7 days in China, or how the Censor didn't let me blog

The Reason:

My parent company, International House World Organization, asked me to inspect two schools in China, IH Xi'an and IH Hangzhou.  They paid, I went.

The Travel:

Back again, its 23.09.12.  I've been in China.  I left on the 15th after a very nice 15k run in the morning.  I flew from Kyiv to Beijing, arriving Sunday, 16.09.12 at 4:45 a.m. (there is a 5 hour time difference).  I then flew at 8:00 a.m. to Xi'an, China where I spent Sunday through late Wednesday 19.09.12.  Late that evening I flew to Hangzhou, China and arrived after midnight on 20.09.12 and left Saturday at 8:50 p.m., arriving in Beijing at midnight, and spending 5:30  hours in the airport in Beijing waiting for the return flight to Kyiv, arriving in Kyiv at 10:15 a.m. Kyiv time on Sunday 23.09.12.

The running:

Really bizarre unfortunately.  I didn't run Sunday due to the jetlag that I thought I would have, I was right not, to as I wasn't taken to my hotel until almost 7 hours after I arrived.  After arriving in Xi'an I was taken to see the terra cotta warriors which was amazing.  But there was certainly no running.  I intended to run every day of the week about 15k.  Didn't happen.

The first run was probably the most fascinating, though in each way all the runs were interesting and enlightening in so many different areas.  I had used my Google Earth, which you can use, mostly, in China to map out from my hotel to the "city" which is guarded by the oldest intact wall in China.  This wall is about 16km in total circumference and makes a perfect square.  While Xi'an is a city of 8 million people this inner area is considered the city.

Woke up at 6:00 a.m., had a cup of coffee, and started running at 6:30 a.m.   It was daylight and about 19 C outside.  There wasn't much traffic but there was some, the first 6 minutes was uneventful but then I turned onto a street that was full of people cooking food outside, various people cooking various foods all of it cultural of course.  I then went down another street and this one was almost empty except for the people setting up their sections to provide the fresh food for the day for people.  These people, when I ran back would spent most of the morning selling various regional food, that had yet to be cooked (interestingly, no raw meat, which is different from Kyiv street sellers, because certainly they eat a lot meat in this city) and then I turned on to a major road which was tree lined.

Both Xi'an and Hangzhou have two sets of streets plus a sidewalk.  The sidewalks were wide and accomodating and certainly much better than the ones I run on in Kyiv in terms of how they were constructed and how they felt to run on.  The first street is the street for mopeds, bicycles and buses, and the the third street is the street for traffic.  I rarely ran on the third street.  I bet you can guess how man mopeds and bicycles were actually on the sidewalks.  But at this point in this run there were not a lot of people out, it was still only about 6:45.

My intention was to run 40 minutes out and 40 minutes back. At about 20 minutes I reached the city Wall.  I crossed over and headed around the outside of it which has a walking path around the entire thing.  Man was it busy.  Incredible amount of exercise going on.  The first thing I see when I turn the first corner is a line of about 30 ping pong tables and every one of them has a match going on. These weren't young people they were easily 20 years older than me, one match was so incredible that the women on my side of the table was 3 meters off the table in the path hitting back ripping forehands to her competitor.  It was loud and lots of people were watching and their were ping pong balls flying everywhere.  But that was just the beginning.

Around the next corner was a group of people doing exercises of their own creating but they all involved striking a part of the body hard with loud grunting.  Next area was fixed equipment, much chinese morning exercise must be to stimulate blood flow because almost every machine involved but movement and some sort of slapping on the body somewhere.

as I continue to run and have my head on a swivel, my mindfulness was not the best, but it was very interesting.  It got real quiet I turned the corner and there were literally 500 people lined up on each side of the path doing morning stretches and exercises, there was a fog here off the moat water as well, it looked like something off the discovery channel, i was struck by how fascinating it was and how lucky i was.  My run repeated like this for 40 minutes out and then i turned around and at about 59 minutes I headed back on to the street.

Small problem it was now about 7:30 a.m. and this road was packed, there were bodies everywhere.  These mopeds go against the traffic, same with the bikes, and horns everywhere, everywhere a horn.  Finally got off that road and up the road with the fresh food being sold.  Unfortunately it gets a bit hazy here.

For some reason I missed a turn and at 1:19:38 I stopped the watch and looked around and I had no idea where I was.  Really bizarre, so I started to to try to find building landmarks and started running again.  The problem was for me that there was no one who could speak any English and I had forgottena bout he hotel card which could have helped me.  I ran and I ran, felt like in circles, at one point I had to cross a major highway, I didn't feel so bad though since about 10 other people were doing it.

I found an Intercontinental Hotel!  I walked in there and found someone who could barely speak English and managed to get one of their maps.  Looked like I was about 1.5 kms from where I wanted to be after about 20 minutes of running lightly.  So I started on my way and stopped twice to ask people where to go by pointing to my hotel card.  This helped.  I managed to get home after running for close to two hours.

I called it 20km.  The running itself was wonderful.  The trisp around the outer wall was soooo cool.   the sheer humanity of the people was almost too much.

On Tuesday, I rose early again, did the same thing but I went 27 minutes out and back, but did not get lost this time.  I intended to do 10k because I had gone farther they day before.  This was a very nice run, but still alot of people.  The other thing was I was already beginning to feel real fatigued.

I think some of this was from the diet of Xi'an Chinese food which clearly I was not used to.  Also, the work was exhausting.  On Tuesday I spent a large part of the day on buses and out in the sun presenting plagues to communist party officials opening cultural centers in the name of IH Xi'an, while strange, it was all very tiring.  All also did not anticipate how the tremendous language barrier would exhaust me.

On Wednesday I just rolled over and went back to sleep.  I couldn't do it.  But I had the same thing with the outside and the cutlure presentations as well.  Also I had to fly to Hangzhou and did not get there until after 1:00 p.m. and did not go to bed till after 2:30 p.m.  As a result

No morning run on Thursday. I also was really tired by the end of the day.  But in the end I put the shoes on and run for about 45 minutes in the dark. I found a great little trail along one of the rivers and then ran in the city in some back alleys and streets and managed to work my way back.  Again, a lot of people  but I was running and that felt very good.  This run was really slow.

On Friday, nothing, even worse on Saturday, pure exhaustion, on Sunday I was on an airplane and hopefully I can start again on Monday.

In terms of Mindfulness:  the main action was in focusing on where I was at all times so as not to get too lost at any one place.  I also focused on the foot steps and the fact that I did this seems to be a good sign that I am staying on this area a lot.

All in all it is a fascinating place.  But tough to get runs in if you just jump off the plane, go straight to work, and still think you will get 15km a day in.

Why didn't I write all week?  The censor wouldn't let me near the blog.  Too bad, it would have been a better entry, or series of entries if it had.

3 Hard Days

The positive:  I ran all three days, 15k Tuesday, 12k Wednesday, 15k today.  But oh the negatives.  This week I'm trying to get in 84 km for the week.  Monday was a rest day and then back at it on Tuesday.  Tuesday worked out really well, very good mindful approach to foot plant. 

Its an interesting phenomena about this mindfulness of foot plant.  It is so different from following the breath as a mindfulness approach.  You work on every step you take.  You seldom come out of the mindfulness, it has been very insightful for me.  Not the least of which is that it has shown me that since the comeback from the broken feet so long ago my left foot plant was/is really out of whack and clearly the cause of some of my previous injury problems which were solved with the inserts.  It also is an indicator of my false diagnosis of atypical neuroma metatarsalgia.  If I step right I don't have the problem. However, the down side is that my feet are having to get used to the correct steps again and that is kind of strange.  I really have to stay focused.

Unfortunately, my work on Wednesday and Thursday prevented morning runs.  Actually, I prevented the morning run on Wednesday because I completely failed to have right speech, right action, right effort and mindfulness, or let ego slide away as a result of things that happened at work on Tuesday.  The result was very little sleep on Tuesday night.  I ended up running hard on Wednesday night for 12k.  I didn't intend it to be hard, it just turned out to be a good strong run.  Luckily I was able to stay mindful on the foot plant because emotionally I was a complete wreck. 

Again this too was insightful and shows that I still have a very long way to go till I have the kind of knowledge and use of the Noble eightfold path that some people might consider appropriate.  I have opinions and I have views, neither of which is a useful way to go about things.  My Wednesday run was driven by more hurtful words that I suffered, but they are just words I hope, I continue to meditate on how ego got in the way and how my incorrect speech was the cause of much of the problem.  Live and learn right.

Today's run was 15k and it was after I gave a presentation on customer satisfaction at the school.  I came home midday and got the run in.  I wanted to run early but just couldn't do it.  I ended up have a very bad blood sugar drop about 3:30 a.m. last night and ate most of the fruit in the refrigerator, thus causing a wonderful high blood sugar when I got up. So I took some insulin and got some more sleep.   I was determined to run though.  Again, very good mindfulness with the footplant. 

I don't know how long this meditation theme will last.  What I do know is that the week has been eventful and thus many phenomena have arisen and fallen. 

I go to China on Saturday afternoon.  Stay tuned.

Sunday stroll

Out about mid afternoon today.  Very windy.  15k today.  The leaves are falling, but the dogs don't care.  I thought today was a very mindful work out.  I worked foot plant almost the entire run, I figure 95% of the run.  About 10 k I got a twinge in my back and I was mindful of my posture and that quickly took care of the twinge in my back.  It looks like that is definitely a thing with posture.

Toward the end of the day I got a very nice meditation in also.  In addition during the run I was able to contemplate ego for a bit and work on a problem at work that has been bothering for me.  Looks like my ego is in the way on this situation and I need to show some insight in to myself and let go of what I think should be done and let others have their chance.  I'll do that on Monday.

