OHSU, bathed in pink rising sun-light. This Saturday will be the 2 yr anniversary of my 1st surgery there. Back when we thought (hoped/prayed) that my tumor might be pituitary. Back when we hoped one surgery would be the end of the journey.
2 yrs seems at once an impossibly long and short unit of time. I remember details of then with both the crispness of a recent memory and the gauzy fog of long long ago, struggling to bring back details, much like emerging from drunkenness.

what can you do?

1*30*07 training run

3 mi this AM, brisk and frosty but with clear blue sky.
Maxwell was such a presence
as I dressed – so eager and desperate for the running that
I’ve perpetually denied him – that I had
little choice but to bring him.
We darted and lunged and ate muddy grass, barked at
shady characters and urinated ceaselessly.
But we also had a nice time.
gearing up for 7 tomorrow and 15 this wknd.

wknd in rearview

a mere 10 mi yesterday but – still battling this cold/exhaustion/whatever – it was akin to running through sludge. Considered stopping after 3 mi but this upcoming wknd is 15 mi so I’m gonna have to deal w/ pain/exhaustion at some juncture. I bit the bullet.

I was greatly aided by a new pair of running shoes that I got due to the maneuverings of a good and generous soul. thank you jonathan e.

elsewhere and meantime, saw 2 movies yesterday ‘flags of our fathers’ and ‘stranger than fiction’ both of which were fantastic in different ways. I’ve been on a real WWII kick lately. can’t explain it. the previous white-noisey background meaningless quality of History lately has altered and become somehow relevant, germane, essential. I must be aging. In any case, the movie was great – I wept like an infant throughout – and I’m very much looking forward to seeing the counterpart. loved STF too.

wknd run and random thoughts

possibly getting sick again. no!!!

didn't do my 3 mi yesterday as a self-preservation technique.
tomorrow is a 10 mi. if i feel bad i'll wait till sunday
[at which point i'll have new shoes thanks to j-eckie]

part of this cycle of malady is due to a combo of working too hard and
the winter and whatever it is that is
going around. another part would be the reduction of my
immune system thanks to radiation last year.
i'll happily accept that reduction as opposed to a brain tumor recurrence
but
it can be a drag.

so, i'm pounding ecchinacea tea and zinc tablets
and trying to get my rest. hopefully i'll feel well enough to do the 10 mi tomorrow
and that will be that

the apology

7 miles this am. Was cold and frosty and hence not that fun. Or at least not for awhile. Ran up Stark and circled the mt tabor reservoir. The neighborhoods i looked down on were covered with fog that the rising sun backlit with an orangey-pink that looked nice and (nearly) made it all worth it.

went home and got Maxwell and gave him his walk. As we crossed into the park, a nearby dog began to lunge toward us, only to be called back by his owner's voice.

The owner muttered something to me about the importance of dogs being on leash and that, some months earlier her dog – Magic – had got entangled with a dog that looked similar to mine. The owner had apparently gotten wrapped up in his dog’s leash and fell.
- that was me, i said
- oh my god, she said

so yes, here she was: the woman whose off-leash dog crashed into me and Maxwell in the rain last May, knocking me to the ground and subsequently breaking my arm. She was apologetic and displayed appropriate contrition, which deepened when she learned a broken limb was involved.

For months I’ve been telling the story of The Woman Whose Dog Broke My Arm And Then Didn’t Even Stop To See If I Was Okay but now I suppose with this denouement the story will change, or at least become a bit textured. Hearing it from her side shed a tiny bit of light on how it went down, and why she didn’t stop – not because (as I am fond of telling people) she was a horrible person with a black suppurating void where her humanity should have been, but rather because she was embarrassed for letting her dog off the leash in the first place.

We talked for a bit and she was nice enough and her dog was well-behaved and friendly. It felt semi-historic (as relates to my life, not World History, that is), a moment of closure and completion that you’d only really get in a city like Portland.

I suppose I need to let all that anger go now. Onward.

1*23 *07 training run

3 mi this am. no sweat. in and around LH park again. definitely getting some strength back from the wk off.

for a couple wks i'd been experimenting w/ running on my lunch break at work but as the wks go on the mileages increase. tomorrow is 7 miles. not enough time to run and shower at lunch break.

this impacts my writing schedule naturally. on shorter training runs, i can run, come home, get the dog, walk the dog, come home and still get an hr of writing in. not so tomorrow. ah, well i'll write on lunch break instead

13

did the thirteen miles yesterday. ran in and out and around laurelhurst park then
up to the tabor reservoir and circled it repeatedly. felt the week off burning at my legs at around mile 9. back home afterwards, did a fair amount of flopping around. but it's the weekend so there you are.

today is the 33rd bday of mm. cause for celebration.

at last

an ample supply of reasons to NOT run this a.m., among them sloth, fatigue, snow, slush etc but i had to take action before things started slipping (as it had been a wk!). so therein, stepping forth into the grey sludgey ice (and aided in part by xmas running gear - thanks Sue!), i marked the return of the training. 3 mi again. nice and easy. and, glad to report, no slips or falls or tears or otherwise.

13 miles coming up on Saturday, weather allowing.

the wayside

missed my 12 mile training run this wknd due to illness and the past 2 maintenance runs due to ice and snow on the ground. i can't help but feel a tad unimpressed w/ such facts but better to miss now than further due to intensifying one's own illness.
up-side: laid on the couch and read 'twilight of the superheroes' by d. eisenberg and saw several episodes of the world at war
both of which were amazing but in wildly divergent ways.

back at work today so if the snow/ice melts tomorrow i'm back out for a training run.

short fiction

get your hands on demolition by louise erdrich. it was in the new yorker a couple wks back. i've thought about it every day since i've read it. f*cking great.

1*11*07 training run

3 mi today. nice and easy through and around laurelhurst park. walked maxwell afterwards b/c he gets sassy w/ other dogs and invariably people have their dogs off-leash.

snow rained down for several moments, covering the pond and empty benches as an appropriately dream-ish song came on the ipod.

this may be real dumb

can't help but feel a tad ridiculous but here i am typing introductory words. don't know how/if this will work. (note to self: bored already).

the plan, if i dare call it such, is to semi-document the training of the coming mos. leading up to the vancouver marathon. currently, all thoughts are fair game. hopefully, this will be a self-correcting phenomenon and any dross, and/or flotsam will melt away, leaving only pure, brilliant little interesting bits. (note to self: discontinue notes-to-self )