Break out da funk..

Last couple weeks I've been in a running funk. The kind where it takes all of your will power just to lace up your shoes (actually just tie them... it's not like I unlace my running shoes every time I run... in fact who am I kidding... rarely are they even untied; read: cram my foot into my running shoes and force the backs over my heels)... and then even after you force yourself out the door your pretty much consumed with thoughts of walking and/or turning around and cutting the run short through the entire run. The kind of funk where you're perpetually tired, aching, and unmotivated. Worst possible timing too, because I have a half marathon coming up in 13 days.

Fortunately, I think out of the thick if it (knock on wood)... I used some various tricks to help me snap out of it, which I'll share now.

• Started running with my dogs: I've felt guilty for neglecting to get my dogs the proper exercise they deserve so I started taking them out for a 2 mile "warm up" before completing the rest of my run (warm up in quotations because the dogs are pretty much set on running sub 8 minute miles).
• Switching up locations: I drove to a couple of the local parks to do my training runs. Definitely a welcome change of atmosphere as opposed to my mundane loops around my surrounding neighborhoods which I've run about umpteen times!
• Slowing down and turning off the I-pod: left the I-pod at hope and tried to slow down a bit and simply enjoy running during this beautiful spring we're having! (as opposed to pushing the pace till it hurts behind my eyes and then cranking up my I-pod to distract me from the pain)
• Drawing upon blogger buddy inspiration: I got home Thursday from my "warm up" with my dogs and seriously considered call it a day... I went to my blog with the intentions of venting out another crabby whiny entry (95% of the reason to have a blog in my humble opinion). Then I saw the 8 comments from my last crabby whiny entry as thought "Screw these people, I'm going running!!!"... Seriously though... it was more like an ah-ha moment: Am I really going to blog about how crappy I've been running or am I gonna man up, hit the road, and then blog about how great I've been running! so THANKS!!!!
• Go Long: The long run is my favorite part about running... I just love going out and running non stop of a couple of hours... partly because it amazes me that I (or anyone really) could ever do this (sometimes it's hard just to get up off the couch!)... partly because it's so liberating... and mostly for the endorphins: seems like it takes about 7 mile start feeling the flow and after that my pace picks up, my stride smoothes out, my heart rate drops, and I get in this place where I feel like I'm effortlessly gliding along and that I could pretty much maintain it forever!
• Dream Big: I came into Sunday with 25 miles on the week... so I decided to shoot for an even 40 (looking back at my training log I realized that this would be only the 5th time I went over 40 miles for a week and the other 4 times were during the peak of marathon training). In order to hit the 40 I'd need to do a 15 miler; 3 miles longer then my longest run all year and my longest training run since September 20th. So I went out and I did it... and now I feel great... In fact I negative split the run and finished the last 4 miles at a 7:45 pace!

So right now I feel pretty great... I'm going to take today off, rest up, and watch the Boston Marathon on Universal Sports (which BTW is costing me $4.99... What ever happened to free?!?!?... Oh well, small price to pay I guess... I just hope the streaming audio/video works better than it normally does now that I'm paying for it!!!) Good luck to everyone running today... I'll be watching for/thinking about you and hoping to join you in Boston one of these years!!!

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Update on Boston marathon coverage... in a word: "shitty"... for some reason they heavily favored the women's race showing mostly either split screen or full screen of the woman's leaders... now nothing against the woman's racers, but the woman who won (Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopia) made a breakaway at mile 15 and didn't have anyone near here until mile 25 when the second place runner finally closed within 16 seconds of her. So basically I was just watching Teyba Erkesso running for about an hour straight...

...meanwhile the men actually had a pack, had surges, recoveries, lead changes, strategic moves.. or so I hear since they didn't bother to show most of it.

The announcing was pretty bad as well... it would be nice if they could find some guys who actually were a little more familiar with the runners and the race... it hardly phased them that the male winner ran a 2:05:51, a course recorder by over a minute and damn fast time on a notoriously tough Boston!!! They were much more interested in the fact that the winner, 21 year old Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot of Kenya has a very similar name to Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot who had won Boston 4 times in the past (in fact, I think they mentioned it about 100 times!!!)... they also conjectured that Meb Keflezighi must be hurt since he finished well behind the winner with a time of 2:09:24 even though he was only 9 seconds off his PR for the marathon, set last fall when he won the NYC marathon in 2:09:15...

P.S.: Sorry about the photo... but nothing says "Funk" like George Clinton in a man-diaper... Also, I actually saw George Clinton and the P-Funk All-stars perform when I was a freshman in college. I got a free ticket to the show just by signing up for a credit card... best 4000$ worth of interest I've ever spent!!!!!