Today’s Focus

Do the work.

Planned Workout Description: 

15:00 minute easy run. It is most likely going to rain this morning, so I will get to have fun splashing through puddles if it does. Being a little kid again for a few minutes always resets the mind and body. 🤪

After yesterday’s mentally fatiguing day, today will be a better day simply because there is not much going on. Which will give me a chance to decompress a little and find some quiet time. I am still amazed at how the disruption from them working on the house tired me out so much. I guess I am a creature of routine, and when taken out of that routine, it takes me a bit to adapt.

I plan to do my stretching routine and beat on the tire a bit after running, then do the balance and mobilization work tonight after supper.

Warm-up: 

• 20 Coach Johnson leg swing routine (front, side, forward and back rotations) 
• 40 air squats
• 100-ups 

Run

• ·    Course:  Tiffany Mile Turn-around to Top of Stevens Hill
• ·    Distance: 1.65
• ·    Duration: 16:03
• ·    Power: 201
• ·    Running Streak Day #: 9

What I Actually Did: 

It didn’t rain, and I didn’t get to splash around in the puddles. It was just cloudy and humid. Personally, I would have preferred to have gotten the rain. We are heading into a drought this summer, and every little bit will help us get through it.

I decided to run down back on the gravel road towards Tiffany. There isn’t a lot of traffic, and once I get past the last house on the left, no houses until the tar on Tiffany. Lots of trees, bugs, and critters, best of all, not too many people. I started out the run with an easy effort and kept it that way for almost all of the run.

Although when I was almost down to the last gate down back, there was a newer Gray Nissan Maxima with Florida plates parked on the side of the road with a guy leaning inside the vehicle. For some reason, this really raised a few hackles on the back of my neck. When the guy saw me running toward the car, he quickly went to the other side of the road and started smoking a cigarette.

Which forced me to go between him and the vehicle – I didn’t like that at all.

I took a closer look at him. He was over 6′, wearing a ball cap, dark shoulder-length hair, a big full beard, and had a pretty good belly on him. However, there was just something about how he was standing and looking around before I got there that really raised the hackles even more.

At that point, I thought seriously about turning around. The vibes just didn’t feel right.

So, I reached down and patted to make sure I had the pepper spray with me, yep. Then I sped up a little as I got closer to the car, keeping a close eye on the fella on the other side of the road, but I didn’t notice anyone in the vehicle. He said in a gravelly smoker’s voice, “You sure have a lot more motivation than I am.”

I smiled and said, “Thanks, I’m just old and slow, trying to keep moving.”

He mumbled something else that I didn’t quite catch, but I wasn’t going to stop and talk for any reason. I waved, smiled, and kept running. Maybe he was okay, but damn, the hackles on the back of my neck didn’t go down until I got to the top of the little bump heading down to Tiffany. That was also my turn-around, but I seriously debated about heading up Tiffany a ways before coming back this way to give him a chance to do whatever it was he was doing.

Yeah, I was keeping a close eye on the fella by looking back to see what he was doing.

He had gone back into the car and started it up.

After quickly thinking about it, I figured that it would be better to turn around as I had planned and be relatively fresh going back by the guy and the car. 

From the looks of him, I had a feeling that if he tried anything, I would run into the woods and head up the hill. He would have a more challenging time following me through the brush and going up the hill than I would. 

The thought processes that I had going on in my head can be pretty interesting at times. However, I would prefer to have an idea of what to do if things go bad versus having to suddenly improvise to get myself out of possible trouble. My experience in these situations is that it pays to be aware of your surroundings, who is there, what they are doing (not what they are saying). Also, look around and think about potential escape routes, using the terrain to your advantage if needed, and be prepared for whatever happens next.

You will be amazed at how quickly you can process all this information if you need to.