Rest day Monday.

The Babushka

Everything taken care of this week.  Mileage that I wanted to accomplish was accomplished.  Interesting aside, I've always, and most people where I come from, call it mileage, but now I track everything in kilometers, not miles.  Does that mean I should be calling it kilometerage.  (the word itself gets a squiggly read line from Bill Gates).

Since the last entry I've had some success with getting up and just going forward with the run.  I've had help though, I am currently reading "Running with the Mind of Meditation" by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.  I've been thinking that there had to be something else I could be getting from my running and meditation.  So, with this as a I guide I have stripped back expectations a bit in terms of what to meditate on for the current time.  I hope to move forward back to what I was trying in the last couple of weeks after working through this book for a bit. 

The crux is that I have focused on foot plant for the last three runs.  That is to say, every time my left foot hits the ground I am focusing on how it hits, where it hits, the position of the foot in relation to my leg, the ground, etc.  This has been very interesting.  Why?  I'm sure your just dying to know.  If I lose mindfulness on this I find that the foot seems to splay outward. 

Now for today.  I had a twinge in the back after last Sunday's 15k and wondered whether it was because I wasn't working that really big hill correctly.  I decided to change the route around and make it an amalgamation of several other routes, plus on some places I've never run before to take out that hill and now call the course a gentle rolling 15k.  Its still up for about km then down for about 6km but still. 

It was a very good run, very precise with the mindfulness of foot plant.  Rinpoche Sakyong no doubt knows what he is talking about.  But the thing about today was the Babushka.  I was about 36 minutes in and had just come off a new section of the course that I had to plot out each step where I was going next because I'd never been there, I turned headed up a hill and was turning on to a road that also is part of my 25k route when I see the intersection.  It is like a T intersection but its Kyiv so its every man woman and child for themselves to cross this road. 

And I see this Babushka (easily 85 years old) with a four legged walker that she is resting on in the middle of the intersection halfway through, I see the traffic light, she'll never make it she is only half way and there are cars whipping by this woman.  I make a decision.  Hit stop on the watch and walked to her.  She looked at me and I think she was screaming at me that the cars wouldn't stop, but I wasn't sure.  I stayed right next to her until a car finally stopped, and then the car on the other side stopped, this instantly made for a traffic jam.  She didn't want to move, so I said to her in Russian (look babushka everything is okay) it is about all the Russian I have that is grammatically correct.  So she stated.  I waited until she got past the first car and half way past the second, because the first car really wanted me out of the way, then I ran.

A good run today.  Stay mindful.

A Monkey with Discipline?

12k this morning again.  It took some work to get going though.  This was interesting to me.  I am still not sure why I seem to have trouble getting started.  In fact the run was quite nice, very wholesome, monkey mind but nothing extraordinary in terms of thinking.  Just was unable to keep focused on the breath for any real period of time.

I am intrigued about the continuing issue of getting out the door in the morning during the week.  Various feelings passed through, time constraints (needed to be at work in 2.5 hours), but there was more than enough time to do the run.  Difficulty getting walking?  Not really, after about 10 minutes I'm awake and after some coffee I am ready to go. 

This reflection though is productive.  Is it craving?  What kind of craving?  To run, or not to run?  Well I want to run.  This element of time seems to be the chance to talk myself out of doing the run.  Time?  Is this craving for control of the time?  An interesting phenomenon.

Still, like most runs it was mileage in the bank and nothing horrible, fantastic, merely neutral but those are the ones that build the bank.

A monkey out there, but disciplined enough to run and work through the time issue?

In the morning

I finally managed to get my rest day all the way to Monday, which had been my goal.  So today I did 12k in the morning before going in to work.  A lot of traffic.  I mean a lot of traffic.  But interesting phenomenon.

I felt a bit dead in the legs but the pace was consistent and an unremarkable time on the roads other than attempting to follow the breath but having monkey mind.  The difference being that monkey was not about unwholesome, it was just random thoughts coming and going.  The phenomena however was working with sound, with all that traffic I managed to work with the breath and the monkey enough to just acknowledge the sound as being sound and nothing else.  Some days I can't do that very well at all and the noise of the cars bothers me, today was not that day.

Hope to run in the morning again tomorrow.

New Week, Different Person, Different Mindfulness

A quick turnaround for me.  15k at about 9 a.m. today.  I usually go once every 24 hours, but systems create craving, craving creates disappointment, which in turn gives you anger, and the dependent arising goes on and on.  So, I decided to see what a 12 hour turnaround feels like these days.

Not bad, very easy Sunday run, nothing major other than the roads seem to be getting worse and worse and every time they fix one the road people don't seem to put it back together even close to the way it was before. It looks like there is a dearth of asphalt and therefore there are long stretches of roads that are uneven paved.  The 15k route has a hum dinger of a hill on it, as I've written before and today after the run there seems to be a twinge in the back in the usual place.  Could it be the approach to running the hill is long, too much lean maybe?  A nice run with a quick turnaround showing that it just isn't that big a deal and the 'system' as I call it is actually a crutch.

Interesting phenomena today was how the mind gets better on these longer runs.  Of course I was workign on following the breath and in the beginning it was less than successful, continually finding myself returning to the breath after losing it and floating off on some stupid thing in the future that will probably never happen but my worry over it gets in the way of any skillful concentration.

But the longer you are out there, and the more you start to just run, the better the concentration becomes and you can just follow the breath.  One at a time.  which always leads me to impermanence and the fact that every millisecond is a different road, shoe, sock, person.  I set no goals, as the person who achieves them will not be the person who set them.  But I do plan to wake up and go to work tomorrow and go moment by moment.  It will be a different person who wakes up, but maybe that person will be mindful?

The end of an up and down week

Did not run yesterday.  I was unable to get out the door after I got home.  Friday was the last day of the first week, or orientation week, of the new year.  With my job duties that means that I spent most of the day going back and forth between the front desk, my director's office, and my chair where my computer is making continuous adjustments to the teaching timetable. 

For me the timetable is a difficult experience.  I really would like for it to be nice and tight and easy to work with.  This of course is a craving for control.  In actuality it is humanly just not possible. The first reason is the type of demographic, our clients just don't come in conveniently, they come in whenever they want and expect us to do our thing for them.  That means that the time table is changing constantly.  It is in fact a true testament to trying to renounce craving for control.

The issue for me is not being able to renounce ego about it.  I think the changes to the timetable are a direct reflection on me.  which of course they aren't. Ego, you are not nice.

So I didn't run yesterday, emotionally I was spent.  I had a tough week with some teachers as well and that was pretty difficult to work through also. 

Ran today, nice little 12k.  I made the decision to continue on with the process of upping the mileage so today I hope to go with 4 12ks and 2 15ks next week.  With one day off.

Back to the run, nice a easy, good stuff.  Everyone is different, it is an up and down thing, not to be controlled.

Unwholesome yet productive some how

Tuesday was the rest day again this week.  Ran yesterday, jut out the door and going, 12k, very easy but the mind of a monkey.  Today, ran 12k again, but other issues creating the land of unwholesomeness.

Yesterday was a very easy run, intentionally.  My intention was to focus on the breath and just run, but I ended up just running and looking around and smiling a lot, not in the least bit mindful of my breath but at the same time not having unwholesome issues to deal with and in fact thinking of wholesome things.

Today was a disaster.  Started a work and went from there.  The first three days of work have been pretty good but today I was unable to muster the appropriate compassion and kindness and it got the best of me, thus I was annoyed when i got hom to run.  Making matters even more fun was about 2:48 (minutes that is) in to the run a group of three women basically looked at me and step right in front of me and one of them stuck their foot out and I tried to jump over it and I ended up taking a fall.

To say that I was off my game from there is an understatement, thus began a terrible slide involving all the unwholesomeness of the entire day.  Just a lot of anger that I tried to get out of but it just kept coming back, over and over and over.

On the other hand it is the fastest I've run in about three weeks.  But, that is just no good because that wasn't the point, the pint is to continue to try to make steps in both running and living.

I guess I'll just have to take 1 out of 2 today.  Disappointing though.

Okay, not opium

12k today, a light rain for part of it.  Rain is of course impermanent and thus the enjoyment of it is in general going to go away, and for some people the irritant of it afterward is suffering.  For me, its good stuff.  Still 5k+ into a strong headwind and then about the same with the wind at my back made for an interesting type of run.  Basic into the wind, felt like I was an Olympian with the wind at my back.

Two things for certain.  Some of the running is very smooth and easy, some of it, especially when I pick up the pace feels like I am as graceful as an elephant.  With mindfulness it seems to be fairly nice.  If I lose it and move off into the streets of random thought I can tell that the running itself is not as fluid as it should be.

If I think back on all the year where I ran at a very quick pace in every workout, even 20+ miles were done at around 7:30 a mile, I think I can remember that there was a lot of involuntarily following the breath because I was working so hard.  Just thinking of the 5k I ran in Monticello in June I was focused on the breath because I was having to work so hard.  That is interesting to think about.

I didn't to the 5 bases today.  I tried to just follow the breath all the way around.  I would say I was mindful and concentrated for much of the run.  I used right/skillful effort to follow the breath and return to the breath when I got off track.  The one added element today was if the thought was unwholesome I went for a wholesome thought before I went for returning to the breath.

All this really shows is that its not opium for the mind.  But it requires daily practice and effort.

P.S.  Work went okay.  Mindful.

Opium

Is it all just opium for the mind?  Went 12k today, a good mindful run, very mindful, close to 99% mindful.  How you ask?  Following something called the "five bases of the breath".  I took this from Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo (Phra Suddhidhammaransi Gambhiramedhacariya) and his work on Sammadhi, which is also concentration.

