Running vignettes

I think of vignettes as line segments approximating a curve. The curve is your life. The line segments are the stories. They start off of the curve, come in and just barely kiss it, and then veer away from it again. One segment doesn't approximate a curve very well, but if you get a couple of them, you get a good idea of what the life is like.

"The loop starts here, right?" I asked the man who has run with this group for 30 years.
"No." He pointed to a spot 30 feet away. "The loop starts there."

I am running in a park. "Excuse me," a teenage boy says, so I stop. He mutters something breathily, in a thick English accent. "What?" I ask. He breathily mutters the same thing again. I still have no idea what he's saying, but now I know it's something lewd. I start running again. "Sorry, I don't speak British," I shout back over my shoulder.

I passed the same old man twice, on the way out and on the way back. Each time, he stood well off the path, motioning for me to go by. As soon as I was past, he made loud farting sounds with his mouth.

I ran past a man who was feeding the ducks. "Well done!" he shouted, "Well done this morning! That's why we're the best!"
"USA! USA!" I shouted back, and pumped my fist in the air. Just so we're clear on who, exactly, my running is making the best.

I am running along the canal, and a woman in a rowing single is going the same speed, just ahead of me. We travel together for a few minutes at the same speed, until I turn off of the path into the woods. And I wonder, if I had a friend who rowed, could we exercise together like this, her on the water and me on the path, chatting back and forth?

Mile repeats at Iffley Road

Mile repeats are my favorite workout. Unfortunately, I only do them about once a year. Fortunately, today was one of those days.

I am currently in the process of molding my body to the task of running 13.1 miles at 6:00 pace. So I ran six mile repeats with 90 seconds rest, in 6:00 or just under.

Well, that's not quite true. In the middle of repeat #4, I took an unscheduled pit stop. So repeat #4 was more like a 1009m, a several-minute break, and then a 600. Then 90 seconds rest, and back to our regularly scheduled program. I was kind of annoyed about this pit stop, occurring as it did in the middle of an interval, and giving me too much rest. However, it was non-optional. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

On the bright side, I had been really working hard during repeat #4 and was thinking of stopping after 4, but after my excessive rest interval, I felt nice and recovered, so I went ahead and did two more miles and finished the workout.

Previously, the most mile repeats I'd ever done was five, in a workout a few years ago with my friend Melissa. That time, we also did them in just under 6:00 -- but we had more rest, and I think they were 1600s. My workout today was on the Roger Bannister track at Iffley Road. I did miles. To do 1600s would have been disrespectful.

Well, that's not quite true. I once did nine mile repeats. But it was really just a way to break up a 20-mile long run.

I like this idea of "molding my body to a task." I think it's the right way of looking at the goal. So I am working on teaching my body to relax and enjoy hanging out at 6:00 pace. The more time I spend there, the better. Six miles in the books.

Do not fear the rain

Suppose that you are in Providence, and the following sequence of events occurs:

- The sky gets kind of dark.
- The wind starts to blow.
- You feel a few sprinkles of rain.

What should you do?

The answer is: run. Wherever you are going (and you must be outside going somewhere, because you felt a few sprinkles of rain), you should start running, because it is about to start pouring rain.

In Oxford, this is not the case. Several times now, I have been outside and those three things happened, and I thought, "oh no, I'm going to get soaking wet," and then -- nothing. A few sprinkles, and then nothing more.

On the other hand, I was doing a track workout on Wednesday, and during the workout the sun came out, and it was evening, so the horizontal rays of the sun made beautiful colors on the buildings and the track, and it was so bright shining in my eyes that I thought about sunglasses. Then, during my cool down run, it suddenly started pouring rain and I was soaked immediately.

I brought all of this rain gear -- a nice light raincoat, an umbrella, knee-high rubber boots, and full foul weather gear. But the only times I go outside are to run, to go to the grocery store, and to meet with my advisor. I'm not going to wear any of that stuff to run. I'll postpone my grocery trip if it's raining. So I brought all this stuff to England in case it rains while I am walking to my once-weekly meeting with my advisor. Hmmm. Maybe I should start going to the library (but only when it's raining), to have an excuse to wear this stuff.

Run in circles

Today I showed up for "cross country training" with a local running club, the Headington Road Runners. The workout could be basically summarized as: run around a very small loop, then run in a larger loop, then run in an even larger loop, and finally run around the largest possible loop.

I loved it.

Before I went, I wasn't sure what to expect. "Cross country training" -- does that mean that we just do a distance run across a heath? The email said to bring spikes, which I thought was an excellent sign.

First, we did a group warm-up around a small circle. You can see it in the GPS track below (it's the small circle). We jogged, and did butt kicks and high knees, and short sprints, all around this circle. At first I felt a little ridiculous -- it was maybe 20m in diameter -- but then I understood the purpose, which is that everyone can warm up together, regardless of speed.

The tiny loop is the warmup; the heart-shaped is the first set; the large loop is the second.

The time trial was around the whole park, outside this picture.

I just knew this workout would look awesome on the GPS track.

The workout consisted of three 10-minute "efforts." The first was around the heart-shaped loop, which was so designed to make us run uphill twice within a very small loop. We just ran around it continuously for 10 minutes, passing and lapping other runners at will.

Then we rested for 5 minutes. This meant just standing around and listening to instructions for the next effort. The biggest difference from running at home that I have found in both this workout and the track workout I did the other day was the utter lack of non-interval running. Mile warm-up, half-mile cool down, and stand around between intervals. These people clearly do not pad their mileage like I do.

Mile 1-1.5 is the warmup, 2-3 the heart loop, 3-5 the medium loop and 5-6 the time trial loop.

I just knew this workout would look awesome on the elevation graph.

Then we ran around a bigger loop for 10 minutes. Then 5 minutes standing around. Then we did a "time trial" consisting of a loop around the entire park. My time was 9:00 for 1.43 miles (6:18).

It was simple, and I liked it. I ran hard, and I was tired afterwards. It was great cross country training; we ran through thick grass, around tight turns, through marshy spots, under trees, up and downhill, in spikes. I am definitely going back next Saturday.