JJSB Rundate 15090: Training Week 5, Solitude & Persevering Through Pain

Well, here I am in week #6 of training with the days getting warmer and the trees budding.  Saturday, I completed Week #5 and all went well although some of the weather was a bit cool.  I got hailed on during my first 3 mile run of the week, which is a first.  I got rained on plenty as well, although I don't really mind that as much as some people do.  It creates a surreal feeling and makes me feel sort of like I'm going to another world.  Anyway, the running for the week was good and I'm experiencing much less muscle soreness after runs.  My long run was supposed to be 8 miles, but I ended up hitting 8 miles a little farther away from home than I had intended, so I kept going and did around 8.5 miles or so to get back to my neighborhood.  Even so, I was feeling really good.  No heel pain and little fatigue.  I feel like I really paced myself well.  In fact, I was looking at the mile split times afterwards and this is exactly the kind of long run that I love because I'm whittling down the pace.  This is how I want my long runs to look pace wise:

So, during this 12 week training program, I've been reviewing how I got started running and what I've learned through the past few years.  There were a number of things that occurred to me to write about this week, but I decided on a couple.

First, I wanted to talk a little about the solitude of long distance running.  I guess there are people who run with other folks, but for me, it's a very meditative and solitudinous activity.  Sometime around or after my first 10 mile run, I began to really feel the meditative power of running.  It's like entering an altered state where your mind and body are completely in "the now" but it also feels as though you have entered into another dimension, away from all the trouble and baggage of life.  At least that's what it feels like to me.  This has become one of the main reasons that I continue to run.

Second, something else occurred to me as I was running this past week.  The thought was a result of my current general state of mind.  I have not been very happy.  I have wanted to be.  I'm trying to be.  But it just is not so right now.  (That's another longer story, the details of which belong in other blogs).  So, while I was running, I was thinking back to a time when I got my first pair of decent running shoes.  I had been running in some New Balance cross training shoes which were fine, but had been around for a while.  So, I went to the Running Well Store and did the whole running on the treadmill routine to check my gate.  I ended up getting some Brooks Adrenaline and wore them a few days to break them in.  I then went on a 12 mile run in them which was a bit long for a first run in a new pair of shoes.  About 2 miles in, I began to feel like something was in my shoe, poking the inside of my left foot.  It felt like a little sharp piece of wood.  I continued to run.  The sharp, poking pain continued to grow.  I continued to run.  Eventually, the pain increased to the point during which I felt it pretty intensely with each step.  Still, I ran.  After I finished, I checked inside my shoe and found a huge blister on the side of my left foot.  It was about the size of a half dollar.
This was my first experience with something that I would encounter many times in my future running:  Running through the pain.  Persevering until the journey is complete.  As I thought about this on one of my recent runs, it reminded me of how life is sometimes like that and running is a lesson.  Sometimes there is hurt.  A deep wound.  Pain.  But, you have to keep on running.  You have to keep on persevering; Stubbornly refusing to give up or give in to the pain and let it dictate when you end your journey.  That's one of the things that I think about during difficult periods of my life:  I can make it through.  If I can run through the pain and just somehow keep going, I can make it through the pain the comes in life.  I can somehow keep going.

And, on that uplifting note (sarcasm, Sheldon) that's it for this entry. 

Oh, don't worry, I didn't forget the "Song of the Run"

For some reason, out of the thousands of songs on my phone, this one has come on a few times lately during runs.  It's by Longwave which is really a find band, although a bit "produced" and "poppy" compared to the music that I typically like.  They just have a lot of songs that I enjoy.  Very well written songs that hit those melancholy  heart strings. They remind a little of Death Cab For Cutie but a little more "rocky".   At any rate...

I'm posting the album version and a beautiful little in studio acoustic version which I came across.  You're choice.  :)

"Sirens in the Deep Sea" - by Longwave:

"I've been trying to reach you, oh

I've been trying to get through, oh

It's so hard to let you know

I've been trying, yes it's true, oh"

Album version

In studio acoustic version with ukulele!