It kind of goes like this, these five bases are the tip of the nose, the middle of the forehead, the very top center of the skull the middle of the brain and the middle of the chest near the sternum.  A series of trips back and for forth starting at the nose and going to the forehead, and back to the nose for a specific number of times, then from the forehead to the top of the head, and on and on.

I did this the entire run, I think i broke the concentration twice the whole run.  That is quite nice to me.  If I consider what Friday and Saturday were like, this run was really very different.  No unwholesome thoughts, thus keeping the various ugliness/fear/greed/craving, long list to follow.... where it was not arising.

The run itself was a good workout but I really feel tired after CELTA then yesterdays hard mental work and sun and then I didn't sleep well do to bad food choices last night, so really feeling lethargic but at the same time, not feeling anything, or trying to.

The interesting thing was when I worked the area from mid brain to chest/sternum, after the run I felt like my chest was on fire and that I had burned the inside of my lungs.  Still as I write this, it feels the same.  Really and interesting sign.

But, is all of this just opium for the mind?  Or is it helping? 

Embracing Fear?

Finished the CELTA course Friday, back to work on Monday, hence the title.  More on that later.  Ran all week, except Tuesday of course.  Got the mileage I wanted for the week.  Thursday and Friday were 'runs' and today went out mid day with minimal turnaround today. 

It got hot and I seemed to be pretty tired today.  Also I had world class monkey mind.  Just full of unwholesomeness and this was the second day in a row.  My run on Thursday was a good mindful piece of work but over the last two days I have really felt the unwholesomeness of my thoughts.

Luckily I have seen these and returned back to mindfulness, but I am noticing that in both of these days it felt like I was in that state of unwholesomeness for some period of time.  I probably wasn't but that is what it felt like. 

After the run sat down and worked it through and its just the second noble truth.  The cause of suffering is craving.  In this case its craving to avoid fear and the fear is the hard work that I wish I could control, but know that I won't control there is greed which is related to my compensation and of course that is all just suffering.  This is hard business.

I'll spend the day trying to embrace that fear and work with it.

Renouncing

Ran Monday, didn't get to run yesterday because of the CELTA assessment, so that was my rest day.  Ran today as well.  Monday's run was very mindful.  Tonight's was not so much, but interesting in a different way.

The sun is setting quicker these days so about 3/4 of this run was in the dark.  That means getting used to worrying about the footing.  Of course worrying.  That was the interesting part about this.  I managed to work my way through the fact that in fact I have no control over the footing whatsoever.  It is what it is and as result there is no need to attach, aver, delude or crave (good footing).  It is what it is.  Nice to renounce an opinion on something else in this phase of my training.

After working through that part I relaxed well and just ran.  At the same time I wasn't very good at keeping my mind on breathing.  I switched over to working with skillful or right view and working through the four noble truths which was a very useful approach and the run finished itself off nicely.  The pace wasn't quick but the leg turnover was nice for the last half.

Can't really check things off, because that would be grasping, but it certainly would be a bit of renouncing.

Unwholesome, Impatient, Learning

Ran Thursday, Friday and Saturday the usual mileage.  Just trying to run.  The pace of the runs has improved and some of that could be related to just running and not getting ahead of myself on each run or the day after.  Also, staying mindful following the breath on those three days was fairly good.  Some unwholesome thinking on each of the runs but noticing that and returning to the breath was very 'efficient' for lack of a better word.  All in all those three days were quite good.

But, nothing is permanent and all is impermanent.  Today I went 12k as planned.  Followed the breath nicely for about 12 minutes.  My mind just exploded for almost the entirety of the rest of the run. Of course you have no control of the mind and all things come up but on some days I have a much better ability to return to the breath and to wholesome thoughts.  Today was not one of those days, I had all kinds of epically bad thoughts, constantly.  These things would last for however long, I would see them, I would return and it wouldn't be one minute before my mind was back to just ridiculous thoughts.  Some involved fear, some involved anger, some involved ego, they just went on and on. 

I was really nasty in my head, lots of  ego and anger in the way.  I've been done for about 2 hours now and have had time to meditate on it some more and I seem to have worked through various things.  One thing I can say is all those thoughts made me want to even practice more.  They just didn't feel good and half of them weren't even real, just made them up.  Learning again that the mind does what it wants and you don't own or control it, but you can just work on the breath and go through the truths.  One of those truths is that craving, ego, hate, anger, delusion cause suffering within, that is true.

I feel better now.  It turns out the run was more than just a run.  Every second is new.

In the middle of the week

Its Thursday.  Rest day yesterday.  In the third week of teaching this CELTA.  I'm please with the change in diet and mindfulness.  I haven't eaten meat in three weeks now.  Plenty of fruit and veg and my new favorit, the chick pea :)  All in all feeling quite good with that.

Nice run on Tuesday and nice run today.  Both runs were accentuated by some mindfulness that started out the runs nice and smooth.  At the same time they both had monkey mind in the same place both times, right at about 32 minutes, today I actually looked at the watch, on Tuesday I just knew based on pace and where I was.  Interesting.

This is the typical 10k that I do clockwise and counter clockwise alternating days.  Nothing special other than the rain has stopped after four consecutive days and now we are left with crumbling asphalt and cement.  Too bad. 

Part of the run goes down a nice road with tall trees lining both sides.  Well, these leaves are turning already and with the wind from the rain, many of these are now on the ground, Tuesday really looked  like fall.  Today when I went through it was dark 8:30 ish, but I could fell them still there.

Mid week, mindful, ...understanding, thinking, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration

Rain, good rain

It rained hard and long in Kyiv today.  At the time of writing it is done, but it is supposed to on and off for the next three days.  As you've read, we could use it.  So we got it, but like all things it has its unsatisfactory side.  In this instance it is roads breaking apart, sidewalks breaking apart, car accident, the usual things that happen when change is about.

Got in a nice 10k again.  Not as quick, but just as smooth as yesterday.  I kept stepping off the gas because I kept feeling random twinges in my back.  Still I seem to have come through unscathed, though who knows about tomorrow.

Mindfulness was appropriate, though today was of course not like yesterday, as strange thoughts came flying in, I found myself thinking about a trial I did 8 years ago at one point during the run.  Strange.  I think it came in there because I was thinking about the lack of tort law in Ukraine which was the result of seeing two cars attached to each other in a nice kiss involving about 5,000 UAH worth of personal property damage.

Anyway, as you can see, not nearly as mindful as yesterday, but still working with it.  This is five days in a row.  Slowly but surely.

I hope it rains tomorrow, a good rain run, you can't beat it with a stick, but if it doesn't, I've got no control over it.

Pondering comparisons

Another Sunday.  I ran 18 seconds slower today than yesterday for the same distance.  The come back 10km distance.  Another week and then a slow progression toward something.  I've just about decided between a 50 miler in Cardiff Wales or running Conemarra again, but that can wait. 

The differences between the two runs was staggering.  You'll recall that monkey mind ruled the day yesterday and at one point I just felt exhausted.  Even taking in to account that each day is different and who knows what guy will be running in the shoes I put on in any given day; today's run was quite a phenomena.

Mindfulness came from the beginning as I started following the breath from the elevator and was well on my way by the time I pressed the button on the watch. 

The run was just a run, but the following of the breath and mindfulness of working with wholesome and unwholesome, see unwholesome arise and immediatley workign with it, and it going away and following the breath some more, it was over before it started.  I felt refreshed, not tired and relaxed as well.

Now, not all days are like this, but in comparison to monkey mind Saturday, it is once again an indicator of what happens when you have mindfulness and right concentration.

6 out 7

I have to say that I am pleasantly satisfied with this week.  After three very frustrating weeks of waiting for the back to come around, being scared to run even though thinking I might could, trying three step jogs around the office, ran 6 out of 7 days this week.

Of course I must take it easy, very easy in fact.  7.3km, 8, 8.5, rest, 10, 10, 10 for the week.  Not much of a mileage but certainly a good start back.  Nice and easy.

Of course something always comes up and today was no exception, after having what can only be described as two days of monkey mind about 3km from the finish today I snapped out of monkey mind to discover that I was really tired.  almost instantly mindfulness informed me that jumping around with all these negative thoughts while running basically made me tired, making me tired makes me think that the next run will be the same, thinking the next run will be same makes me have to work hard to get out the door the next time (my own version of dependent arising).

The thing is it was almost instant, from 'I'm tired' to an instant recognition of why?  Mindfulness, interesting.

Name one impermanent thing...

Kyiv streets!!!!  Ran 10k today and thought I might trip and fall several times.  We are in the middle of a heat wave with no water on the ground or anywhere, dust and sand are accumulating at a remarkable rate.  Add to this the fact that the infrastructure is well past its prime and now we are in the opposite of winter.  They aren't moon craters like winter, but they are kind  of like running on washboard dirt roads in some places. 

Today's run had good mindfulness for most of it.  Still I find myself regularly going to monkey mind, but at least I see it and take it back.  The last 3km felt very difficult to me, yet, that feeling always ends, like all feelings.  Impermanent, duh.

A new route with a new person

Went 8.5km today.  Nice and easy at about 8 pm at nite.  It was pretty hot in Kyiv today.  Luckily for me I spent the majority of the day inside doing CELTA training.  The walk from Lukyanivska Metro to the flat though was fairly sticky though.

A lot of good breath meditation tonight that flowed into no self mediation.  I ran a route I have never run tonight.  Since I am working toward this as slow as my patience will allow I decided to go back out on the streets and get away from the Death Match stadium (Start Stadium).  I google mapped a route that basically started and ended near the flat that totaled 8.5. 

This all carried over from yesterdays run and how nothing stays the same from day to day.  So extrapolating, probably wrongly, but maybe one day someone will educate me, if there is no self in that context, really the person running the route today would be different every step of the way and therefore may not have any idea where or what we running.

