The Rule of Twos

Today I went out with the noble intention of running 10 miles at a steady pace and throwing some strides in. It worked, I got my strides in, but the return trip was a good minute per mile slower on the average than going out. Partially because it's downhill on the way out, but mostly because my legs are fatigued and I was bonking, running on nothing but oatmeal and a banana at 11:30 am was not a good idea.

The lessons will be repeated until they are learned, right?

All the way back I was trying to push my fatigued legs to turn over, and by 8 miles I had to keep reminding myself of the Rule of Twos. After I pushed myself through my final strides, my recovery was so slow I thought I was going to end up walking. I really wanted to.

The Rule of Twos? As in, I can deal with anything for 2 miles. Or I can deal with anything for 2 hours, 200 meters, 2 days, whatever it is.

If you stick with something for two weeks, that's usually enough to establish a routine, and you can push through the fatigue of starting out again. I'm experiencing the discomfort of losing the speed aspect of my fitness. I feel like everything else is intact. This is the first of two weeks that I'll need to make myself stick carefully to my plan to establish a training pattern again that includes regular hills and speedwork. My legs are screaming now, but after two weeks it will be easier.

Tomorrow I'm planning to run 15 miles with Doug on the bike path. I have been procrastinating on doing anything longer than 2 hours, but now that the weather is nicer, I have to take advantage of it.

I am off this week, it was supposed to be my vacation, but I've had the endless parade of repairmen and I've been spending my time furnishing and painting the outside of the cave. Here's how it looks as of today:

I got a storage ottoman so I can stuff all the junk in there. I don't work well in a cluttered space. I've been trying to figure out a few things to put on the walls. I want them mostly bare, but they needed something. So finally, after 18 years, I hung my Ph.D. diploma on the wall. I dug it out of the cheap frame where it was hiding in the corner, dusted it off, and put it in a nice frame with a mat.

Cave-worthy.