Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Whistle while you work, sing while you run

What a bummer: I had just finished typing up my Wednesday blog when my computer went on break (maybe it just broke) and my blog went into the void. All my sentiments about taking a nap after a fairly good salmon dinner and a draining day went down the drain, but I’m still proud to report that I found the energy after that nap to run 4.16 miles at the increasingly better-paced time of 8:25/mile.

Lately I’ve really latched onto Salty’s sagely “singing” advice: once I establish my comfortable pace, I make sure that I can easily sing while I run and that I’m not overdoing it. Maybe it’s just an excuse to sing (my headphones are on; my reality is distorted), but it serves as a simple-but-great mechanism and reminder for maintaining a healthy pace.

Right before the 10-miler I was (this) close to having my left knee hang up an “out of order” sign and taking off for the border. I have had plenty of time to rest (after I actually ran the 10-miler, that is) and focus on building distance. And singing all the way.

4 comments:

Joe said...

You can get salmon in Cleveland? Amazing!

The Salty One said...

What's Joe talking about! Of course you can--sure, it's Ohio, but it's not Afghanistan! Heh!

Anyway, I'm glad your slowing it down. I remember when mrp gave me that same advice. For the first month or so afterwards, I would make myself sing no matter what pace I ran and say "see I am running easy!" It's tough for everyone to get disciplined about training. Discipline isn't really about running hard workouts until you puke. It's more about running hard on hard days when you want to run easy and easy on easy days when you'd rather run fast. It's about tacking on 18-20 minutes after a hard workout to run a slow two miles when you'd rather get in the car and drive home to eat dinner.

You'll get there. You're definitely on the right track!

Papa Louie said...

Now all you need is to do some 'signing in the rain' to really have some fun. It's a good way to make running more enjoyable too.

TRI Vortex said...

Movie Trivia: Singing in the Rain was actually Singing in the Milk! Back then the color in movies wasn't all that great so the people making the movie had to add milk to the water so he can dance around and the camera would actually catch the water on film.

....The More You Know.