This gets me to thinking, if an arahant were to start running, couldn't he just keep running?  If there is no self, the only thing that stops him/her is the body shutting down and since he/she would only notice that as a pleasant, neutral or unpleasant feeling.

Too much I think, but I wonder if it is a correct application of no self?

Now for a little craving, I wish I was an arahant, I'd do a Forest Gump.

Oh the Impermanence of it All!

A nice 8km there and back to Start Stadium.  Dead legs, not too bad on the back.  A following the breath run until I turned it into loving kindness meditation over the last 2km. 

Although I have to say there wasn't much following of the breath between 2km and 6km, there was a lot of pondering the phenomena of impermanence.  Yesterday's run was merely a test whereas today I managed to let craving get in the way and hope that all would go well, when in fact I've gotten myself out of shape about 3 dozens times in my life, you would think I would remember that the 2nd run back after a long break like this (3 weeks) is going to be a struggle. 

However, I quickly got in to a two lap session on impermanence that swiftly moved on to craving for it to be better, which then moved on to trying to stay concentrate on right now and not planning the future, I found myself doing a silly 200 meters of thinking about how many km's I might run this week, and then snapped back to the breath.  in general a nice run out there.  Right now is the best teaching moment.

Trying Again, and Again, and Again

Ran 7 days ago.  That run was quite pleasant, but it was not pleasant the next day or the day after.  As a result I have not run since last Sunday.  Over the course of those days I also stopped doing core and any of the stretching  had been doing, with the exception of some stretching for my hips in a continuing effort to try and move toward at least an appropriate half lotus if not one day full meditation position.

I almost went out the door yesterday but at the last second decided it was better to rest another day and see what happened over the course of Sunday.  I slept in and then watched the womens' marathon for the Olympics.  What a miserable course!  It isn't polite, but there seem to be a lot better ways to get in 42 km in London than a 2.2 loop and then 3 8 mile loops with turn around of all things.  Well, ....

Over the last week I've had the opportunity to really work with impermanence on the metro meditations and in my reading.  While not extolling the virtues of anything, all I can say it is pleasant for me.

Last night, however, I failed in any sort of ability to maintain an even view of things.  The 10,000 km mens race in London was really just amazing to watch.  Not only that I saw the entire thing since I am watching the games on an HDMI connection from Eurosport Player to my television.

The way the race unfolded and the way the Africans had not planned for what can only be described as a change toward African training methods by the Salazar group was fun to watch.  The build up to the last 400 was special.  so much work by so many people and so crammed together with 400 to go.

The final 200 was something to watch, both Farah and Rupp seemed to explode out of the turn like they had run in this very pain this very 100 1,000 times before Saturday night.  Made want to put on shoes and run.

And so I did today.  I managed to talk myself out of something stupid and ran over to the track. Before starting I settled the breath and followed it through the majority of the run.  I did however monitor the back and found that it didn't hurt at all, but my left hip did.  In considering this phenomena I moved toward whether it was my pain or just pain.  I got there in the end.  I ran at Start Stadium (the match of death stadium), there an back plus 3 miles on the track for a 7.3 km total. 

Some light stretching tonight.  and tomorrow hopefully will be able to do a second day of something light easy and not very long tomorrow.  If I can't I'll try again the next day and the day after.

TWO WEEKS!!! Tough on the patience

And we're back.  12km this morning.  It is quite hot in Kyiv.  We had a nice cool period, when I wasn't running of course, but it is back to blazing again.  For the last two weeks I have engaged in meditation, both insight and mindfulness, teaching CELTA, stretching and core, but no running.  Interestingly, three times I thought the next day would be the day, and it clearly wasn't.  Last night it seemed pretty good, so off I went today.

Not bad in general, my following of the breath was continually interrupted by monitoring my back, which of course required that I return to the breath about two million times.  The final two kilometers was probably the best breathing mindfulness I had.  It was not a quick run.  I never thought it would be.  I will be surprised if this isn't the fastest I run all week.

New shoes in play.  Recall I had 250 on the Kinvara's and the shoe people said that was about what I would get.  Well I bought a pair of Saucony Cortana from the same people in America and I put those on.  This is supposed to be their high end version of the Kinvara.  On the internet web chats I should get about 300 miles out of these shoes, that is around 550 kms so I can live with that, we'll see.  First day out was not particularly impressive, I ran without inserts, I think first things first, the inserts have to go in, then I can see what happens next.  The shoe itself wasn't that interesting, seemed like any other shoe, but only one run.  Given impermanence, tomorrows run in them will be different, it is after all a different shoe as I am a different person tomorrow.

Living with Disappointment

Put the shoes on, stretched, headed out the door, after about 1 minute I stopped.  I felt a twinge the entire time, nothing that I hadn't felt before.  However, what I had felt before left me unable to run for 5 days, and now it looks like 6.  So, I shut it down and walked back to the flat.

I am disappointed.  I am waiting, patience, all that arises ceases, and everything is impermanent.

Just have to be mindful

No run Tuesday, no run Wednesday, no run today, maybe no run until Sunday.  The back turned out to be a bigger phenomena than anticipated.  I am just working on doing core (which doesn't hurt my back) and a lot of stretching.  Seems to work its way down the left outside part of the leg in a stretch. Today is the first day it actually felt much better, though tightened up as the day went on.

I've tried separating the mind and the body and in breath awareness that has worked pretty well, but I was in a surprising amount of pain yesterday.  A lot of stretching made it much better today so it looks like patience is the order of the day for a few days.  No sense running with any pain just to run, that will cause more setbacks than I want to consider.  So maybe see you Saturday, if not Sunday.

Patience and mindfulness.

Back Pain, will it cease?

Since Friday last I 've been struggling with back spasms that managed to radiate down into the flank area over the last four days.  Friday it just was in the lower back near the fascia, left side.  Friday night after the run was a tough walk around the flat.  Saturday, a little worse, but walking was tougher.  Sunday, worse.  Monday I ran and the run seemed okay as it got loosened up but you could definitely feel it.  I could barely walk afterward.  Today all through the day I walked with a limp, so some core and a lot of stretching for today, no running.  I won't run tomorrow either as the assessor is coming to assess our CELTA course so there will be a dinner involved, so home late.  No use chancing it.  We will see what ceases and arises in two days time.

When I was buying the extra shoes in Tallahassee for the return trip to Kyiv I asked the people at Capital City Runners how many miles they thought I would get out of the Saucony Kinvara 3s.  They thought 250 miles was about max before you started feeling things.  I really didn't want to believe that since I live on the 310 mile or 500km rule. Well guess how many miles I have on these shoes?  400km or 248 miles.  is that a coincidence?  I will switch shoes when I start up again. 

Thursday through Monday, 5 days of running.  All of it quite good.  A lot of breathing meditation for each of the runs.  Of course I lost mindfulness regularly, but following the breath the entire run was helpful to return back without blame to the breath and disconnect mindfulness from the body and work with the areas of a new body with every second, every step, every 2 steps, meters, kilometers, miles, runs.  Interesting phenomena.

Also, the back is none of my business, it is the bodies business and all that arises, ceases.

End of the Week, each step is a different person

This is the end of a very interesting week.  Second week of teaching CELTA is done, and I ran 6 days in the week for the first time in 3 weeks, or the second week of my vacation.  In addition, all sorts of interesting phenomena arose and fell during this weeks runs.  Today was no different.

I would characterize my brain as indicating my body was tired about 10k in to it.  I had a very interesting 3km of thinking about how each step was actually a different person which seemed useful.  If the concept is correct, if all things are impermanent then every step is different, or should be considered to be a different person.  Under this thinking there could be progress toward other things, but isn't that grasping?

It was a 7:45 p.m. start and there was a bit of wind for the uphill 5km start to things.  The rest of it was looking at the world and seeing how it had changed in the last 24 hours.  In the deep hill section, by the US Embassy, where I haven't been in a week, there is a great deal of sand everywhere, looks like there was flooding there, wouldn't be surprising, it is very low country down there.  Not Alvin York's bottom land though.

The real phenomena is where is it all going?  But isn't that craving?  Each step is a different person, interesting, true?

Rain and Impermanence

Didn't run yesterday.  Quite tired actually, wondered whether that was because of three days in row, not really, or that I managed to talk myself out of it.  More likely.  12km today.  It rained.  Really nice.  The first rain run in Kyiv in quite a long time.

Two interest arising phenomena today.  Rain cleans Kyiv, a good hard rain moves the dirt and the grime of 4.5 million people off the streets and gives it a shine.  This observation came to me at about 4 km today and I considered the concept of impermanence and dirt for about a kilometer.  The other was why didn't I run yesterday, in reviewing why I can come up with:  1.  it will hurt, it hurt the day before (but it didn't really), besides that isn't the same person as today is it?  2.  I'm tired, I've been on the metro and training all day (I might can accept this) 3.  My schedule was thrown off by other things (this is where the meditation and running came in)  clinging to the schedule really doesn't lead to anything good.

A good hard run, a different person will be running tomorrow.

Three Days in a Row or All That Arises Ceases

I feel compelled to write about this.  I've run three days in a row.  You'd think I was some sort of runner or something.  It feels like forever since I strung three days together.  In fact, in looking at the running log it has been since the 26-28 of June.  That is 12 days.  My legs today actually started to feel a little dead.

Ran 12k today and 12k yesterday, both at around 8 pm in the evening.  I'm teaching this CELTA course in Obolon and the commute is 55 minutes of walking and riding the Metro each way so who knows how long it will last at this rate. 

I feel good, I'll say that.  Changing my eating habits has been helpful also.  Because I'm not teaching at night I'm not eating late at night.  I've managed to lose a large majority of the weight I brought back with me from the US.  I've also been able to meditate each way on the metro and following the breathing.  All good things.

