It's Time to Play: Sick? Or Sore?

Sunday's 9 miler was awesome and I was a raving ball of happy endorphins all day, but when Monday rolled around I felt a little beat up. I hadn't run 9 miles in quite some time, and the various aches were subtle enough—and in odd enough places—that I actually felt a little flu-like.

Soreness in the quads or calves would be no surprise. But I had trouble the whole run keeping my chest and shoulders relaxed, which meant some stiffness the next day. Really, I kinda felt just a touch beat-up all over. I went to sleep (incredibly) early last night, ready to shake it off.

This morning I still felt a tiny bit achey, but was ready to hit Crissy Field for another 5 miles.

Kids, I pretty much went all-out on this monkey. Like a 4-out-of-5. I ran to What Are You Made Of?!? and part of How To Turn Around A Bad Day—both at 175BPM—and absolutely kicked ass. That's the fastest I've ever done 5 miles. Ever. I really didn't think I'd be able to bring it in under 50 minutes, but I done did it.

Again, I'm awash in endorphins and feelin' fine.

Thinking...

First off, I *have* been running; just because there's been no posts doesn't mean there's been no runs. (My high school English teachers are all cringing at that last sentence.)

I've been faithfully logging the miles at dailymile.com—even the ones that I didn't use my Nike+ for, like the Milan trip.

The question has become: what is the purpose of this blog?
From a workout perspective, I have tracking, social interaction & challenges with Nike+. I also have some of the same functionality with dailymile.com, which is somewhat redundant, but also complimentary. Twitter is the absolute BOMB for moment-to-moment, real-time interaction—its ephemeral nature simultaneously one of its best qualities as well as its biggest downfalls. I usually save my more researched posts for the Hella Sound blog, which leaves Slow Mofo for more informal, stream-of-conscious banter/fodder.

If I were a really good writer and had interesting things to share (like her or him or her or him or her or her or her or him) there wouldn't be a question about the purpose of this blog. But frankly, I don't think I deliver the goods as consistently—or with the authority—that those folks do.

I'm not sure what y'all get out of reading this blog, or what I may offer that's different; I can only speak from my side. What I get our of this blog is a sense of connection with you guys. Every blog has a sort of community, and while this one is more like a few folks sitting around a campfire (and less like a 1,000-person conference), it's still something that I feel is incredibly valuable. I don't feel like I get that same thing at the various social sites (dailymile.com, Nike+, or even Facebook).

I love doing post-race wrap-ups. I get a big kick out of that. But I think I'm going to abstain from doing the day-to-day run logging here and keep them in the sites I mentioned above. Hopefully I'll discover a wonderful, exciting purpose for Slow Mofo and rededicate my efforts. But until I do, don't think I've abandoned this monkey; I'm just rethinking.

LOST: Motivation. Please Return to Owner. Reward.

As explained below, this was my last run. What is that, 4 days ago? Yeesh. So, I've enlisted the help of this guy to help me find my motivation again. He looks like the kind of guy that'll get the job done, provided you pay in unmarked bills and supply enough bourbon.

Watch out: he's got a knife in his boot.

Honestly, as many of y'all know that have blogs, I'm confident that I'll derive some motivation out of the simple act of whipping up this poast. It gets your head back in the game, gets you connected with your goals and your running community. Crazy how that works, but it does.

I'll run tomorrow.

Workout

• Distance 4 miles
• Location Crissy Field, SF CA
• Shoes Asics Kayano
• The Lowdown I can't say I remember much about this run, except I got it done, went home, showered, then went out and ate a bunch of Chinese food. And then drank a lot of beer. (Please see @PunkRockRunner's post on Chinese food. You'll be glad you did.)
  
  I hustled to get Hella Sound running music track #2 together and up, which was long hours. And then I guess I celebrated some. By the time Friday rolled around, I was pretty much done for, but got this run in anyway. By Saturday I was Melba toast. Fried.
  
