Andrew Schrauben

Remember Dory from Finding Nemo? "Just keep swimming!" Well this week's running has become symbolic of her motto. I don't know why but I've been in a mood to run every single day and nearly did just that but I wisely forced myself to take a day off after the long run. Here's a summary:

August 6 - My weekly long run. I ran 21.6 miles at a slow, comfortable pace and 4h45 later I was still feeling great when I stopped. Usually after 3 hours I feel like crap and I just tough it out another hour or two, but this time the entire 21.6 miles felt like an easy jog. Amanda picked me up at my office, where I used their fitness center to shower and change clothes so as not to disgust everyone at Chili's! We at lunch and I was ravenous, consuming my entire black bean burger and all the fries, plus four full glasses of strawberry lemonade. Usually I eat just half the burger and fries.

August 7 - I made myself take a day off, but my legs didn't feel too sore and I kinda wanted to go out and run.

August 8 - Before coming home from work I lifted weights in the fitness center. Usually I just do upper body stuff but I felt a little ambitious and I did some squats and calf raises, too. Then I drove home and promptly went for a fast 3.4-mile run with my dog Haven who didn't appreciate my negative split, increasing the pace at the turn-around. My legs did feel a bit sore from the squats, but not too bad.

August 9 - I went for my weekly Wednesday lunch run with some buddies at work, tallying a slow 5.0 miles except I was feeling so good at the end that I flat out SPRINTED the last 200 meters just for fun. One of my buddies tried to keep up but could only hang close for 50 meters. It was also a fun day of social running because the four of us discussed heavy topics such as the role of individuals in ensuring our survival as a society, and just what society needs to do to survive and if human nature is up to the challenge, etc. I just LOVE such discussions, and the guys I run with have great perspectives. Incidentally, they're all 45 to 55 years old and have been running and/or cycling at least 20 years each!

August 10 (today) - Lifted weights after work again but this time spared my legs because I was planning to run. Once again I took Haven out on our 3.4-mile course but at a comfortable pace. The local police had set up one of those radar signs that show your car's speed and it clocked me at 9 mph! I was hoping to get Amanda out there with a camera tomorrow so I could try a full sprint but the cops took it away this evening.

The other experiment going on was Haven trying out her new "pawdometer", a step counter designed for dogs that Amanda got as a free sample. Pedometers in general are difficult to make accurate, especially for running, so I didn't think it would be any better for dogs. At least we took a measured route so that regardless of how accurate the device thought Haven's stride was, we'd have a benchmark for how many "steps" per mile. Today it came out to about 9.5 feet per stride! I swear, my dog is NOT a giraffe! Even my long legs can't do that, let alone Haven the 65 lb labrador retriever.

August 11 (tomorrow) - Yes, I'm planning to run again, looking to go 6-8 miles at a medium pace. We'll be driving all day Saturday to a rental cabin in Tennessee for a week-long vacation, so Saturday is my rest day.

Sooner or later I'll probably lose this drive to run every day - it always happens - but that's why I have a bike. That happened a few months ago so I went on a few epic bike rides to give my mind some variety in training. If only I had a kayak! It's on my wish list for some future day...