(Sunday Paper, Year VI, Issue 37)

On Tuesday afternoon I went for a walk.

It’s notable because it’s not something I’ve been doing much of lately.

I used to do it a ton.

There’s a 3-and-a-half to 4-mile (depending on where you start the meter) loop near our house that I enjoy walking.

(It also features prominently in many of my runs.)

It takes me about an hour to do if I’m walking fast…on Tuesday it was about an hour and twenty minutes.

And during that time I had some observations about the walking I do that I thought I would share with you.

First of all, I have some writing I’m working on. And when I get stuck on some writing sometimes I like to go for a long walk to organize my thoughts.

Or to take my thoughts off the writing for a bit.

Or to procrastinate. (“I can’t write,” I’ll say to myself. “I’m out walking!”)

Tuesday, though, was 100% of the “organizing my thoughts” variety.

Still, though, my mind wandered a bit.

Mostly because it was so different than my runs. I had never realized it before, but walks feel really different than runs.

My footfalls feel harder. I found different muscles working than in my runs. I thought about it some more and realized that I probably slap my feet against the ground harder in a walk than a run…and I probably move my knees better in a run because I’m actively lifting them up.

It was very interesting, in part because of how in tune I was with my body after all these weeks of training.

It occurred to me that I may be more likely to hurt myself taking an hour walk than doing a three-plus hour run.

So that might be it for me with the walks for a while, even if I need to procrastinate from - I mean, think about - my writing.

Luckily I don’t think there will be many more opportunities to do it - I use up most of my out-of-the-house time on these runs…I can’t be spending more time away from the family just for casual walks around the neighborhood by myself.

But also, I don’t think I should be doing much more deviating from my physical routine. It’s going well, and we’re getting so close to the Boston Marathon.

I’d hate to hurt myself walking, of all things.

Truth be told, I might prefer the running.

Maybe now I’ll start running when I want to avoid my work.

Notes

*Running Update: Well, we’re talking about the marathon so I’ll just leap into the running update here. First of all, on Saturday I had it in my mind I was going to run a half marathon. There was one in Plymouth I seriously considered doing…but then I decided instead of driving an hour away I would just run 13.1 miles on the Boston Marathon course. (I am going to save officially running half marathons until after the Boston Marathon…I think it will be a nice thing to continue to run towards.)

So I started at my old college apartment on Beacon Street near Fenway Park, ran out 6.5 miles and then back. (Unfortunately this brought me up the big hill at Boston College that I swore I would never run again…but at least it was only a few miles in so my legs weren’t shot.) I ran fast, it wasn’t exactly a great pacing run to prepare me for the marathon. But I thought it was a nice sandwich run between last week’s 18 miles and next week’s 21 miles - the longest of the training runs.

But what is wrong with me that I now think maybe 13 miles wasn’t enough? I ran 13 friggin’ miles. I think I’ll be OK.

*It’s funny, I’ve been trying to get out early to run all summer because I didn’t want to get overheated in the summer sun. Then Saturday I left to drive into Boston at 6:45 or so and it wasn’t even 60 degrees. I think I might not have to worry about the early morning runs anymore. (By the time I started running it was sunny enough that I didn’t need the long sleeves I went back in the house to get.)

*Here’s your friendly reminder that I am running for Team Framingham and raising money for the Framingham History Center. You can help me meet my fundraising goal at this link here. Thank you to everyone who has donated - I appreciate all of the support.

*Also, if you’re local, on Tuesday night there will be a Trivia night in the beer garden at Exhibit ‘A’ to raise money for the three of us running for the Framingham History Center. It’ll be at 6:30pm, tickets are $30 and that includes a donation to the runners, a beer ticket, and light snacks. You can purchase tickets - or just donate to the cause for all 3 runners - at this link.

*Man, Spotify. What a revelation. I ran to my “Liked Songs” playlist on Saturday.

*Matt Tour Update? Sure. I actually haven’t been playing close attention this week. I know he’s in California, where he lived for a spell about 20 years ago. I know Counting Crows are doing some sort of music festival without openers, so he’s been doing his own thing with a couple of shows. And I know they’ll be making their way back east soon - it’s winding down. Did I mention Boston was rescheduled for October 9? That’s Marathon weekend, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to go. You can keep tabs on all things Matt Sucich here.

*Hey, it’s NFL season! I have my issues with the organization…but I did join a pool this year because there’s something about the routine of making the picks and watching the games that I kind of need these days. As you may have picked up on last week with my brain dump about routine.

*I’ve been slowly but surely tweeting more - not sure what happened for a while there. Just wasn’t interested in it. But, as always, you can follow me on Twitter here. And the Facebook page is here for you to Like…know that the next few Wednesdays will be more of the “John as his runs on Strava” posts…probably right up until Marathon week.

*October 11. We’re getting close. It’s very exciting. The BAA (Boston Athletic Association - the organization that puts the Boston Marathon together) released their Marathon app this week. I signed up, I’m on there - I don’t know how it works for you but if you search for me you might be able to follow my progress on race day.