Where’s the peanut butter?!

Today’s going to be a sort of busy day.  I’ve got 12×800’s on the track and then Wilco playing tonight.

Last week I wasn’t sure what I should do with my running workout. I did the ~2 mile run to the track to warm up and then most of the people were headed out to do hills but I was changing schedules. So I asked the coach if I should go do hills or start track work with the other fellas. “Go ahead and do track - 12 800’s.”  “Yay!” I thought.

Good christ was I wrong.

Track work, it turns out, is very, very hard. The other guys (plus Rose) have a bunch of advantages on me. First, they started track work three or four weeks earlier. I don’t know how much of a difference this makes, but not having any track work under my belt and jumping into the 12x repeat instead of ramping up from 6 like I think they had set me back at least a little psychologically. Also, I think most people in the club have a much more solid base than I do of foundation running. As I’ve read and learned more about the running pyramid leading up to a marathon and the types of running to do and what my target paces should be, I’ve realized I just don’t have the background of early, solid running that I really feel like I should. This is mostly OK, it’s just making me realize that I’m possibly more at risk for injury and probably won’t have my peak performance in Portland (and if I don’t qualify for Boston with my first marathon, I should feel OK about that).

But I’d originally been doing tempo runs (which I should have a huge base of) simply as “pretty hard runs” without really paying a ton of attention to pace.  Then I found out my 5K pace at the Firecracker and realized I should be doing tempo runs at a pace of about 7:10 minute miles and I’d probably been doing 7:30 or 7:45. Then I found out from more running that I could really do a 5K way faster than I did the firecracker and my tempo pace should probably have been closer to 6:40’s.

…

But I’ve clearly learned next to nothing from my sister’s advice that she “couldn’t pretend to be intereste” in my blog, so for a change from my recent posts about running and more running - tonight Wilco are playing at Marymoor in Redmond. I’m really excited for this show. Every time I’ve seen Wilco they’ve been terrific. I missed Jeff Tweedy on his solo tour in the northwest and regretted that since they came out with the DVD of that tour which just looked incredible. I’m sort of excited that the new album has Wilco exploring yet another musical direction, but less excited about the actual direction. But I know they still put on a consistently awesome live show, so as long as the weather holds out I’m really excited about the show.

Now it’s time to get to those 800’s, though…

It’s hard to believe it’s been this long but one year ago yesterday we brought you home. You so tiny we had to section off your crate so that you fit without too much space. You walked clumsily around the house - learning the boundaries of your growing body and its intersections with your new home. You threw yourself into the nooks, looking for what felt most comfortable. In front of the stove? The corner near the wine rack? Snuggled between the couch and ottoman?

The first week was a little traumatic for your big brother, Jupiter. He wasn’t happy at all to share the house or yard with your kind and you didn’t yet understand the pain his claws can inflict. I should have warned you about this. I’ve spent enough mornings engrossed in catching up on news on the computer when he would sneak up on me, too, issuing his brief, dorsal warning - “mgnraoooo!!!” - before sinking his sharp claws deep in my most fleshy parts. But you learned this lesson yourself and continue with remedial lessons every so often through to today.

You also took your first trips to the neighborhood park where you would cultivate a refined palate for sticks and where we explored the wreckage of the fall 2006 Seattle storms . You were quick to identify (and best ) your key adversaries at home. You also had your first taste of flesh and would never, ever allow me to keep the house meat-free from that day forward.

That fall we took our first trip out in the snow, bathed in the midnight wash of the streetlights . You expanded your wardrobe and came with me and Tanya to Twin Falls and leapt for treats on the KVI park beach, now fully grown . You and Jupiter have become famous friends - you, the only dog he comes to visit outdoors; he, the only cat whose ears you will groom. And sometimes you still act like the puppy you were when you first came home, still unsure of exactly where your body fits and where it does not.

So though your real birthday is some time in February, observing it now feels right.