To think about, of course this is all impermanent and if if thought of as lasting will be unsatisfactory and therefore suffering. 

Nothing is Permanent

Rose and ran.  I'm now down to one cup of coffee per day and have switched over to green tea.  How that is relevant to the first sentence of this post is currently unknown.

Man it is hot here.  Low humidity, about 50% and only 30 C, about 87 so really it should not be that interesting of a problem.  In fact it is/was.  Started nicely very relaxed, but of course trying to weave my way around the roads to find all the shade.  At least that occupied my time. Also made some effort to follow my breath and see where that led me.

It felt hot, but it also felt very nice to be putting one foot in front of the other.  About half way I climbed that big hill and that really seemed to take some steam out of me.  I had 241 BS before the run and took 1.5 units, by about 11 k I felt I needed to take a GU, and did.  I didn't have any water with me however so it was like having a blob of goo without anything to dilute it. 

I really felt like I struggled to get it home, yet overall I was going much quicker than I thought I was.  Yet another reason to just have the experience and not attach phrases to any of it. 

Finished up and it appear that I lost 4 kilos of water weight, that seemed a bit dangerous.  We'll see how the rest of my day goes.  But I've certainly drunk a lot of water so far.

Impermanence, each run and each breath is different in some way.

A whimpering start to July

Oh woe is me!  Woe! Woe!  After finishing last month badly, this month seems to have started even worse.  The best laid plans go straight to hell when DELTA Airlines is involved.  Didn't run Saturday to get ready for the flight back to Kyiv.  Boarded the Tallahassee flight just fine, arrived in Atlanta just fine, got in to the international concourse just fine...

DL 238 was scheduled for a 5:30 departure Saturday 30.06.12.  Never happened.  An international flight that gets cancelled!  They loaded the plane late, they got to the runway, they had a problem with a light, they couldn't fix it, they went back to the gate, they couldn't fix it, we got off the plane, they fixed it, we wanted to get back on the plane, then DELTA said they now had no crew, then the lied and said they had a crew, then they said they didn't know if they had a crew, then they fed us water and pretzels.  Then they lied some more, at 3:00 a.m. Sunday 01.07.12 they cancelled the flight!!!!  We collectively waited in line for changed flights, we got meal and hotel vouchers, we took a bus to the domestic side which dropped us off in the wrong place, I took a taxi to Days Inn Six Flags where I arrived at 5:00 a.m. and slept for 5.5 hours.  I got back in a car and arrived at the airport at 12:30 for a 3:45 flight ot Paris Charles DeGaulle.  Made that flight, made the flight to Kyiv.  Guess what didn't make it?  My luggage.   Two days later it arrived at my flat.

Awesome experience. DELTA airlines, worst experience I have had since I was flown half way around the world on a plane used to fly Muslims on Hajj to fight in Desert Storm (now that is irony).

Arrived in Kyiv at my flat around 2:00 p.m. on Mon 02.07.12.  I got in a 10km run on Tuesday that felt good to kick some rust off.  I went to sleep.  I woke up and started a CELTA training course as the trainer on Tuesday.  And then crash and burn.  I slept from 9:15 pm to 6:45 Tuesday and Wednesday.  I never could get out the door.  On Thursday I took a 1.5 hour nap and then ran at about 8 at night a very nice pleasant 12k.  I wanted to run Friday and Saturday. 

I just kept making excuses.  I have no excuses, I just could not get out the door.  I feel much better now that my body clock is back to normal after the Saturday/Monday experience.  A new week starts tomorrow, return without blame.

A wimpering end to vacation

It's Saturday.  I fly today.  I didn't run Sunday, we knew that, I proceeded to have four very good runs, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  All 15k, but they had a birthday party for me on Friday and I played golf in the morning, so I didn't run.  Then I didn't run today, so I could pack, etc.

Not the best finish to what was a pretty good month of training.  Two sets of intervals, a week of hill work, a road race and several 15ks in very hot weather.  Not bad.

Monday and Tuesday this week were tropical storm Debby days.  They were really fun runs actually.  Wet and wild.  Wednesday and Thursday were Africa hot.  Humid bt very quick and the pace was nice and strong and enjoyable.

In general I enjoyed my vacation and I really enjoyed the running.  I bought three pairs of Saucony shoes along with what I have, all with a low 4mm drop in them.  I got two more of these inserts that I am using, I also bought a Camelbak "bag" for the longer runs that should be helpful.

I was able, as you can see, to get a lot of equipment that should provide some "help" for the training for longer races. 

I consider these vacations to be the starts of new years as my contracts are 11 months long.  Starting Monday I will be doing teacher training in our Exam Center office in Obolon for 8 weeks.  But it is better hours actually and should make running nice and easy.

Still, it would have been nice to run more miles for the month but, I ran.

Tropical Storm Debby aka I'm pretty sure I'll run though

You can plan, but it doesn't mean it will work out.  Life is ever changing.

Drove home on Saturday from Toccoa, GA.  I long drive and I decided to forego the run that I had hoped I would do in the evening. As a result, I had a lackluster week of mileage but 4 really impressive hill workouts and of course that treadmill joy.

The plan was to get in the car and go to the beach house on St. George Island and do my Sunday run there.  Nice plan.  Didn't work out.  We are having Tropical Storm Debby, complete with 60 mph winds and driving rain.  We ended up getting to the beach house, having no power or phone and after I slept for about 6 hours they issued an island wide evacuation.  Drove back to Tallahassee, got in about 8 p.m., which meant I also missed the daily Olympic Trials on NBC and got in no run.

Two days, no running.  Not as bad as you might think.  More proof of the lack of control that one has over things.

Woke this morning to more driving rain.  I was out the door and running :)  15k and a moderate pace that felt fine.  I worked a lot of following my breath on this one just to practice.  My body worked well, there was strength and my right leg didn't arise today.  A much easier run that the runs last week. 

Right now I have not plan for running the rest of the week :)

I'm pretty sure I will run though.

Knowing when to Relax

It's Friday evening here.  Tomorrow we get back on the road and make the long trip back to Tallahassee.  Traveling screws with your running, you've got to really make time for it.

Wednesday I didn't run because we all went down to Atlanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium, the Jimmy Carter Library and the MLK Museum area.  We also had dinner down there.  We left about 8:00 a.m. and got home about 9:00 p.m.  So, no run.

Thursday morning I added a mile to the 12k and ran 15k in the morning.  Even more hills.  The pace wasn't fast, bu the running was very interesting.  Most of the run was contemplating how to stay patient and how do you stay patient in an ultra if the hills just never stop.  I tried to look back on the Conemarra experience and think about those hills.  I have to say that again, not knowing the course was a real detriment and not knowing that there are hills in Ultras, lots of them, is important. Really something to consider.  Another very important thing to consider is that you have got to be patient, you can't just blast away, this is something I have always struggled with and this week in these hills has been very helpful for that I think.

Friday I woke up exhausted discovering that the 15k on those hills really took it out of me.  There is a treadmill so I thought I would do that.  Funny how your mind makes any excuse it can to get out of pain.  In fact, the 15k on the hills wasn't painful, it required patience, but I let my mind talk me out of doing it.  We went to Toccoa Falls, took a nap when I came back, and then I got on the treadmill.  My intention was to do 15k. Ha.

As we all know, I can't stand treadmills, I just can't deal with it, talk about not having mind discipline.  I managed to do 10k, some of it very quick.  the last Mile was in 6:40 or quicker.  At least this is a positive, I know that I am getting more leg speed and strength.  This is a nice treadmill, but still, I really like being out and doing it, not staring at a TV or a wall.

Tomorrow, I hope to run in the evening when we get back.

Impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and change.  The essence of running I think.

Turtles and Big Hills

Still Tuesday here in Toccoa.  I ran 12k today and yesterday. 

Yesterday's run was very good.  Worked out a route through Google Earth that was 12 k.  It is an out and back but still has both of the absolutely brutal hills on it.  Both hills have a climb of well over 200 ft in about, one in 400 meters, the other is a double climb 200 then 200.  I set a goal of trying to run up both of them by the end of the week on Saturday before we drive back to Tallahassee.

Monday that goal of course was not achieved.  The interesting thing about running here is it is certainly showing me what patience is about.  Unlike most hills these are real hills on the edge of mountain range and some patience and training is needed before trying to go up them at all quickly.   The other thing is that I am not running very hard because the hills are of course taking a lot out of me. 

On the way back I was headed up a hill yesterday and met a turtle.  It was about 1/2 way across the road when I first saw him and was about foot farther along by the time I got up to him.  I decided to stop, pick him up and move him to the grass in the direction he seemed to be headed.  He was struggling and I was struggling, it seemed like the polite thing to do.

Moments later a huge truck came by at about 60 mph (100km/hr) so I feel okay about the whole thing.

Tuesday's run was in the late afternoon, about 5 p.m.  We played golf this morning, shot an 80 so that was okay, on a mountain course over in  Clayton, GA.  Got back around 3pm, in time for a nice nap :)

The afternoon run was almost the same as the Monday run.  The exception being there was no turtle and I ran farther up both hills/cliffs/mountains than I did no Monday.  As a result, my total time was a bit less, but not by much. 

My right leg has some issues in various places but nothing that prevents running or changes my mechanics.  Jury is still out on these Saucony Kinvaras.

I enjoyed the turtle, it seemed like a nice turtle.

Mountains? Maybe not, but big hills.

In Toccoa, GA it is the end of the Appalachian Trail and we are around the Lake Hartwell area right on the Georgia/South Carolina line.  I had hoped to get in about 15km today but that didn't work out.

Anyway, one day after the race I feel pretty good and there are no real pains or aches.  Same for the run as well.

