5 Mile Run (A)

SANTA MONICA -- Now that's something.

After four runs of the old loop, a normal one finally happened on the fifth. It was over before it really began. One of those where you're thinking more about other stuff the whole time -- not focusing on pushing at all. Just get out there, trot it out and shower off.

The key I'm trying -- and there will be many such efforts to unlock new running capacity in the coming months -- is to look for a challenge in every run. Don't ever think, "This is a normal run." There's always something standing in the way. Heat. Boredom. Soreness. Feet. Rain. Bad day. Good day. Cold. Sick. Hungry. Busy. Whatever. The point today was, "This is an average run. Try to get through it without unnecessary anguish." and "This is the first run with only a day's rest." And with this, I'm hoping to get every planned run in. Nothing missed. No runs on days when it's not planned. No misses/make-ups when it is planned.

And it happened. Simple run. I wouldn't say I pushed it hard up, but did OK. And I certainly was going pretty strong back down. Whatever happened, something clicked and this one just flew past. Everything seemed so simple. Average in every way.

Looking for other little things beyond the "push when the twinge hits". Simple stuff like not dropping my head when I'm done. Or swinging my arms more when speeding up. It's a bunch of little stuff.

Didn't get to write after the last one. But my thoughts were pretty much centered around "Fiasco" and what an incredible book it is. It's kind of worn off by now. Cognitive dissonance. It's impossible to keep your mind in that horrible place without actually being there. And I'd imagine it's hard to even when you are there. It certainly created a new understanding of what's going on over there and how the arguments we're having in the U.S. aren't the right ones. The nation's newspapers and TV have done a horrible job keeping us in the know as to what is actually happening -- for various and somewhat understandable reasons. But in the end, we are not putting our resources toward winning this thing. And if our armed forces weren't so incredibly talented, we'd be down 10,000 people and have vacated Iraq, leaving it in turmoil. Tom Ricks, the author, is speaking in Santa Monica tomorrow evening. I'm going to be there.

Today the sun was out, the sky was clear and nearly every Angelino you met said, "Great weather out" which is really saying something for someone in LA to say. Had lunch. Read some news. Read some blogs. Laughed with coworkers about garbage. Ran. Planned to hit a Saturn/Hurley Pre-XGames party. Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bremer, Sanchez and Abu Ghraib don't fit into this reality at all. So I'll just water it down as the days pass and focus on planning out my life.

Phil Hendrie also said something interesting today. He said, referring to Mel Gibson and his Passion flick, "I'm always amazed at this deal with people saying the Jews killed Jesus. The Jews killed Jesus. Sure they killed him, but Christians have been killing him every day since."