The mouse i never would have seen if my car hadn't been stuck

So this guy or girl or someone who was not intelligent parked in front of my garage the other day. Who does that? Right? of course it turned out that i had to pick up a hard drive to deliver a project deadline on this unfortunate evening and found myself with only one option... Metro. Turned out my graphics guy lives near universal studios which has a redline stop. So i went and got it and experienced many interesting things in my journey. Heres one...
there was this mouse rumaging around below the tracks where the subway picks up people and shuttles them around under the city. It was lightning quick in its scurrying but ever so careful. Lightly hopping over any obstruction before scuttling over and under the pipes. Why would any creature live in such a place? Doesnt it know about the mountains? That on a crisp and clear day one can see all the way to the ocean? Doesnt that mouse realize what it feels like to breathe above the clouds below with the golden sun on your back? Or maybe there is something we are missing? When the lights go out and the tunnels get quiet is there a silence so pure only the foolish would break it? Maybe as long as you are content to be warm even garbage tastes like cheese.


- Posted from the Road

A Watched Pot Never Boils

- surely the longest route to the summit is in your mind.

There are these distinctly hard runs that one experiences where you have to dig so deep to push yourself through something you thought you couldnt. Sometimes i feel like i plan my training and go into any particular run worrying that i might find myself in one of those situations or even secretly hoping that i dont. But really i think theres something about those days that i keep searching for whenever i run. It may even be the real reason i keep getting out there

junk miles

...are like this. Suppose for a moment that I am a pro video editor (: I know final cut in and out because I use it everyday. The best thing for me to do is try to edit better but faster and spend less time cutting thereby making more money for my time and having more energy to make good creative decisions. (or running quality strong miles vs. quantity of miles and focusing on recovery) If I want to improve in a certain area I can do specific training to educate myself. But any other extra time spent using the software won't really help me. If anything I'll burn out and my overall performance will suffer. However, if I want to learn a new software and maybe learn to cut a new medium like feature length films within final cut, it is good for me to spend as much time as possible doing it. Even if it's just doing the basics over and over, not necessarily straining myself. Because I will be forming good habits and developing 'muscle' memory that will be good for me in the long run. More simply though, in the case of ultra-running... it's all junk miles. The point is to go slow enough to be able to run without stopping. Inevitably you will gain fitness but not really see improvement in speed.