Week 9 (65) - Distractions a plenty

Anyone who's been following the financial markets this past week knows that the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac news has been a huge distraction to all of us portfolio managers trying ramp up their marathon training miles. I'd figured that this week was as good a time as any to experiment a bit with 2-a-days, but didn't actually leave work most days until well after 6, which may sound plenty early, but I get in to work at about 7:30 or 8:00, and have to travel a fair amount ...and I was bushed. Plus, the market was painful - we were all grappling with the notion of complete financial system meltdown and clients were hugely worried. I'm not. I did make it to the gym twice during the early part of the week, which was total bonus. Tuesday's are American History Movie night, where Amanda and Leticia's daughter Sydney eat American food and rent movies that have something to do with American history. Tuesday's feature was "the Great Escape". It gave me a spark of adrenaline.


If you haven't already seen this video, watch it. I know I sent it out to a bunch of people already. And no doubt, it's been making the rounds, but man-oh-man, it's so life-affirming. To me, it says - everything is going to be okay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY It reminds me of those Chex Mix commercials, where everybody's dancing because Chex Mix has 60% less fat and tastes really good - Chex would make me dance too. Tonight, when I do my Sunday night HEB run, I'm buying some.


Running - I was up too late on Tuesday night to run on Wednesday morning. I tried to get up, but hit the snooze button about 10 times. I toyed around with doing some intervals on Thursday, but Roger suggested a LBL loop ...and that was good enough for me. I'm curious as to whether all my speed is gone. It's been months (Chuy's 5k) since I did anything uptempo. Maybe next week, I'll do some 800's. If anything up to this point, it's been a consistent run plan, all slow. Despite Wednesday's snooze, I did get in four respectable days during the week, with a fairly brisk 9 on Friday.


Saturday, I ran with the "Black Shorts Running Club" and yet again, Roger's plan put us right smack in the middle of both the Gazelles and the Rogues. We were all heading for Mt Bonnell. For a change, I was well stocked with fuel - 2 gels and a Gatorade bottle filled with Endurox. The morning weather started out terrible, but a cool breeze started somewhere along the way. I was surprised to have not worked up the usual massive sweat. In fact, it was so unusual, that it worried me a bit. I was having trouble keeping up with the Black Shorts. By the time I passed Seton on 35th, I'd pretty much lost Greg, Roger and Mike, who are running great these days. To save face, I cut down Guadalupe and weaved my way through campus. While they were in Jester drinking, I stealthfully dashed ahead and then took a left on 17th, but McNeal caught me on San Jac and herded me back. For the last three miles, I was lucky enough to run with Bruce Coleman and Larry Bright, two Performance Project guys. This gave me a little spark at the end. Since my Garmin is broken, I could only guess on the mileage - 2:20:34 - maybe ...17.6 or so. Probably more, but I hate to cheat. Not bad in either case.


Sunday, I got up about six times and finally made it to Barton at 7:30. There wasn't a soul around, which was fortunate since I felt like crap. I brought along some gel and a small grape Gatorade ...and $3 since I wasn't about to finish in time for a free soak. It took a while to get going. Lots of aches. I had my MP3 to keep me company, but am getting tired of the same 18 songs. Mental note - load some different tunes. The pace was a bit quicker than Saturday. I did the 10.1 mile Longhorn loop, added the 2.9 mile mini loop and a few loops around Zilker for good measure. In my mind, I ran Tahoe. I've run it dozens of times already. In my mind, I never make pacing mistakes. I always finish strong. This morning, I won.

I have 10 weeks to go. The rest of July will be a challenge. Lots of traveling. I'm not very good at running on the road, but hopefully, I'll be able to get my act together for once.

Happy Birthday to Mike McNeal, who keeps getting faster and faster every year.