Dead Weight
Finally done with my eight week "sabbatical" from training. A lot has happened and then again, not much has happened at all. I started dialing my diet back in, which wasn't too dramatic but a little difficult to skip some of my "emotional binging" snacks like chips and salsa. There were some difficult days during my move but didn't stray to far.
After a two year break, I finally set up a place to do some painting again. I've even managed to record a few music pieces, no less. Would say something must be in the air but it's just winter in the pacific northwest. There's nothing like months on end of continuos rain and drizzle to inspire creativity. With a desk by the window and hours upon hours of ambient black metal on hand, I should get plenty of grey landscapes down on canvas.
As far as training goes, I just recently moved across town, a little farther from work so I figured I would just get my training in by commuting by foot. I used to do this a few years ago with a 4.5 mile trip each way and it took the weight off and built up both endurance and speed in a quick way. I'm not sure now where I got my numbers from but I had the same distance figured for this commute. WRONG! almost six miles each way. SIX MILES EACH WAY! That may not seem like a big difference but that's huge. About 25% more. The morning run in is nice. I run through the edge of downtown Portland, on through downtown and into the industrial area. I leave at 5A.M. and other than a few other early bird runners, I have the whole city to myself. Nothing like crossing the Burnside bridge before sunrise and not a car or person insight to disturb the moment. The run home, however, that's a different story. I work 10+ hour shifts on my feet all day and pretty much the last thing I want to do at the end is run for another hour. Worse than that, It's rush hour. Basically a six mile line of cars filled with angry drivers inching along on their way home. Yeah, I can sense that energy.
I've only done a week of this and so far it's went pretty well. Although by the time I get home, I have nothing left. I even had a couple "ultra-marathon hallucinations" the other night. Sure that will work itself out soon. My plan is to do this three weeks and on the fourth week commute by bike....and repeat. So far I've covered about 34 miles in three days and with dialing in my diet as well, down a few pounds. Feeling a lot better emotionally too. That's probably got a lot more to do with my financial situation getting a little more stable, though. Doing these double 10k's a day i'm sure will start to make a big impact really quickly, either good or bad. I'll definitely keep a log of this. How it affects me physically, emotionally, creatively.....Got a feeling diet and rest will be the biggest variable in this experiment.
Also, every time I move, it just brings to light how much baggage I keep dragging around. State to state, apartment to house to apartment to apartment and so on. Some of this stuff has been in boxes since I left Tennessee for Atlanta. Almost 20 years ago. Books I'll never read again, CD's I'll never listen to again, 25+ years of journals that really mean nothing other than chronicling the "dark times." No one ever journals the good times, right. The "free box" that I'm getting ready to leave on the corner is getting bigger and as far as the journals go....looks like a weekend camping on the beach and a bonfire is calling their names. 40 or 50 notebooks should make a nice fire. I've said this many times but more and more it's starting to ring true, "The past never happened and the future doesn't exist."
After a two year break, I finally set up a place to do some painting again. I've even managed to record a few music pieces, no less. Would say something must be in the air but it's just winter in the pacific northwest. There's nothing like months on end of continuos rain and drizzle to inspire creativity. With a desk by the window and hours upon hours of ambient black metal on hand, I should get plenty of grey landscapes down on canvas.
As far as training goes, I just recently moved across town, a little farther from work so I figured I would just get my training in by commuting by foot. I used to do this a few years ago with a 4.5 mile trip each way and it took the weight off and built up both endurance and speed in a quick way. I'm not sure now where I got my numbers from but I had the same distance figured for this commute. WRONG! almost six miles each way. SIX MILES EACH WAY! That may not seem like a big difference but that's huge. About 25% more. The morning run in is nice. I run through the edge of downtown Portland, on through downtown and into the industrial area. I leave at 5A.M. and other than a few other early bird runners, I have the whole city to myself. Nothing like crossing the Burnside bridge before sunrise and not a car or person insight to disturb the moment. The run home, however, that's a different story. I work 10+ hour shifts on my feet all day and pretty much the last thing I want to do at the end is run for another hour. Worse than that, It's rush hour. Basically a six mile line of cars filled with angry drivers inching along on their way home. Yeah, I can sense that energy.
I've only done a week of this and so far it's went pretty well. Although by the time I get home, I have nothing left. I even had a couple "ultra-marathon hallucinations" the other night. Sure that will work itself out soon. My plan is to do this three weeks and on the fourth week commute by bike....and repeat. So far I've covered about 34 miles in three days and with dialing in my diet as well, down a few pounds. Feeling a lot better emotionally too. That's probably got a lot more to do with my financial situation getting a little more stable, though. Doing these double 10k's a day i'm sure will start to make a big impact really quickly, either good or bad. I'll definitely keep a log of this. How it affects me physically, emotionally, creatively.....Got a feeling diet and rest will be the biggest variable in this experiment.
Also, every time I move, it just brings to light how much baggage I keep dragging around. State to state, apartment to house to apartment to apartment and so on. Some of this stuff has been in boxes since I left Tennessee for Atlanta. Almost 20 years ago. Books I'll never read again, CD's I'll never listen to again, 25+ years of journals that really mean nothing other than chronicling the "dark times." No one ever journals the good times, right. The "free box" that I'm getting ready to leave on the corner is getting bigger and as far as the journals go....looks like a weekend camping on the beach and a bonfire is calling their names. 40 or 50 notebooks should make a nice fire. I've said this many times but more and more it's starting to ring true, "The past never happened and the future doesn't exist."
