Real David H.

After my 10-mile this morning, I posted on my Facebook page the simplest of messages: “Ran 10 miles.” It was a nice accomplishment after so much up and down in recent months, so I wanted to post a simple statement about it. A friend of mine asked me what do I think about when I run for that long … and I realized that I probably didn’t think about all that much, at least today. And that’s a good thing.
Long runs are so good for the soul. Many days there isn’t much thinking going on. The first 2.4 miles were with my dog. When we run together I like to watch him. It’s funny to see him look around at various things and then slowly wear out. After running with him I then ventured over about a mile to a nearby park where I ran 4 miles. By then my iPod was really keeping me going — I’ve been without my iPod for about two weeks now. I “lost” it … the way you can lose your keys sometimes, only I couldn’t find it for a while. Instead of doing any thinking, I was doing a lot of singing. Today’s tunes ranged from Prince to the “Movin’ Out” soundtrack to Dave Matthews Band to Bryan Adams.

Often on long runs I’ll sort out various issues at work in my mind; I’ll come up to answers to questions I know people will have. Sometimes I’ll think of something to do later in the day; sometimes I get hungry and I start thinking about what to eat the rest of the day. Or I’ll just crave a good beer. But usually after a half hour to 45 minutes, I get lost in the run. I just do it without thinking.

So to answer the question of what I think about, there is no simple answer. It’s just like the rest of life I guess.

Noteworthy:
* Today’s 10-mile run was the first double-digit run since the Shamrock Half Marathon on March 22. It was the first double-digit training run since Feb. 28.

* Today marked the sixth straight week of increasing my long run. Since July, my long runs have been 5, 6, 6.4, 7, 8 and 10.

* As long as I run 0.8 miles tomorrow, which I plan on mixing into what will be a cross training day, I’ll have 20 miles for the week. I haven’t had a 20-mile or more week since the Shamrock Half week. My last 20 mile non-race week was March 2-8 when I hit 20.5 miles, which is my highest mileage week all year.