Friday, October 13, 2006

Hoppin' in the swamp...NOT!!!

First of all, let me thank everyone for your thoughtful and encouraging comments on the previous post. No disrespect to Mom. I know, as some of you reminded me, that Mom only cares for my well-being. And probably part of her wants to still have control over her little baby boy. And part of the problem stems from the myth that Pony mentioned that running is bad for you. Steeve, you're not hinting that you side with MOM, are you? :) Doug, you're a hoot!!! I'm sure you're speaking from experience about signing photographs sitting in the port-a-potty. LOL!!!

I've been looking forward to Thursday, 13 October 2006 for a couple of weeks now. I penciled it in on Hal's schedule along with several other fun events and races. It says, SMARTie Hop, 3 miles. Since J is out of town this week, I made arrangements for dear Mom and her friend to come over and watch the kids for a couple of hours. It was so nice of them to come out. I got Subway for everybody and prepared to leave.

As I was leaving the house, the skies looked ominous. Still, the nature of Houston thunderstorms is that they can be isolated to just one part of town so I pressed on. That dang storm seemed to be following me. Sure enough, when I arrived at TH park, the lightning and clouds were warning of an impending deluge. I arrived right at 7, about the time the workout was about to start. There was a group of Striders milling around, looking up at the sky, contemplating the situation. The grassy area where we do the stationary portion of the Hop workout was a swamp from rains earlier. The group planned on just trying to get in a few good miles before the bottom dropped out. I certainly had no plans (or ability) to try to keep up with them or to brave the storm. I guess this week's tornado that touched down in my neighborhood was still on my mind and I chickened out.

So, I drove back home, through the storm that I reckon was soon to come down on top of my fellow runners. I was surprised that I wasn't all that disappointed. I guess like just about everything I'm doing, it was a learning experience. I learned that sometimes, it just rains!!! How's that for looking at the bright side? Like Forrest Gump said, "It happens." Btw, here are some memorable quotes from Forrest Gump. They are awesome.

Well, that puts me down a little this week. 3 good miles on Tuesday, 3.9 on Wednesday (not 5 as planned), and missed the 3 on Thursday. So much for consistency. Yes, it will be nice to be well-recovered and rested for Sunday's Space City 10-miler but I'm training for the full in January. The 10-miler isn't my target race. I need to be consistent during the week. I'm happy though with Hal's schedule because on any other week, where Jan is home, the schedule is flexible enough to move workouts around a little. For example, I could very easily run 3 today and still have a full day's rest before Sunday's long run (normally scheduled for Saturday, but I can move it to Sunday because Monday is a rest day). Does that make sense? It just has more wiggle room than the Fit schedule. Here's the difference:

Fit schedule - 4 days - M W Th Sat
Higdon Schedule - 4 days - Tu W Th Sat

See how running 3 days in a row Tuesday, Wed, Thurs provides so much more flexibility? Well, at least for my life it does. This is boring and I'm rambling.

Later!! Like Sunday morning!!! I've quit trying to predict the weather for Sunday morning

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The skies opened up on us real good once we had done the "out" of our "out-and-back". Isn't that always the way.

Steeeve

If your mom calls I'll tell her we keep her boy hoppin' but safe.

TX Runner Mom said...

Pesky thunderstorms messed up my run too! BTW, love the Forest Gump quotes.

Pat said...

The weather is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're gonna get.

I too, love the Forrest Gump quotes.

Pat

Anonymous said...

Vic,
Keep in mind that training is the dues paying part of the equation. When you pay your dues you reap the rewards(positive race results). The treadmill trained (or other less trained runner) will crumble under the weight of competition. Someone prove me wrong.
SteveS

Jenny said...

You have tornados there? I don't think you could get me out of the cellar to go to work let alone to go outside running!

Anonymous said...

Geeting out there, whenever you can, is what will get you to the start line of the Houston Marathon. There must be some vigilence for there to be a payoff. You will do well at Space City!

L*I*S*A said...

I never did follow Higdon with his back-to-back runs during the week. I stuck with M, W, Th and that seemed to work so much better for me.

The beauty of any training program is that you CAN tweak it and make it work for you!

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who watched Forrest Gump at the theatre (before it even came out on DVD) something crazy like 20 times. Seriously. I think she could quote the whole movie by the time it made it to the dollar theatre!