Everyday Runner
Everyday I think about my run - and sometimes that run does not pan out to what my expectations are. When I run, I try and take a check on how I am feeling physically and what type of sensations might be expressing itself or not at all. Am I sore from the day before or having residue from previous workouts? Am I giving myself enough time to "settle in" on the run or do I make judgements immediately by not being patient with my body and not giving it the time to warm up and see how it is going or even allow a chance for it to be where it is. Where is my head at as I leave the front door once again to explore my limitations? One of the things I took from all the years of yoga training was that when one begins the practice it is essential to allow yourself to be in that moment and to sit alongside it non-judgemental way. I liken it to making a pot of coffee and waiting for it percolate. I have recently discovered what it is about running that I have such a strong relationship with. Only in running do I have any sense of control in my life- the one place where I control how fast I am moving through space and with what speed I have at the moment and where all parts of me are usually working in unison. A book recently published (Outliers) repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. I don't know how many hours I have spent running since the early 70's but with the thousands of miles logged - and with many years between each step taken upwards- has taken me a tremendous amount of time to reach a state of mastery that I have attained in my running. I feel grateful that I can still run and have the drive and need to run the fastest times I am capable of and to remain injury free for the most part. In running, it is crucial to lay the foundation in which to build on later.
I am running the marathon because I have lived in Oakland over 25 years and it has been exactly that time since my last marathon. After this, I will begin training for the mile and/or 800 meters (masters division). I am excited that I will be running the races I competed in high school year and will be able to come full circle and do that once again. The marathon will have given me an extensive base to work from and then I can concentrate on the speed work necessary for those 2 events.
Yesterday I logged in 6 miles although I intended to run nine- I had an exhaustion headache and thought I should listen (for once!) and stop. Today I ran 3 miles fast (7 min pace) and felt great. Everyday is a new day.
When I was 17 I was struck by a single lightning bolt while standing on my high school track field with 7 others. It was the only bolt of the day and as we were in a circle discussing what we were going to run next- BAM! Everyone was knocked out and lying on the ground but as some of us were coming to consciousness, somebody on the field came running over saying the bolt hit right in the middle of us. I looked around and did not see a cloud in the seemingly blue sky (Anvil Cloud: The upper flattened portion of a cumulonimbus cloud that spreads out when it meets the tropopause-many times invisible to naked eye due to it's tremendous height). It felt like a stick of dynamite had exploded over our heads. All of us suffered some form of headache and buzzing in our ears. I remember crawling away from ground zero imagining more was on it's way. Nobody was seriously injured and we were all rushed and checked out at a hospital. I am very lucky to have survived that billion or so volts, so I do appreciate everyday. It's hard to think of yourself as a survivor when you barely remember what happened in that instant. Needless to say, ever since then I feel extremely vulnerable being outside when I hear thunder or see lightning. I am well aware that everyday something unexpectedly can happen or as I like to say "a meteorite landing in your backyard" but I continue to take to the streets to run and in that place I feel at peace (unless it's raining).
Lightning facts and odds:
•The odds of getting struck by lightning in the U.S. in any single year is 1 in 700,000.
•The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 5,000.
•A single lightning bolt is about 50,000°F or 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
•A lightning bolt is anywhere from 1,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 volts and between 10,000 and 200,000 amps. Or about 215 kWh (kilowatt hours).
•There are two types of lightning; negative strikes and positive strikes. Positive strikes are 5 times more powerful than negative strikes and positive charge flows instead of negative charge.
•The average lightning bolt could light a 100 watt light bulb for about 3 months.
•The average lightning bolt is 6 miles long, although Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center has indicated some as long as 75 miles.
•The thickness of a lightning bolt is about the size of a silver dollar. It only looks bigger because it is so bright.
•A lightning bolt is made of a series of strokes from about 3 to 20, with an average of about four. The duration of each lightning bolt can vary, but typically average about 30 microseconds.
I am running the marathon because I have lived in Oakland over 25 years and it has been exactly that time since my last marathon. After this, I will begin training for the mile and/or 800 meters (masters division). I am excited that I will be running the races I competed in high school year and will be able to come full circle and do that once again. The marathon will have given me an extensive base to work from and then I can concentrate on the speed work necessary for those 2 events.
Yesterday I logged in 6 miles although I intended to run nine- I had an exhaustion headache and thought I should listen (for once!) and stop. Today I ran 3 miles fast (7 min pace) and felt great. Everyday is a new day.
When I was 17 I was struck by a single lightning bolt while standing on my high school track field with 7 others. It was the only bolt of the day and as we were in a circle discussing what we were going to run next- BAM! Everyone was knocked out and lying on the ground but as some of us were coming to consciousness, somebody on the field came running over saying the bolt hit right in the middle of us. I looked around and did not see a cloud in the seemingly blue sky (Anvil Cloud: The upper flattened portion of a cumulonimbus cloud that spreads out when it meets the tropopause-many times invisible to naked eye due to it's tremendous height). It felt like a stick of dynamite had exploded over our heads. All of us suffered some form of headache and buzzing in our ears. I remember crawling away from ground zero imagining more was on it's way. Nobody was seriously injured and we were all rushed and checked out at a hospital. I am very lucky to have survived that billion or so volts, so I do appreciate everyday. It's hard to think of yourself as a survivor when you barely remember what happened in that instant. Needless to say, ever since then I feel extremely vulnerable being outside when I hear thunder or see lightning. I am well aware that everyday something unexpectedly can happen or as I like to say "a meteorite landing in your backyard" but I continue to take to the streets to run and in that place I feel at peace (unless it's raining).
Lightning facts and odds:
•The odds of getting struck by lightning in the U.S. in any single year is 1 in 700,000.
•The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 5,000.
•A single lightning bolt is about 50,000°F or 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
•A lightning bolt is anywhere from 1,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 volts and between 10,000 and 200,000 amps. Or about 215 kWh (kilowatt hours).
•There are two types of lightning; negative strikes and positive strikes. Positive strikes are 5 times more powerful than negative strikes and positive charge flows instead of negative charge.
•The average lightning bolt could light a 100 watt light bulb for about 3 months.
•The average lightning bolt is 6 miles long, although Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center has indicated some as long as 75 miles.
•The thickness of a lightning bolt is about the size of a silver dollar. It only looks bigger because it is so bright.
•A lightning bolt is made of a series of strokes from about 3 to 20, with an average of about four. The duration of each lightning bolt can vary, but typically average about 30 microseconds.
posted by Tomba at 7:47 PM
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