End of Week 2

Wow. Two weeks... So far, so good, I guess. Dropped four pounds - can't complain.

An interesting thing happened this morning... we had our first snow! I grabbed this shot of part of the trail while it was still snowing relatively quickly... big, wet flakes that I knew wouldn't last the day, but something I just had to walk and run in for old times (old times being high school ski team...).

I also grabbed a video of the entire trail, while walking, and once I edit the sound a bit I'll post that, too.

Maybe it was the cold, but there were a couple times during the run that my motivation sagged. I found myself saying things like, "It's snowing - no one will blame you for stopping early." I'll often argue with myself like that, with Evil Homer and Good Homer sitting up there on their respective shoulders, offering opposing advice.

In the end, I decided that even if I had to run slowly, I would not stop running during the run sections. I have heard that advice countless times doing dry-land training for Nordic season... "Just keep going! Don't stop!" Heard the same advice in the Marines, during PFTs (Physical Fitness Tests), or during particularly grueling training evolutions... And I even gave that advice to my high school athletes when I coached football and track.

I never really understood it, until I had to tell myself to do it.

I realized that, on this day, in this snow, at this moment, I was out there for myself, and all the excuses in the world would fall flat if I gave up now... because I would know they were excuses, not reasons. So, I managed to lurch through the course with not great run times, granted, but with a stronger sense of motivation and purpose. Can't complain.

Lap Times
Loop 1 (walk) : 4:30.8
Loop 2 (jog) : 3:06.8
Loop 3 (walk) : 4:36.6
Loop 4 (jog) : 3:16.0
Loop 5 (walk/jog) : 4:19.8

Total distance: 2 km, Total time: 19:50.0, Best mile: 15:13.4
Weekly weigh-in: 322 pounds
Average power: 633.4 Watts