Full Circle

Big Head Todd and the Monsters, one of the greatest rock bands of all time, has a song called "Circle" with a refrain that goes, "Rise and fall, turn the wheel, 'cause all life is really just circle."

It may be obvious, but it causes me to reflect nonetheless.

As the saying goes, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." For me, that "sameness" includes running. To some that may sound boring, but I take a certain comfort in it. It provides the consistency that I need in a world of turmoil. It's also the dynamic changes around this "sameness" that provides some excitement.

This week, I started to throw down some miles again. I logged a couple 6 mile tempo runs on Monday and Tuesday and then met the Goat for a Wednesday night run at the reservoir. The Goat is training for his first 50 mile ultra (The Stonecat Ale 50 miler). He was disappointed in his long run last weekend, so I wanted to run with him to assess his progress. Well, we ran at a fairly quick pace for awhile and the Goat was stride for stride with me the whole way. Usually, he will start to slow after the first few miles, but he was really hanging strong. Wow! We ran about 10 miles and he pushed me for the first 9 or so. Awesome! I'm psyched for him and can't wait to see how he does at StoneCat.

Dawn is training for the Hartford Marathon and has been getting in great shape as well. She put in about 17-18 miles on Saturday in the rain, and then was 3rd woman in a 5K today. Nice! Congrats to Dawn for getting her first piece of hardware! Imagine how fast she would have run if she didn't have tired legs!

It's so nice to see others excelling and enjoying the benefits of this great lifestyle. Goat and I were doing a 5 hour run in the rain on Saturday, and I asked after 4 hours, "Goat, is there anyplace else you would rather be right now?" Goat muttered something about traveling to a foreign country or something, ...but he understood my point. I said that there was nowhere else that I wanted to be... He asked if this was where I NEEDED to be... I thought about it for a moment and said, "Yes, this is where I NEED to be right now!"

Jobs change, people in our lives change, we get older, people are born and die. We think about our own mortality when we hear that Paul Newman died, etc. The economy is struggling, the country needs a leader, etc., etc., etc.

"It's all good" as the saying goes. WE RUN! We run with our friends. We talk, we share, we celebrate, and "it's all good" until we do it all over again.

I hope you are all enjoying this great Fall weather with every footstep.

Weekly Mileage:

Monday - 6 tempo
Tuesday - 6 tempo
Wed - 10 moderate
Th - rest
Fr - rest
Sat - 24.5, 4:45, 3 Heublein tower trips and one res. hill loop
Total: 46.5

It's nice to have some mileage to log again!