A Quadruple Haiku after a Run That Ended with Light Rain

Friend’s last taper week.

Simple out and back.  Dry out.

The rain beat us back.

But rainy running

Is nothing new for us two.

We just keep going…

Forward with strong hope…

Always doing what it takes

To become better…

People and runners…

Making the world better for
Ourselves and others.

Two Haiku Stanzas

Ran two with the dog

Then ran eight more by myself.

Putting in miles to

Prep for marathon.

The race will be in eight weeks.

I will be ready.

Reflection on My First Track Workout Since June 30--In Haiku

For the first time in

Far too many weeks I ran

An on-track workout.

To get to the track

I jogged over--and this time

I really did jog. 

So I was not sure

How the workout would proceed

When I started out.

In fact I had thought

That on the day after a

Strong progression run

I might not have all

That much to power myself 

Through the track workout. 

However the first

800 meters took me

3:03. Not bad. 

In fact I worried

That I'd gone out at a pace

Like a springbok when

I should have been a

Little more circumspect and

Gone out more slowly. 

Four additional 

800's. Each in a time

Of 2:58. 

Realization.

Today was a springbok day

For me after all. 

Too much time away

From the track I so enjoy

Makes it hard to judge.

Long run. Track workouts. 

Different concentration.

Varying focus. 

Complementary 

In my long distance training. 

And throughout my life.

Focus can be good. 

But too much or too little

Each can cause trouble. 

A little focus

With diversification 

Works best in my world. 

What is a Progression Run--in Haiku

Progression runs are

Sometimes planned purposefully 

With a goal in mind. 

But at other times

A progression run begins 

When legs feel heavy. 

I start my running

Feeling like I'm a rhino

Lumbering along.

But as miles progress

I feel as though I'm transformed

Into a springbok. 

Marathon Training on Mid Summer Morning

5 Stanzas of Haiku

Meet at five fifteen. 

See lightning. Hear thunder. Run. 

Then the big rain starts. 

Keep going forward. 

Seven mile workout gets done. 

Despite the weather. 

Reminded me of

Running through streams in high school

Cross country races. 

Lauren felt stronger

Than she had in a long while

On a tempo run.  

Mission accomplished. 

With Freedoms Run marathon 

And Comrades ahead. 

A Running Haiku

1100 Miles Achieved on a Day of Interviews
Three moderate miles
Awakening the body
Before much sitting

Running What I Know

Of the five days for which I will be in Sydney for at least part of the day, yesterday (the third day) was the day on which I had my first opportunity to run.  Why did it have to wait until then?  Because I had packed in a way that my running shoes and all the clothes in which I could run were in the bag that didn’t make it on the connecting flight from the US to Australia.  So, I obviously couldn’t run on day one.  And then the luggage did not get to me and the research associate with whom I traveled until 7:30 PM on day 2.  So, I got up yesterday morning early, left just past 5, and ran.  And what a joy it was after three days (Sunday when I was traveling all day and lost the day because of crossing the international dateline, and Monday and Tuesday in Australia) to just run.

Did I run fast?  No.  I averaged nine minute miles.  I can’t think of the last time I averaged nine minute miles. Especially for the distance I ran—10 miles.  Even for a workout rather than a race that distance would normally take somewhere between 7 and 10 minutes less.

But being in Sydney and not having studied the map as closely as I might, I decided to stick with what I knew or to go just beyond what I knew in one case and to make sure that I could find my way back to what I knew.  That led to multiple “out and back” sections of my run.  The entire run was going to be “out and back” anyway.  While I don’t enjoy doing that back home any more than necessary, I find it easiest to do in Australia because I don’t have a sufficiently detailed working map of Sydney (or the suburban area where the University of New South Wales is) in my head to do a big loop.

So, aside from going down one street that I thought was parallel to something I knew but turned out not to be and I was able to recover from, I ran what I knew.  Slowly to get the legs going again after days of sitting.

And I ended up running to Coogee Beach, a bit along the promenade there, and back through Randwick to Anzac Parade.  It was a very enjoyable run. 

It was very much like the first year of my job—pushing just a little beyond my comfort zone but generally I come back to what I know.  What I know has been pretty reliable thus far, and continues to work when I need it to.  There are some interesting lessons from pushing just beyond in life.

The 10 miles puts me up to 438.5 and puts me 1.5 miles outside of Washington Courthouse, Ohio, still on US-22 headed west.  The Catholic church in the town was St. Colman of Cloyne, honoring a man in Ireland who died around 600 and who opened a monastery in Cloyne in County Cork.  Apparently he was quite a poet.  So, to close this entry, I will write a short haiku.

Moving just beyond

All I know is “brilliant”! “New”

While feeling secure.

Here is the actual course showing multiple "out and back" ranges.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/463485297

Thoughts on Choices--Part 1 of 3

After writing yesterday I went for a run.  And, as I do on many runs, I pondered.  Sometimes my pondering leads to new haiku.  Sometimes pondering leads to reflection on other things.  In this case, it led to reflection on someone else's poetry.  In particular Robert Frost.  In thinking about my haiku on choices that challenge what others think--either about life in general or about me specifically--my mind drifted to the poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.  I realized that many of my choices could be thought of as roads not taken by others.  What was interesting was where my conclusion about this ended up yesterday morning.  The poem ends, "And that [referring to the choice of one way over another] has made all the difference."  I used to interpret that as "And that has made things so much better for me."  While the poem's tone is definitely a happy one (by my read), Frost never said, "That has made me better" or "That has made my life better."  He said simply that the choice had made all the difference.  So, my previous somewhat haughty interpretation of "And that has made me better" (and it was usually better than someone else and not even necessarily simply better than I would have otherwise been), seems at odds with the actual conclusion of the poem.  The choices I make don't necessarily make me any better than anyone else.  They do make me different.  They do provide me with a different set of opportunities.  They do provide me with a different set of chances to realize the opportunities I have.  But making different choices doesn't make me any better or any worse than anyone else necessarily.  It just makes me and my life story unique.  And realizing how much I'd like to stay away from judging and taking unnecessary pride in the difference rather than simply stating, "I took a different path to get here" when asked and otherwise leading by example is a key thing for me to remember.  The interesting thing about leadership is that leading by example remains a key part of leadership no matter how high one goes.  But leading only by example becomes more difficult as the number and magnitude of things on which one has to provide leadership and management grows.

Two Haiku About Movement on Meyer-Briggs Traits

I Becomes E

Silently thinking 
Lacks the meaning of turning
Words into artwork

J Turns Out to Be P

Always adapting
While telling linking stories
Is a long term plan

Haiku

A run with God's grace.
Sunday morning.  Chilled city.
Six near silent miles.