In my mind I planned to get out for a short lumber with my camera over the weekend, but it never really materialized.
Some of that was due to the fact that I had already hit my weekly mileage goal and lacked motivation, but the main issue was the fact that I was balls deep into the kickoff of the 2024/25 Premier League season (Nerd!). That means early weekend mornings filled with copious amounts of coffee and a big-as-your-head breakfast burrito and then an afternoon spent enjoying adult beverages and listening to music as I catch up on the rest of the European football action. Good times…. good times.
Along with that, B was also moving into his apartment on Sunday afternoon, so that meant a drive down to East Lansing with Wifey to help.
Hard to believe it, but this might be the last time we do a college move-in day since B has a bunch of credits he took in high school and also took classes over the past two summers. If things go according to his plan, he should walk this Spring and then take a class in the summer to make it official. I can’t wait to see what this year brings for him and what his future holds.
Here’s my favorite video B shot and edited last spring as part of his internship with the MSU media department. GO GREEN!
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Oh hell, while we’re here, let’s revisit his Wes Anderson tribute post from the year before. GO WHITE!
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MY BOY DID THAT!! GAHDAMN!!!
With the weekend done, it was time to turn my attention to Monday morning’s lumber. A lumber that, after a weekend of sloth, I was both looking forward to and scared to death of. Is it possible to lose the shreds of progress I’ve made in two days? Ug! I hope not!
As I drove to the trails, I had pretty much talked myself out of any running and planned on a hike/lumber instead. “I’ll ease into the week,” I thought as I drove along the back roads listening to the sooo legit Precious Dream by Hot Garbage.
Once I was at the trailhead and waiting for my Garmin to connect with the Satellite of Love, I changed my mind.
“If it sucks, it’s all part of the process,” I thought as I took off down the limestone path towards the dirt trails.
I felt good as I plodded along; however, after realizing that forcing myself to run a complete mile in one go during a lumber last week did next to nothing to improve my overall time, I focused on trying to increase my speed when I was running.
Along with allowing myself to rest for two days, I also think I found some motivation in Jill Homer’s latest Substack essay that was in my digital inbox this morning.
In the post about a recent adventure in the mountains she was on, she talked about her views on running, and this line really resonated with me:
I love to travel on two feet and consider “running” the line where efficiency is the goal. If I am moving as speedily as I am physically able for the distance I’ve set out to cover, I am “running.” – Jill Homer
As a result, I had my best lumber/run ever, with an 11:47 average pace for the 5-mile trail run. I couldn’t believe it! In fact, when my watch told me the first mile was 11:45 I assumed that my Garmin lost connection again or something.
But from doing literally over two thousand miles on these trails, I started to notice that the woodsy landmarks matched up with the distances, and then my next mile was even faster at 11:35.
Something must be wrong!
I DON’T RUN!
I admit, I wasn’t running the whole time, but I WAS moving faster and pushing longer before slowing to my lumbering pace, and the result was my best “run” ever. EVER!
Again, it’s NOT hard when I’ve been taking the act of trail running semi-half-sort-of-seriously for only about a month and only started because it hurt my knee less to run than walk.1
As I entered my last mile, I looked down to see the time, and I was shocked at how well I was doing. Knowing that the last half mile would be mostly flat double track and then a 1/4 mile of limestone path, I upped the pace and SOMEHOW had my best mile ever at 11:07. I’m pretty certain that I’ve never even done that on the treadmill.
In the end, I did a 5-mile loop in 58:55, and I was floored! And on top of that, I still had enough in the tank to mow the grass, go for groceries, do laundry, make lunch, write some of this bullshit, and get myself in the zone to watch Spurs fall flat in a 1-1 draw.
I took my Canon s95 along with me today, but I can’t say I got anything of quality. I tried a shot of a steep sandy hill kicking my ass at the 2-ish-mile mark, but it’s pretty shit. I have a longer, slower hike planned for Tuesday, so I hope I can make up for then.
Later.