When he saw me coming back, he headed up the road, then he stopped up by the pines until I got about 50 yards from him. Almost like he was making a phone call. Once I got closer, he took off lickety-split back up Philbrick Road, like he was pissed that I was down there and interrupted whatever he had planned. I was going to write down the license plate number but didn’t get quite close enough to see it clearly.

There was something really odd about the guy and how he was acting. Some strange things have happened down back over the past 3-4 months. Needless to say, I don’t want to get in the middle of anything going on down there.

Looking back on it, I probably should have turned around when I first got those bad vibes. However, I didn’t feel threatened by the guy, just very wary and that I wasn’t in any danger from him, but more that I was interrupting something he was doing.

Once he got out of sight, I relaxed a lot and got back to “enjoying” my run. The leg felt pretty good as long as I kept things easy, so of course, when I got to Wade’s mailbox, I picked up the pace to finish at the upper gate. Stevens Hill is a no-walking zone, so I figured the sooner I get it over with, the sooner I could walk. It was supposed to be a 15-minute run, and I extended it to 16 to make it up Stevens Hill.

One of those days where the run was pretty good, but the person I encountered didn’t give me that warm fuzzy feeling at all. Maybe he was the nicest guy in the world, but I tend to trust my intuition when encountering people, and he wasn’t someone that I felt comfortable with at all.

Variables that impacted the run:

Injuries/Niggles: The left Achilles behaved itself and didn’t grumble much, even when I pushed the pace going up Stevens Hill. Although I feel that if I had kept going to do the 2-miles that I contemplated doing, it would have been a bit grumpier.

Weather: Cloudy, 64°F, Feels like 65°F, Humidity 77%, Wind 3mph from SW

Shoes: ASICS EvoRide 2 (21.23) Put them on and forgot about them.

Other Stuff

One of the older gentlemen in the neighborhood wanted to give us some of his rhubarb plants and asked me to follow him back to his house. He is a super nice guy but a lot lonely, so I didn’t mind stopping working cutting up the downed trees outback to go with him. It gave me an excuse to put the chainsaw away. 😝

Unfortunately, while digging up the bulbs, I broke two of his shovels. The handles were pretty dry rotted, and I felt terrible about doing that. We have extra shovels, so I took one back over to his place and put it where he had the others before I broke them. I am pretty sure that the handle ain’t gonna break too quickly on that one. He came out told me I didn’t have to do that, but this time it was me that wasn’t taking no for an answer. 

My Dad taught me a long time ago that if you use another man’s tools and break them, it is on you to replace them, no matter what the owner claims or says. So, I did, and when I explained that to him, he smiled and said thank you. We talked a bit more, and on the way home, I was smiling to myself. 

Yeah, doing the right thing for the right reasons does make you feel good.

Online articles: 

Does CBD Enhance Endurance Sports Performance? — Corrine Malcolm

Does Coffee Dehydrate You? By Amanda Capritto, ACE-CPT, INHC 

Prehab & Rehab – stuff that I have to do

Strength Work – I whacked the tire 100 times and then did a couple of sets of 3×15 single leg eccentric calf drops on the steps, along with calf raises. I could even do 5 single calf raises with my bad leg, not great form, or as quickly as I can with the right leg, but it is better than not being able to do them at all like it was last week.

Stretching – I worked on my new stretching routine, and the one stretch that gave me the most problems today was the kneeling-sit on heels for 30 seconds. Both of the feet kept cramping up in the metatarsals, and I eventually had to get out the pill bottle to massage them so I could do one set of 30 seconds. I know that I am about as flexible as a 2×4, so this stretching stuff will be something that I do need to focus on doing. I will get better at it.

Mobility – I did the pill bottle massage routine, some minor toe touching and 1:00 minute deep sitting squat to work on stretching out the Achilles.

Balance —  After getting done with the mobility work, I did my 30-second single-leg running pose on each leg, then again with eyes closed with one finger on the bookcase to keep from falling down. Balancing on one leg with my eyes shut is something that I need to work on, but it is challenging.

An interesting day to say the least.