Today's run was really, really slow.  This is a very hilly area and I really wanted to find a trail to run on.  I tried to divert off the road two or three times and find some small trails to run but they were just trails that led up to the back of houses and didn't last very long.

I also took some detours off main roads to find these trails and this added some time to the run in general.  My actual plan was to try and do a basic out and back from where we are and get in the time.  But when we drove in last night I figured that it was going to just be running, and probably some walking up and down these hills so I had to adjust and I guess I did.

I ended up running 12k with all the side trips.  I had to walk 1/2 of three hills.  It was a very slow run but I enjoyed it immensely.  The scenery is really beautiful and you can see some real nice views from different parts of the run.  Tomorrow I will take my camera when I run I think.

After the run I managed to map out a 12k run that is out and back and will have big hills but that is the way it is.  I hope that by the end of the week I can maybe work up each hill.  Not going to worry about time this week, just going to work hard on patience and taking what you get.

Being nobody, going nowhere.

Running and Racing? Really? Coincidence?

The time says 3:13 a.m. 17.06.12 on my computer.  Its actually 8:15 p.m. in Toccoa, Georgia, USA on 16.06.12. 

Thursdays run was good stuff.  15k, making it 15k Wednesday and Thursday.  Nice and easy on the roads, no trails, the rain has been really heavy and that makes those trails a little ugly.  I've been feeling a bit of a tinge in the the right soleus muscle.  It was actually there when I left Kyiv.  But feels a little more present right now.

I didn't run Friday because I wanted to run the Watermelon Run 5k in Monticello, FL on Saturday and I wanted to try and run pretty hard to test where I was in terms of strength, fitness, etc.  Over the last week I've done intervals, run 3 15k's and the others were 12k.  So, all in all, a Friday off wouldn't kill me.

The Monticello Melon run 5k has been in business a long time.  The first running was 34 years ago.  I've run it twice.  This being the second time.  In 1993 I ran this in 16:23 on a very different course.  The course I remember did not have the hills that this one did.  This course finished with about 400 m uphill and three good lumps in the last mile and one in the first mile.  The second mile was fairly flat.

This years 34th Annual had 379 participants.  I ran 20:49 by my watch and finished 34th.  Strange huh? 

This is another weird coincidence.  In the Dublin Marathon in 1992 I ran 2:45 and finished 99th out of 3,000+.  Then, at Conemarra I finished 99th.  Coincidence, or just random.  I think most people with my philosophy would just go with random.

So the run was fine.  I had good focus, stayed strong and felt like I was running hard.  I had no lost focus and I followed the breath the whole way so I really took a lot of positive things from running this hard. 

On the down side I am FAT!! I just feel fat in terms being able to generate good speed and feeling light on my feet.  I really have to work on this.  I keep thinking I can do it and I just don't seem to be losing any weight.  But I will just return without blame and keep working toward that. 

The soleus is a little more sore than I would like but that is okay.

So I ran hard three times this week without damage.  Now we have moved on to Toccoa George in the Lake Hartwell area for the next week so hopefully I can get some nice easy mileage in this area.  No running hard this week.  Just running.

Running and Racing, nice.  Real.  But a lot of coincidences don't you think?

No animals on the track I guess

After my stint with the animal kingdom I had some hopes that maybe I would see something cool doing intervals over at the Florida Statue University track.  Every Tuesday, for over 30 years, Gulf Winds Track Club has conducted Tuesday evening intervals.  I went last week, and I went this week.

Yesterday, Monday was a road run.  I went 12km, 6km and back on the roads.  Uneventful, other than to say that my right leg has some pains, but they aren't the usual.  The foot issue is resolving, the stone bruise is gone, it just feels like a tight ITB.  Good reason not to go nuts on the mileage and try to get in between 85 and 90 km each week for the vacation.

Today the workout was 4 x 400 and then 3 x 1200.  A strange workout.  I don't recall having ever run anything like it.  Suffice to say, I was stronger at the end of the workout than I was last time.  The speed was thus a bit quicker, the beginning was about the same.  The middle 1200 was very strong with negative splits through each 400. 

Intervals require that you understand there will be suffering, and that the suffering will end.  Buddhism in circles.  No animals out there though.  Bummer.

SNAKE!!!!!!

Running the trails has such great advantages.  One, it is covered most of the time so the sun is not beating down on you.  Two, it is nice and soft and you don't beat your legs up as much.  Three, it is just plain nice.

The down sides for someone like me?  I fall some times.  I fell today, first fall since last Sunday when I had my first run in Tallahassee.  Really a sneaky little root.  I got up to find it and I must have been dragging my feet like Frankenstein to catch that root, it was practically buried underground.

I ran at about 4:30 this afternoon.  Though the blog is 6/11/12 at 1:30 a.m., it is still 6:30 p.m. on 6/10/12 in Tallahassee.  It was hot and humid.  Lost a lot of water weight today.  At about 31 minutes I stopped for water and GU because I really didn't feel good at all.  That was helpful.  I also stopped for water at 61 minutes.  I fell at 43 minutes.

The last few days have had nice nature looks with a little bit of fear with it.  Today was the freaky deeky dance.  Tooling along in a nice shaded patch, really soft ground, nice and then something wiggles in front of me.  SNAKE!!!!!  Not a serious snake, a black snake, harmless, about two feet long.  I danced all around it not to step on it or have it go nuts on me.  It wiggled away, I wiggled away.

I managed to stumble home for the day, very tired.  Probably tired also from 8 days in a row, this is the best training I've had in months.  No self, try to remember that.

Nature, cameras and computers

Well, it is actually 8:00 p.m. on Friday, my computer says 3:03 a.m. Saturday, so probably the blog will say Saturday.  I never change the time on my computer when I travel.  Maybe so I have a bit of a connection with Kyiv at all times.  That seems weird doesn't it?

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all very good 12k workouts on the trail.  I've enjoyed the trail much more this year for a variety of reasons.  First, I've quit worrying about the workout.  Second, I've gone in different directions each day, and third, I'm in mildly okay shape to do 12k in the heat of Tallahassee.

I still feel fat :(.  what a drama.  Impermanent, unsatisfactory and changing, yet, I still feel Fat.

Yesterday I was about 3/4 of the way through the run and had just come up one of the larger hills on the trail and was doing a little brain recovery and right there on the trail was a deer.  Now deer are not the most intimidating animals I've ever met, but never take an animal for granted I say, I slowed a bit and moved to one side of the trail.  He/she looked at me for a bit, put his/her head down one last time and let me get to within about 10 meters and then bounded away.  Deer are amazingly agile animals and cool to watch. 

Today was even trippier.  Same trail, going the other way, but only about 40% through the run and it was really quiet.  Just me, my steps, leaves and some wind.  Then a big smack to the right of me that turned my head quickly.

Looking at me was a black bear about 50m away.  He was working a dead tree for something.  I stopped dead (still the runner, turned off the watch).  He looked at me, I looked at him.  Now bears scare the crap out of me, all I know is they are strong as hell and can be very quick.  However, I think this guy/girl was just as freaked out as me.  We looked at each other for about 5 seconds, he snorted at me, turned and jumped over the log and ran away.  Trippy.

I ran on and considered that one and of course being the weirdo I am "if I only had a camera."

Remember its a vacation.

It's Tuesday!  That means nothing on vacation.  But certainly running is going just fine.  On Sunday I went shoe shopping at the Capital City Runners store.  I looked at a variety of shoes with minimal drop and then had my feet checked out for various orthotic inserts.

I ended up buying something called Saucony Kinvara 3. A very nice shoe so far.  I took an insert that has less of a hard arch as the machine seemed to think i had great arches.  But this insert has a metatarsal displacement pad and that is useful so far. 

I've run twice in these shoes.  Yesterday was a nice 12 km on the roads on my usual out and back.  Good time, solid pace, very hot and humid in the morning.  BS was good before and after.  I did get hot feet, but I do almost every time I run in a new pair of shoes.

Today I went and did intervals with the Tuesday evening interval group run by Gulf Winds Track Club.  I used to do this every Tuesday when I lived here.  I wanted to check to see exactly what sort of fitness I might have as I also signed up to run the Melon Run on the 16th, its a 5k.

I did a nice 5k warmup, the intervals, then a warm down giving me a total of 12k for the day.

The workout was 4 x's 1200.  A tough workout for me given I was just trying to run hard.  Remember that several weeks ago I did 8 x 400 and it gave me some heart.  I have to say, from a positive standpoint, I did manage to finish the workout and I ran better than I thought I would.

For the workout it went 4:31, 4:38, 4:43, 4:49.  As you can see I was by no means burning it up.  But I was working very hard and it took awhile to work into it.  In general I thought that it was hard but enjoyable.

Learning?  I'm still way overweight.  Working on it.  I don't have much leg turnover, but I do have the desire and the shoes worked out nicely.  I think I will try to do intervals again next week.  I'll be interested to see what tomorrow's workout will be like.

This weight thing is tough, I just don't have any discipline it seems.  Once I get hungry I just eat like maniac.  I am eating a fair amount of nuts, but it is still vacation :)

Its a vacation, try to live a little. 

Tallahassee, FL

It's Sunday and I just finished my first true trail run in a year.  Ran my 15k route through Forest Meadows, powerline road from the Trillium Ct. house my parents live at about 7:15 in the morning.  That's right, I am back in America for the first time since last July.

The weather was fantastic, though humid, but it was a gorgeous way to start this month of training and vacationing.  I of course managed my regular fall, this time a stone on the power line jumped up and grabbed me. Good BS to start, bad BS to finish.  Ate some walnuts and almonds with green tea afterward.

