Getting on track.

Tonight I headed out for a Weight Watchers meeting and my Thursday night at the Y. Tonight's meeting was not too interesting, but I find that it is easier to avoid the 6 lbs. Of M & Ms under the secretary's desk at work if I go. If I don't run for several days I am not a happy person, and I begin to think that my running days are over. It's nutz, but I get over it pretty easy.

I headed into the Greenfield Y around 6:30P.M., I thought about bagging the whole thing. There were the familiar Thursday night faces in the Nautilus room, and cardio room. This was good sign. I headed down to the locker room to change.

This was a good night. I started on an elliptical trainer for 25 minutes. Did a long circuit on the nautilus equipment. Then back to the cardio room for 8 miles on a tread mill. The tread mill can be a real challenge because it is so freaking boring. The cure, run really fast. Fear of being tossed off the machine into a concrete wall does keep it interesting. I also try to visualize running my next marathon.

Tom G. (a local community theater guy) came in tonight. Except for a hello we really did not say anything to each other. Years ago I was in a production of a Christmas Carol with Tom and he totally terrorized me. Not intentionally, well maybe intentionally. I was Bob Crachit, and he was Ebeneza Scrooge. He was a very a serious local actor and singer in the regional Opera company. Every one was intimidated by him. He always sat alone during rehearsal and just scowled at the rest of the cast. I had never done any acting before in my life, and at 35 I was about to step on stage as Bob Cratchit in front of hundreds of people. The director told me that I was cast as Cratchit not because I was a great actor, but because I was Bob Cratchit. Tom was Scrooge, so he really did scare me. I acted in three more plays before my son Ben was born. When he is older I hope that we can get back to community theater as a family.

Running on the tread mill tonight was the easiest it has been in months. After I ran the Hartford Marathon in October I had a hard time getting the joy back in to my running. Since Christmas things seemed to have turned around, just as I was beginning to train for the Boston Marathon this April. I should not be too surprised, as it took me two months last spring to recover from the 2004 Boston Marathon.

The tread mills at the Y have a 25 minute limit on all of their programs including the manual setting. I cranked up the pace gradually over the first 5 minutes to a 7:13 per mile pace. Then every minute I increased the pace by a tenth of a mile. I finished the run with the last minute at a six minute pace, 3.55 miles. Then I got some water, and did another 25 minutes. I ran the most of the second 25 minutes at a steady 6:58 pace. Then I increased the speed on the machine over the last 12 minutes. I did a final mile to cool down. End of work out. High on endorphins I headed out home.