10 miles, a parade, and a lot of bad wine

I wanted to bring my camera with me on my run today and take snippets of the route I've been running for the past year and post them here. This would have been both a tribute to the path itself and a way of bidding it adieu before the move. I think I've written this before, but the courses I continually run along develop a sort of talismanic power for me. I run faster and easier when I know the distances between landmarks. The landmarks themselves become friends I look forward to seeing. I usually need to know when the next hill is coming, and I always need to know how far I am from the end otherwise I exhaust myself wondering how close I am, usually by counting songs that have played on the iPod and multiplying the number by 3:30, and using that to guess how long I've been running.

Anyway, the camera isn't working, and there are no pics...

I'm going to miss running in Cologne. I will miss seeing all of the other runners who, like me, exploit the quick escape out of the city that the canals provide, leading to the Stadtwald and the stadium and the peaceful tree-lined streets where the RAF used to kidnap people. These running paths have treated me well over the past year, and I have no idea what to expect in London. Maybe I'll have to take the subway to a park? Maybe I can run along the Thames? Maybe I'll just run around the house, like when I was a kid and we played 'Dukes of Hazzard' by converting the sofa into the General Lee and followed that with two hour arguments over who got to be Bo. Maybe I'll have to run on the left hand of the path, and before I properly adjust to that, will slam into someone running in a bowler hat...

I had to wake up early to run today because I wanted to get it out of the way before the Christopher Street Day Parade, which is specifically a great expression for gay pride (and this here is a big gay town) while generally another excuse for the good people of Cologne to go absolutely insane. Everyone delivered on all counts. At the time, I didn't realize that I started at 8 in order to ensure I wouldn't miss the gimp-cage-on-wheels...but I gotta say, it was worth it. The only problem with waking up early was that my neighbor invited me over to his place last night to attack every bottle of bad wine he had in his pantry. It was either that or watch "An Inconvenient Truth'" alone, and I opted to try the German equivalent of Trader Joe's Syrah while drunkenly defending, yet again, why so few Americans have passports. Anyway,when I woke up, the tannins were killing me so I chugged some water and ate some Wheatabix and headed out for a ten mile run. All in all, it went well. I've run ten miles for the past three Sundays in order to set the tone for my "at-least-twenty-a-week" plan, which is just a vague way to keep a base until I figure out what I want to train for.

It had all the makings of a run that PP and Sixpack would be proud of: I had salt crystals around both my eyes, and I managed to spit on my own face just before the sixth mile. I found some old Gu in a kitchen cabinet the other day and brought that along because my breakfast seemed pretty meager, so I spent the entire way home burping while my stomach tried to process it on no water...The weather was stunning, but it started to get too warm towards the end, which might have slowed me down. I'm still content to hover around 8:45 for now, and I keep telling myself I'll add in speed work next week...

Last week I only ran three days (10, 6, 4 miles), but have been pretty comfortable with four runs per week recently. Here are my last five or so, as plotted by the good people at nike:



I've had a hard time balancing my usual running routine with work, since I've been trying to stay on top of the writing and hitting different archives over the past few weeks. This means that I'm sometimes running a lot later than I would like, or even early mornings (much more rare). The obvious great thing about combining running and work is the endorphine rush that helps me "unwind" after a stressful day of frantic writing. Anticipating this usually leads to me say funny things along the lines of "I need a run" around 5 PM, in which the paradigm "run" has somehow taken the place that "cigarette" or "beer" used to hold. This seems to be more evidence that running is an illicit substance in its own right, while also showing how punk rock I am not.

So, it sounds like encouraging progress is being made in the PP camp! I think running until you dry heave is a sign that you are on the quick road to regaining your speed. don't fuck around! And I want to see those speedo pics, Sixpack. You can't just promise that without delivering! The swimming should enable you to maintain your muscle tone without forcing your joints to break down any more, and the PT will hopefully eliminate the cause of the problems. You're almost there, I can sense it! Let me know as soon as you are ready to set up a new challenge. You started out fantastic on the last one, and if camp hadn't happened, I think it would have gone down to the wire. And Forest, you're just a stud. You'll be running in no time.

I have big plans for next week's runs. I can't tell about them now, because I'll need something to post about when/if I survive. But it should shake things up...shake things up, indeed. It might even involve...speed work.