Pace speed were nice, impermanent, unsatisfactory and changing.  I'll buy some new inserts tomorrow, new shoes today.  Nice to be here in the land of the government preserved trail head :)

Some niggly stuff that I think is related to the worn out adidas'.  Got 602 KM on those shoes though.  Nice work.

Back in Tallahassee, more trails tomorrow.

Mid Week Blast

It's Wednesday.  I am about three days from heading back to Florida for my yearly vacation.  After Sunday's run I felt compelled to keep looking into the no-self thing and working with impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and change.  Also trying to follow the breath. 

I did core on Sunday and Monday, I also did a very nice 12k that felt really just, just, just... easy.  I'm currently running easily a minute per mile faster than I have in over a year.  Knock on wood, I am also not seeing the same leg problems.  The other thing is, when I run at a real pace it must make my feet plant better because my feet have also stopped hurting.

I didn't run Tuesday, :(, work got in the way and I had an early one to one with a VIP so an early run was out as well.  But, going back to impermanence, etc.  so it goes.  I didn't run, its done, move on.  Stay in the current moment, not in the last moment.

I ran today and again really quite good stuff.  In some ways it feels aggressive, in other ways it feels like it is how it should be.  I'm not breathing hard, except when working hills, I'm not feeling like I have tired legs.  Today was 15k and it was faster than I have run 15k in training or in racing in almost 20 years.

I am not thinking much of the change in training and am really enjoying it at the moment.  Is it possible that this things happen just because they happen?

Today's run was a blast.

A Nice Sunday Run

Out for 15km this morning and all moved along nicely.  An interesting aspect is no self.  Whether a person believes in those things or not, it seems interesting at the moment to try to pursue this concept.

For example, while running if something hurts, it actually isn't me that is hurting because there is no me, it actually is the vessel that hurts and concentrating on the pain actually subsides, but a lapse of that concentration brings that pain back as me or mine. 

Another thing to play with is just running.  The vessel runs, I don't run, there is no me.  It takes a great deal of mental gymnastics at the moment to get to that.  If there is no me, how do 'I' believe there is no me?  Good questions.

All I know is I ran my quickest 15km training run today, just running, and no thinking, that I have done in almost a year and it was easy as pie, what foot pain?

A nice Sunday run.

No-Self, or, stop thinking and just run

All in all a pretty good week.  I ran 6 days out of 7, 12 km each day.  Something strange happened this week.  I ran Sunday, got out the door nicely and wrote about that.

On Monday I ran about the exact same time but ran the route backwards.  There was a lot of work on foot steps, easy, light etc.  Experienced a bit of tightness as well, and my feet hurt like hell when it was over.

On Tuesday, I got home from work and my brain said run!  I ran harder than I have run in several months.  It was tiring and not at all smooth but it required that I actually run and focus on just step after step.  Not how big the step where to step how to step easy light smooth.  In the end I was really tired but happy with the run but it was a lot of work.

On Wednesday I just tried to put one foot after the other, i was dehydrated and very tired.  it was a boring run but all I did was run.

Thursday, I couldn't do it, just exhausted, i was however happy that I went four days in a row without wimping out.  Very tired and very dehydrated. 

and then Friday came.  I put on the shoes went out the door and ran.  But there was no steps, small steps no upright worrying about posture, nothing about 2 steps and 3 steps, I began to run.  It began to just be running, the focus was just counting my breath, not form, posture, etc.  I just ran, it was truly easy, light and smooth.

Saturday, was the same thing.  I thought about it and I think (dangerous word) too much thinking, not enough enjoying. 

For the first time in months and months I had to quick runs, one I planned, the other I did not.

Working on no self, reading on it, working on it.  Stop thinking, stop attaching, just run.

Strange and Bizarre

I managed to get out the door today at 10:00 a.m.  which is about 90 minutes later than I had planned.  But run I did and it was very nice.  I just don't see what the issue is for me trying to get out the door.  The runs themselves have been really wonderful.  Take today for example, nice and easy and light and actually in some places also smooth.

I'm struggling a bit with blood sugar when I am not running though.  I seem to be up and down a lot at the moment.  Perhaps I am not taking enough of the Lispro?  I think I will take a look at that.  With the decrease in mileage over the last few weeks maybe the Lispro number is too low and needs an increase.  But the danger there is if you increase and then catch a spurt where you actually run every day.  Of course I've shown no ability to do that in at least two months :)

Strange feelings, bizarre results when I run, just don't see why I can't get out the door.  Obsession with time for work?  Attachment?  Aversion?  Craving?  Just words, can't find any "emptiness" to hit the streets.

I did today though.

Returning to Blame

Just an unproductive finish to a very good start of the week.  Travel on Thursday and Friday, it turns out, was much rougher than I had anticipated.  Woke at about 10 today with an intention to run but ended up back in the bed by 2 for a 3 hour nap.

For the week, I ran 36 km.  Feel like I am going backwards.  Returning to blame and that isn't very productive so maybe we can get started again on Sunday with what was very productive about 3 weeks ago.

Need to try and return without blame and just run.  Why can't I just run?

We're Done Here

I'm leaving this evening for a miserable return to Kyiv.  Flight plans are 11:35 departure from Muscat, Oman to Doha, Qatar.  2:30 a.m. departure from Doha to Vienna, Austria for  a 7:30 arrival and a 9:40 departure from Vienna to Kyiv for 12:40 p.m. arrival.  Going to be long and tough.

The positives exercise wise have been that I have done a version of core every day of this trip.  The negatives are that I didn't run on Wednesday or Thursday.  Wednesday was the final day of this inspection and I had a dinner with all high end stakeholders (I hate that word, really, yet I continue to use it) and didn't get home unitl 11:00.  Today I slept in after meeting 114 people over 4 days plus 4 90 minutes on Wednesday and a 3 hour dinner meeting.  I then went shopping for gifts and did some actual sightseeing.  It was actually well worth it and I am really glad I did it.  I took about 140 pictures.  I never really get to sightsee on these inspections so it was nice to do so.  The downside is I didn't run those two days.

I did run Monday and Tuesday and both those runs were fantastic.  They were watch runs.  I turned it on and worked my way around various areas of the city until I knew I'd run at least 12k both days.  The Monday run was the opposite direction of the Sunday run so that was great.  Nice terrain, no real hills to speak of and of course around 100 F, still a very smooth run, but of course my feet still hurt and that nagging thing on the right knee (behind it) was there.

On Tuesday I ran east toward Iran :)  I ran through the diplomatic quarter, the government building section and the opera house and palace area.  It was a beautiful run, even in the dark and great to keep my head up and just look at all the architecture surrounding me.  A smooth piece of work that I enjoyed.

I'm done here, posting late, getting on a plane.  Back to Kyiv.

A two country post

Haven't posted since the Wednesday day off run.  I ran another nice 12k on Thursday which was a slow stroll around the usual route.  My feet keep hurting.  The event of the run was that I took a fall at about 11.5 km that gave me a variety of road rash.  I lost concentration on the "trail", aka the roads/sidewalks of Kyiv and stumbled over a man hole that was about a foot above the pavement level.

I had hoped to run on Friday morning, but I was catching an 11 a.m. flight to Frankfurt Germany and just didn't get out of bed at 5:30 to make it happen.  Its 45 minutes to the airport in Kyiv so the time would have been run at 6 finish around 7, get ready, find a taxi leave at 8:30 for the airport.  So, me and the alarm clock did not get along so I didn't run.  My day was spent walking airports.  I flew from Kyiv to Frankfurt, a badly designed festival that required about 2 km of walking just to get from my first plane, out of the security area, to the Qatar Airways counter to get my next tickets then a train to the next terminal then another 1 km walk to the gate.

Frankfurt to Doha Oman on Qatar Airways was almost 7 hours and then I did the sprint with a one hour transfer window to catch a flight to Muscat, Oman.

I'm in Muscat Oman doing a quality assessment of the Foundation Programme of the College of Banking and Finance.  Basically determining how to improve the English language training for Omani nationals.

I started work on Saturday at 7:30 after getting in the bed at 3 a.m.  First things first.  It is HOT!  I lived in Saudi Arabia for a year plus another 6 months in the military, but I am spending some time reacclimating.  That is to say drinking water constantly.

After working all day I decided to fore go running outside, I didn't feel acclimated yet so I went to the hotel gym and ran on this great treadmill for 10k.  It had a television and the Doha Diamond League meeting was on.  Its nice to run slowly on  a treadmill and watch Kenyans run under 8 minutes for a 3000m Steeplechase!  All in all it was a nice slow run, bu there was a mirror there and all I can say is I look fat and out of shape.  I also did core exercises yesterday.

Today I went for a run outside.  You might remember I blogged about running in strange cities and how interesting it is.  Nothing different here.  I had a basic route mapped out, but then that all changes with construction.  So I just ran a bit and there was a mix of trails, grass, dirt, marble, brick and asphalt.  The statistic of the day  38 C or 100.7 F!  Hot, not humid, windy, and dry.  You just can't run quick in that weather, you've got to stay calm and remember where you are.  It is like orienteering.

A very nice run.  So, 4 days, 3 runs, two countries.  Nice.

New Leaves? Or Same Old Story?

After two days off feeling sorry for myself and some polite reflection on the events of Sunday, I ran a nice pleasant easy 12k today.  We have yet another holiday here in Kyiv.  This one is Victory Day.  More people died on this side of the war than on the US side, about 20 times more, so if they want to have the day off whatever.  Unfortunately, they don't really have the day off because they have to work on Saturday so I am not sure how that is a day off.

The run was very nice, not fast, probably slow, good small steps, just a run, no watch.

On the other hand, I am trying to implement some changes in general after the Sunday fiasco.  I've done some re-research ( I knew it before but needed a kick in the head again ) on Low Glycemic Index foods and dietary requirements.  Gee, who knew you couldn't eat all the ice cream and junk you wanted and lose weight, I'm shocked I say, shocked!

