Boldly running where I've never gone before

Risa, the pleasure planet, is a class M Federation planet about 90 light years from earth within a binary star system, which means it has two suns.  Before terra forming made it the hedonistic vacation retreat of Starfleet officers as well as other species, it was said to be quite a  miserable place.  I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to train for a marathon with not one but TWO suns beating down on your sweaty little head.

Since returning from Seattle two weeks ago, advancing the requisite mileage has been an interesting task.  Being relatively slow to begin with, my “long slow distance” runs always last at least two and as much as four hours.  Out here in the land of new subdivisions with young trees yielding very little shade, this means either getting out super early or preparing to skitter across the pavement like water on a hot skillet.

After resting a few days at the end of June, I got back to work with a handful of short runs, one completely awesome and excellent speed session, a few bike rides of gradually increasing length, and the usual strength/balance/core hours with the personal trainer.  Last weekend, I also put feet to pavement early enough for a relatively comfortable 9-miler on Sunday morning before enjoying a sumptuous family brunch that promptly replaced every spent calorie.

After a similar week, the plan was to run 12 miles this weekend.  Ummm…..I haven’t quite managed that yet.  My body requested the day off yesterday and having learned the need to heed these messages, I took things easy.  After a decent night’s rest, I headed outdoors this morning at about 6:45 and got six miles done before the bombardment of sun and humidity brought the session to a close.  In looking ahead on weather.com, it appears that Tuesday—my usual day off work—may be my next best chance to score double digit mileage.   My goal is to do at least one 16-17 miler before month’s end.  I have my eye on the weekend of the 23rd for that attempt, with next Saturday or Sunday being hopefully a 15-mile outing—weather permitting, of course.

Otherwise, life has been moving in a  positive direction and I feel fairly content.  My native restlessness, a state which had previously served to propel me forward before recently morphing into bitter self-defeating discontent, is settling back into its usual demeanor.  Hence, I am able to regard myself with the same courtesy I would bequeath a fellow passenger on a city bus.   The homefront is in its typical state of tranquil monotony, and a stressful issue on the job quite surprisingly resolved itself.  I’m still eating too much and not stretching enough but I’ve begun peace talks with myself in an effort to table the issue of perfection and construct a workable plan for progress.

I came across this great book called “The Mental Athlete” by Kay Porter.  It addresses the notion of attitude and mental imagery as a training issue.  I need to read more of it before I’ll have enough to say in this journal, but thus far it seems very promising.  I have believed for a long time that the bulk of our “problems” are either created or amplified in our own minds, and my own is no exception.  Taming the beast within the brain may be a formidable task but the rewards will likely be immense.  And it can’t be too much harder than marathon training in July under the beating suns of binary stars.