  I haven't run since. I missed my long on Sunday and missed my Tuesday 4.5 miler.
  
  Which is to say: egads.

Photo courtesy Bukutgirl on Flickr.

Who Likes Music???

Man oh man I've been busy! I've had my head stuck in music production since Friday, hustling to get Hella Sound's second release out the door. I finally got each MP3 rendered, QA'd and uploaded to my shopping cart at 4:30am. Yay! (Note to self: moving around 55 meg files on the internet *always* takes longer than anticipated.)

I'll be putting up a blurb on HellaSound.com about the song soon, but in a nutshell: it's a rip-your-face-off metal song that fires you up and keeps you psyched. I set out to make something blistering and heavy, and I think I got it.

Again, I say onto thee: yay!

Workout

• Distance 6 miles
• Location Crissy Field, SF CA
• Shoes Asics Kayano
• The Lowdown This was a good run. I'd been hustling all weekend (and most of Thursday and Friday) for work, so getting out for a run was something my soul was excited for.
  
  As a huge departure, I brought water with me. I never do this. Ever. The way I see it, races have water about every 3 miles, so I'm going to get in the habit of rehydrating every 3 miles. Makes sense, huh?
  
  Going long? Then go slow. I kept telling myself "easy does it" during the run, consciously slowing myself down and just focusing on cruising. Cruise cruise cruise cruise cruise. "No need to hustle, this was just a cruise"—that kind of thing. In the end, I'm surprised my time and average was what it was. I thought I was going faster than that. Good stuff.

Image courtesy Gerrysan on Flickr.

The Deal with Shoes

There's been a lot of discussion about modern running shoes' detrimental effect; the theory goes something like "modern, high-tech shoes encourage biomechanically incorrect movement and lead to all the injury you see in the running community". Go ahead, Google it—I'll wait for you to come back.

Like almost everyone else, I've invested the effort (and money) in finding shoes that seem to fit my physiology and ability. I chose Asics Nimbus based on my own reading and experience, and my new Asics Kayano from recommendation. And I've noticed how the Kayano does have more structure, does enforce more specific movement than the neutral Nimbus. Are these shoes encouraging bad habits?

I've also recently acquired Vibram Five Fingers "barefoot" running shoes. I'd been relatively obsessed with them since I heard of them, and I believe there is some logic to the idea that walking barefoot—with toes and other footy parts with free range movement—can encourage healthier, stronger lower legs and feet. Honestly, I had no plans of running in the Vibrams. I mostly wanted to get them for cruising around, running errands, etc. (You run a lot of errands on foot when you live in San Francisco.)

My take on the whole thing:
I applaud those that are trying barefoot running. It's commendable, and at some point I might hit the track for some easy workouts in the Vibrams. But I'm particularly aware of my form, my foot plant, and the impact each stride I take. For a 250lb guy, I believe I am remarkably light on my feet. I am the last guy you'll hear *SLAP* *SLAP* *SLAP*-ing on the pavement next to you during a run. As such, I believe modern, highly-engineered shoes are fine.

To say it another way: I could probably learn how to play baseball without a mitt, building up callouses and developing the technique to field a line-drive bare-handed. But why?

What do you guys think? Weigh in!

Workout

• Distance 4 miles
• Location Crissy Field, SF CA
• Shoes Asics Nimbus
• The Lowdown I *never* run two days in a row! Well, almost never. I guess this was an exception to the rule. I've missed cross-training days and whatnot, but I'm not going to miss my run days—even if I have to double 'em up. I ran Tuesday's run on Thursday, so Thursday's run had to happen on Friday in order to get a rest day in before Sunday's long run. (Got all that?)
  
  I felt awesome during this run. Just great. I felt like everything was clicking. It was nearly effortless, really. And imagine my surprise when I got it done in under 40 minutes. Crazy.

Image courtesy slendle84 on Flickr.