So, trying to turn over a leaf here with diet, getting back to doing Core Exercises and getting the correct amount of sleep and considering each run to be the start of a brand new thing.  Breath by Breath.

Have you heard this one before?

Definitely Not Fun

I think I will start with the positives.  Again, I learned a great deal about pacing, confidence, training, eating, conditions and how you have to take them as they come.  I also learned that I am overweight, out of shape, need nutritional guidance and a lot more miles in the bank before I can just roll out of one race and in to another.  I also saw the other side of blood sugar issues, this time high blood sugar. 

Unfortunately, these are things I will need to work with and think hard about over the next few months until I try something of long distance again.  Right now I am actually really disappointed in Kyiv.

We started on time at 10:00 a.m.  The race was two races at the same time, a 15k and the marathon starting from the same place.  All in all, about 1,000 people I think.

The course was a loop of 14.2 km that we would run 3 times, and later I would learn we would go past the finish line 6 times plus go past it and come back for the finish of the marathon.  The 15k had to do the same thing.  That is of course something everyone had to do, but it just wasn’t something I was very interested in, but more on that later.

I had intended to try and run about 3:45.  By the way, I just didn’t have that today, that is for sure. The 3:45 pacer ran away from me in the first kilometer which was weird.  I actually felt I was running nicely in the first loop.  Having run the loop twice already I knew what it would be like and I knew that there would be cobblestones, and the hills, etc.  all of that I knew was coming.

We ran into the park area first which was quite nice, quiet, relaxed, trying to get my bearings, I had warmed up about a km and felt myself starting to get a rhythm and I was making sure I wasn’t running very hard and letting people just run away from me knowing that it would be difficult later.  There was water, but it was in cups, the first time I went through at about 2 km I got water all over myself, that required an adjustment, actually I just stopped and drank, the water cups were very small and they were only filled half way so by ½ way you had to drink about 5 cups to get 8 oz of water.

We eventually make the first turn and head back, out of the park and in to the sun.  it ended up being very hot today with not much wind, the temperature by the end was about 78 F.  That is the hottest it has been all year.  This was another disappointing area because of course there hadn’t been time for acclimation of that sort.  Watching the weather all week I figured it would be about 70 at worst based on predictions.  It rained the night before, instead we woke to hot and humid and humid is rare for Kyiv.

I quickly figured out that my practice with cobblestones did not prepare me for the leg turnover of 8:30 per mile and going through uneven roads was really quite difficult and to protect the ongoing foot issues I have running here, not on trails, I modified my stride for both sets of cobblestones on the course.  This came back as a problem later, the total amount of cobblestone on each loop is about 3 km.  I ended up running modified steps for 7km of this run, resulting in  left hip pain and right foot pain that was really extraordinary.  Even compared to the fun cramping I had at Conemarra. 

Out in to the heat we went and headed back the other way, we went through the start finish line for the first time, and headed up Khryshchatyk Street toward Red Army st.   And from here it was just a bizarre 2 ½ hours of running.  Kyryshchatyk is closed on weekends so there are always a lot of people on this street on the weekends.  Since it was warm there were even more than usual.  I estimate that there were about 3,000 people in this area of the course.  Not one of these people was in the least bit interested in a race with 1,000 people coming through.  More bizarre is that they were in the way and didn’t care that we were running.  There were people screaming at runners that they were in their way of moving back and forth across this closed street.  This happened every time we went through this are and we had to go through it 7 times.  On my second loop I came to a complete stop three times as people just walked right in front of me.  It was the rudest, ignorant, unwelcoming thing I have ever seen.

Keep in mind, this country is hosting the world’s second largest Football tournament Euro 2012 in 33 days.  But it gets better friends.

As we headed toward Red Army Street I went up a hill, not bad, running nicely, but I started to hear all these cars honking their horns.  Maybe they are cheering us on?  Nope.  This is a big road we are on it is 4 lanes wide and we are two of them.  However, there are large cross streets as well, and there were 10 different cross streets, large and small on this part of the course.

The cars were honking at us all right, but it was because they wanted to cross the streets.  The police were at each intersection on the first loop and they were working hard to make people stop, some people wouldn’t.  On the first loop I saw several cars full of people screaming at runners, me included and giving us the sign of international brotherhood (the finger) out their car windows.  This went on the whole section of Red Army at every intersection. 

Since it was an out and back set of loops it turned in to going out the gauntlet and coming back this gauntlet.  At least there was water at the end of the rather long cobblestone festival.  At this point I started putting cold water sponges on my thighs, this really helped and is something that I took from this run. 

I went through the first 15k in about 81 minutes.  Once again, right where I wanted to be.  And we headed back out toward the park again.  It too was nice again, but the cobblestones really were a pain in the ass.  And back out into the heat.  At this point I’m taking as many of those little cups of water as possible. 

But of course now there are even more people on this closed street and they are really starting to be obnoxious about walking across.  I watched a runner in front of me try to get around a line of 10 people who had made a line across the road.  These idiots didn’t care at all. 

An unsophisticated demographic.

I got through the gauntlet only to have the fun of Red Army.  Out and back again, but this time, the police had stopped even trying in some places.  I was almost hit at a major intersection as the guy tried to go between me and a guy who was 10m in front of me on the road.  He screamed at me like it was my fault that he couldn’t do whatever the hell he wanted in this lovely welcoming city of his.

This was a complete downer and it all fell apart from there.  I battled the cars, I got turned around and headed back and went through the same thing, taking water, sponges, etc.  But I was starting to crash and burn.  I had taken a GU at 50 minutes and I took a banana at about 1:50 minutes and lots of water, no cramping, just my legs seemed to not have any turnover.  At this point 28km in, I was also starting to have some serious pain in various areas from these cobblestones (of course I didn’t figure that out till later).

I run the gauntlet again.  This time coming to a complete stop a couple of times and just shaking my head.  And again, 1,000 of people, not one of even the least bit interested in the marathon, nothing, really amazing that that many people can’t even generate a passing interest or a minimal amount of respect for other people.

I have lived in this country for 5 years.  I have known the whole time that Ukrainians are a breed apart, self centered, greedy, uninterested in doing things the right way, and at the same time, some are, but more often than not, most are not. 

This was really getting me.  Down.  I started to think about DNF.  I headed toward the park again, I ran on the cobblestones.  I got up in to the shade and had some salt, water, and GU at the aid station and started running, I felt pretty good actually, but I was not running quickly.  The 4 hour balloon pacer passed me and I knew I was in a bad way.  What I was not was in a good spot mentally.  I was very angry with the place I lived and how these folks were treating people who came from many different countries to run this marathon.

I got back to the start finish again.  I quit.  Walked off the course after about 33 km.

It was no fun.  But I learned a lot.

Epitaph:  blood sugar when I got home was over 400.  At the start of the day it was 112.  An opposite effect that requires a lot of thinking.  But might explain, though probably not, the leg turnover shut down.

Moving forward...

A stiff and less than smooth 10k yesterday in the morning.  I was pleased to get it done in the morning as I had to go to work for Thursday.  Today was not nearly as good.  I woke up and decided to go right back to bed.  So I did.  Woke up around 9:30 and then went in to work.

I got home and decided on a light 5k.  I wasn't going to run at all.  Over the course of the day I really started to feel very good in the legs and then I went and ran.  Very informative. 

I definitely want to warmup before the run on Sunday.  That is a definite need.  I'll want to do that about 15 minutes just before the race. 

Speaking of the word race...  not really going to do that.  I intend to run 3:45 or a bit less.  My plan is 8:30's. 

Won't run tomorrow.  Will be picking up race number tomorrow downtown.  Race is Sunday at 10:00 a.m.

Should be a nice long run Sunday.  Relentless forward progress?

Vacation!

I'm into day 3 of the vacation.  Actually for the office it is 5 days plus two weekends or 9 days.  For me and about 5 others it is a weekend then 3 days then work Thurs/Fri then two days off again.  So really since it is Wednesday, I go back to work tomorrow.

I meant to rise nice and early and run.  Didn't happen.  Just ended up sleeping late (which in itself was great) and then did some work long distance for this trip to Oman that I have going on where I will do an analysis of the English Language Center for the Oman College of Banking and Finance.  Then I went out and ran.

I intended to do 15km, but really the body didn't want that so i did 10km and it was really nice.  Really nice.  Easy and light and then it got quicker and better  and then I would slow down, then speed up, really not even working on it, just doing it.

No watch, not time, just vacation.

How do you calculate metric temperature?

Ran at mid day today.  Temperature ranged from 26-28 C.  What exactly does that mean?  How do you convert Celsius to Fahrenheit?

Here's How:

1. Take the temperature in Celsius and multiply 1.8.
2. Add 32 degrees.
3. The result is degrees Fahrenheit.
   

We usually just say x'2 +32 around here, but technically that just ain't right now is it?

The tightness behind the right knee kept me from getting up real early yesterday and running before getting the day started.  When I got out of bed yesterday walking was uncomfortable.  during the course of the day I worked on about 5 different stretches and finally found one with a towel around the feet and the leg extended which ended up working well.  That felt good.

I also took off the strap around mid lower leg that was for the Soleus muscle.  Who knows?  Soemtimes your willing to try anything huh?

Today's run was nice and easy and light for 15km.  Not much going on, but it was damn hot to me.  By the way, still going without the watch. The temperature is supposed to get a little lower over the next couple of days, but not much.  There may be rain on Saturday and Sunday also.

Just about decided to just run the Marathon to say that I did but to use it as a fitness gauge and high mileage workout.  I'm also considering not wearing the watch there also.

By the way, 26 C is 78.8 F.