The Bathroom Floor

Another weekend is upon us. This one will be highlighted by reflooring our "new" bathroom. Then soon after, getting our water turned back on so that we can transition away from the "camping" in our home mode which we have so thoroughly enjoyed for the past few days. The biggest hassle of all is having to wake up the dogs a couple of times each night so that they can take me out to pee. I can just feel them rolling their eyes as I roll out of bed at 2:00 am. Well, they are good dogs and they don't want to clean up my mess so I guess they understand. I do wait as long as I can.

I will also be running some... maybe an hour tonight and tommorrow and then Sunday for about 2 hours, give or take 30.5 seconds. I think tonight I will head out to the Blue Ridge Parkway and hit up a trail section where I will be able to frighten a flatlander or two with any luck.

Last night was a tempo run. I tend to run these too hard and last night this was the case again. Starting off well, easing into the effort, I soon had a couple of local high school runners approach my shoulder out of nowhere. Unlike Tuesday, I was not strong enough to avoid temptation... so I picked it up a step or two. After about 800m they relented and I was alone again but now with this quicker tempo established. I was at 8k pace... rather tempo it was more like a speed session without the breaks. Eventually, I settled into a good 10 mile effort and was sufficiently spent at the end of the run.

When finished with my run, I was stretching in the park and the two high school runners came strolling by. We talked for about 10 minutes about training philosophy and the importance of aerobic base. This is, of course, not only the foundation, but the mortar, the brick, the essence of any runner's existence. The speed just is a new bathroom floor. It takes an hour to do, but makes a big difference in the overall effect.