“I’m not dead yet”

Okay, let’s see what I can remember about this morning’s run.

We left the house at 7:30 and were at Valley Green in about 5 minutes. “We” comprises my wife, Miriam, her sister, Sarah (who’s visiting this weekend), and yours truly.

Unlike my previous run, today I did run with music. My earphones that I’d feared lost turned up Thursday night in the wrong drawer of the dresser where I keep them. I also ran with a replaced battery in the transmitter of my heart monitor. Unfortunately, once again I put the battery in upside-down, a mistake of which I didn’t become aware until two or three minutes into my run. Since I fear breaking my commitment to running 30-some-odd minutes continuously, I resigned myself to running without the readings from my heart monitor. Consequently, my heart rate read 0 throughout the run. Sometimes it’s really hell being me.

In The Runner’s Handbook, Bob Glover discusses the perceived level of exertion. In the absence of a heart monitor, a runner can not only regulate but gauge the cardiovascular effectiveness of her run by the amount of effort she’s expending at any moment. I have no doubt, then, that I’m getting an adequate aerobic workout. My reliance on the heart monitor, rather, stems, I think, from a psychological need. Without a properly functioning heart monitor, I find the psychological challenge greater during the more difficult moments of the run.

So how was today’s run? Better than Thursday’s, if only because I had music: the celebrated recording of Leon Fleisher playing Beethoven’s Emperor concerto with Georg Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. It was still a tough run, though.

I wasn’t entirely surprised at the difficulty of today’s run. Although yesterday was a rest day (I didn’t even cross-train), I’ve not slept well the last two nights. I’m not sure why. Isn’t running supposed to help me sleep better? Perhaps the reason has to do with eating.

I’ve been having better runs and have been sleeping more soundly when I run a half-hour or more after eating. Thursday evening, I ate after running. In fact, I ate a lot. We ordered take-out from my favorite Chinese restaurant, and I ate too much. I also drank a beer. Last night, we went to Chili’s, where I drank a Margarita, ate a whole the Jalapeño Big Mouth Burger and too many chips. Maybe all this eating is screwing up my blood sugar and preventing me from getting my z’s, even though I’m going to bed two or three hours after eating.

These days, it seems that I’m consistently running 11-minute miles. My stride is rather short. In theory, I could lengthen my stride, but I don’t think my legs (and my ankles in particular) are strong enough for me to maintain a longer stride for long. But this may be one of the next things I work on.