Right

Last post I mentioned my daily left-or-right option and that I took the former and had all shorts of problems. On Friday I went right and got my longest run in a while. 15 minutes. Very happy with that. I went for an hour walk yesterday, covering 4.5 miles, but my right foot was sore this morning so I skipped my run.

Meanwhile, I’ve published as an ebook and will add a paperback–I get the proof in a couple of days–a collection of my song lyrics. Here’s the cover, again with a Singer Sargent painting.

Left or Right

I live on a dead-end street. Sometimes I don’t know whether I’ll turn left or right when I get there. Left is a bit hilly, albeit only slight hills, and right is pretty flat.

Today I went left. It proved a mistake. I am struggling and the added effort of the hills put me into a condition from which I couldn’t recover. I stopped at about 7 minutes into a planned 16 minute run but at least started up again to get to 10:41.

So frustrating.

Wed., May 19: Songs

Today began with a simple hard walk of just under 4 miles.

There’s one of those little free libraries in a yard about a mile from me. I put a copy of Róisín Campbell there a while ago. I periodically check to see if it’s still there. It is. My marketing strategy is not going gangbusters.

Undeterred, I came upon a bunch of my songs. Before I wrote stories, I wrote songs. Several of my stories are taken from songs, most notably the novel Coming to Terms. This is a long, contemporary novel–it ends in the early days of Covid–and combines my running and law school experience with several romance threads. Plus a lot on New York and Westchester County. It grew from the song “Going to California,” but is flipped as one of the main characters comes from California to New York.

So I’m doing a book with lyrics. I’m going through them now.

Tuesday, May 18: A Run

It’s a beautiful spring day here in Westchester.

I went for a run this morning, and during it I thought of reviving this blog into the struggles of an aging runner. How long I continue this is anyone’s guess.

Today is Tuesday, May 18, 2021. The temperature is mid-60s and it is one of the first days this year where that can be said.

(Since I haven’t posted in a while, a note. I had my second Pfizer vaccine over a month ago—no side effects from either shot for me—so I go without a mask. I still wear a mask indoors and when in close contact with others, which is rare.)

My objective today was simply to run 14 minutes. That minutes, not miles. I have a struggle with relaxing. I’ve been walking 3 or 4 miles on alternate mornings, and yesterday I threw in a 1.1 mile run midway through. I got to 12 minutes of running at about an 8 minute pace on Sunday, concentrating on keeping it easy.

So, as I say, today’s goal was 14 minutes. I had an ache in my right ankle for about 10 strides after a minute or so, but it vanished. Still, I had my doubts that I could possibly get to 10 minutes let alone 14. “Keep it slow. Keep it slow.” I felt smooth enough and was not breathing too dramatically.

This, then, is my first entry in a while.

I Wrote A Book

Nothing to do with running. Róisín Campbell is a literary novel set chiefly in 1870s New York City. The title character is a farmgirl forced to head to America given the economics of farming. It is difficult to describe the plot without giving too much away.

It is available now in ebook and paper format from Amazon and will soon be more widely available. My hope is that people will give the first part a read, like it, and tell their friends. This is the publishing marketing world.

Sunday, July 8

My plan had been to post my workouts here, but that plan collapsed when I had a long little-or-no run stretch.

Slowly I’ve managed to get back up to 3 laps of Twin Lakes, which I managed this morning. The temperature was much cooler than it has been over the past few days, but it was still toasty. I got in 4 yesterday on the Eastway course, so 3 laps was the goal. It was touch and go, especially in mile 3, but I managed to hold on.

I got in 6 runs this week, and over 20 miles. So it was a good week.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

My hope was to post each running-day. Alas, that plan came apart last Thursday when I felt pain behind my left knee about 2.25 into a run. It’s been sore ever since until today. So I went out aiming to do 2 miles, and I ended up doing that. Right now, in the afternoon, my right knee itself is a bit sore. We’ll see what happens.

In any case, I’m not doing the Bronxville 2.5 miler this week-end, which was, in 2017, the first race I had done in quite a while.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

I took yesterday off simply because I didn’t want to push things.

Today’s plan was a nice-and-easy 4 on the Eastway loop. Turned out not to be so easy. Pace wasn’t hard and breathing wasn’t labored for the most part, but still a struggle. Cut out one stretch to get back and struggled home in 29:53 for 4.

This was the first day in which it felt like Summer was coming. Not too warm and not too humid, but I could feel the heat.

May 13, 2018: 5 Miles, Twin Lakes

Objective today was to go nice and easy and get 5 miles in at Twin Lakes. Focused on the easy part, and did not have any struggling stretches. But couldn’t have gone much farther.

Today’s Run

(Photo: Twin Lakes, looking south, on the western trail.)

May 12, 2018: 5 Miles

I did not realize how long it has been since I posted here. And I’ve nothing interesting to post now, but while doing my morning run I figured I’d try to post regularly about my daily runs. We’ll see how long that lasts.

In recent weeks, I’ve had issues with breathing, as in, I found myself taking breathes every two steps (right-left) and couldn’t get comfortable. Struggle, struggle, toil, and trouble. Slow it down. So I tried 5 short repeats on the street on Wednesday, about 200 meters each. I was able to get to 4 on Thursday morning and took yesterday off.

Today I wanted to get  to 5. So I concentrated on keeping it slow. So Mile 1 was as slow as I’ve ever done, 8:09, and that left me in a position to keep relaxed and not be breathing heavily. And so it went.

Until it didn’t. Just past Mile 4, and perhaps because of a quick turn to get across Route 22, things fell completely apart within a matter of a few strides. Suddenly I was in distress. But I was determined to keep going, no matter what the pace. I decided to cut the course and just get to 5. Fortunately, after a quarter mile, I started to feel not-so-horrible again and was able to finish strongly. So that was today’s run.