+10 points if you get the nerdy joke right away.
sweaty dragon says (2:50 PM): of the people coming…you will know [two people].
Jebus! says (2:51 PM): What’s your expected numbers?
sweaty dragon says (2:51 PM): currently…5 coming.
Jebus! says (2:51 PM): That’s a solid number…prime, in fact
sweaty dragon says (2:51 PM): 6 would be perfect.
I’m sitting on the couch, watching TV with my laptop beside me. There’s a bottle of Mill St. Organic beer sitting on the coffee table in front of me. I can’t help but focus on how my quads are still a bit sore. And why wouldn’t they be sore? I really put in a crazy amount of effort into last night’s race. Overall, I’m quite proud. I was expecting to just go slowly and treat it like another Sunday training run, but somewhere along the way I decided to take things a bit seriously and go for it. This is my race report. More after the jump.
I survived, somehow! I really put a lot of effort into it! I got a snazzy medal!
Seriously, I want to spill everything out into this entry, but I’m just so tired. Report will follow tomorrow. Meanwhile, rest…lounging…sleeping. Yeah.
And somehow it came to be that Saturday is a race day for me. It’s not the race day–that one comes in a few weeks. No, this race is a 30K race along the eastern lake shore of Toronto during the evening hours. I’m still quite humbled by the fact that I can sign up for such a race an not freak out about it being far too long. As long as I break the race up into smaller chunks for my consumption, and move wisely I should be fine. I think that at this time what I do after the race is more important. I’ve been going about my business all week on a bit of a rest deficit. My body knows it and hasn’t been shy in reminding me all week. Heck, that’s honestly why my blog posts have been skewed by many hours all week. Post race, I just need to sleep, and use Sunday as a day to sleep in. I’m so used to making up early on the weekends that this will be different for me.
Anyway, wish me luck. This should be a fun race.
…
Can we just pretend that didn’t happen? I can list off the reasons why last night’s free improv session was unpretty. I really just want to sweep that one under the rug and chalk it up to a learning experience.
I will not be ignored.
A few weeks ago, as part of the marathon clinic a doctor came in to film us run. We were all taken to a parking lot and asked to run up and down the driveway a few times. Today was the day that the doctor gave us feedback on how we can improve our form. Yeah, if I’m being honest, I figured that my running form would be pretty bad. Yeah, I’m improving, but I’m clearly not the most efficient. A lot of people have pointed out that I’m a shuffler; my feet don’t really make it that far off the ground. You see a lot of fabulous runners that kind of look like gazelles out there. In contrast, I’m more like a penguin. It’s not pretty. Anyway, knowing that, I was afraid to see what the doctor ended up capturing on camera.
When my turn came up he immediately pointed out that my legs seemed to be doing the opposite of what most people would do. I think he said that I tended to lean toward the outside instead of pronating. Interesting point because I naturally have flat feet, which means that I naturally pronate. I wear some really high stability shoes, so I wondered out loud if that had anything to do with my leaning outwards. As I watched myself run, I felt that my movement in my upper body was just odd. I can’t put my finger on what it was, but it’s definitely not how a typical runner would move. Indeed, the video captured the fact that I didn’t get much air time. I was told that I should lift my leg more. As I landed, the doctor pointed out that my knees just looked unstable. There was a lot of movement going on at the joint. He was baffled. Seriously! He said that he couldn’t immediately tell if it’s a muscle imbalance, or if there was just something else going on. I think the words he used were “definitely not normal.” Seeing as how I agree, I couldn’t help but laugh. In comparison to all other people who were analyzed, I stuck out like a sore thumb. He did say that it seemed like it wasn’t a structural problem, and that whatever it was it could be trained out of me.
So, at this point I’m thinking of heading in to that sports clinic and letting him do a proper analysis. I know that improvements can be made. Thing is, if what I’m doing at the moment is working for me, is there really a need to change how I function in some revolutionary way? My technique may not be the most cool to look at, but it gets the job done, no? Maybe I’m just daring to be different. Hmm.
This ended up as a day where I had a chance to catch up with two people that I hadn’t seen in years. I saw one of them over lunch, and the other over dinner. It really is interesting how meals are great at bringing people together, right? So, I was just thinking that the younger version of me would have been fretting over whether I’ve done enough since the last time we saw each other. I mean, am I at the right place career-wise? Have I travelled anywhere exciting? Am I doing enough in my spare time? Am I dating someone? On some level, I believed I would be judged by just how far I’d gotten, and I would have wanted to the other party to look down on me.
Of course, all of that is silly, isn’t it?
Thankfully, this time around I was a lot more relaxed and forgiving of myself. I was genuinely interested in hearing about what they’ve been up to, and they were interested in what I’ve been up to. I may not be at the top of my game in all spheres of life, but that doesn’t matter at all; these people are interested in me and not my “status.” It’s amazing how liberating that thought is.
In my day to day life, I’m pretty self-contained. I’m a pretty reserved individual. I don’t allow myself to have too many outbursts, whether it be in excitement or anger. I mean, it’s generally frowned on, right? Society tends to frown at and finger-wag at people who make a scene. Maybe that’s why I often like being loud in improv. It’s not uncommon for me to scream, or to pick a reason to be angry. Generally, I allow myself to break free and have a large personality. That really leaves an impression. Thing is, I have to learn how to channel all of that. Last night, I was in a scene where a doctor was basically sawing off my arm. Well, I ended up just screaming in horrible pain, because, how else would someone react? Post-scene, the teacher told me that I need to be careful not to overdo it. I can see why: it’s easy to drown out other players. At the time, we were in the theatre basement, meaning that screaming in pain had to be measured. I have to be more conscious of my venue. If I was on stage the screaming would have worked. In a basement–not so much. It’s not that I should stifle that big personality aspect that I have. Instead, I need to ensure that I present my best side.
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