Progress Weeks 17 – 26
Week 26 comes to a close: 280.13 miles down, 49.87 to go. 85% of the way there! Across weeks 17 – 26, I logged a total of 97.07 miles, 25.35 running. I dealt with a left knee issue and rested significantly some weeks while ramping up in weeks 23 – 26. I remain on pace to hit my mileage goal of 330 by 10/31.
Week 17:
7/25: 8:47/mi – 3.17 distance = 27:14 5k pace
7/27: 8:56/mi – 1.0 distance
Week 18:
7/30: 9:20/mi – 3.33 distance = 29:04 5k pace
8/3: 8:17/mi – 1.0 distance
Week 19:
8/5: 8:57/mi – 1.01 distance
8/11: 9:10/mi – 3.33 distance = 28:29 5k pace
Week 20:
*Walked only*
Week 21:
8/24: 8:40/mi – 1.0 distance
Week 22:
8/28: 9:01/mi – 1.01 distance
9/1: 8:21/mi – 1.50 distance
Week 23:
9/4: 9:12/mi – 1.12 distance
Week 24:
9/9: 9:06/mi – 1.0 distance
9/12: 9:17/mi – 3.1 distance = 28:47 5k pace
Week 25:
9/19: 8:09/mi – 1.0 distance
Week 26:
9/24: 9:50/mi – 3.11 distance = 30:34 5k pace
So far, I’ve secured $6,071 ($6,012 donated, $59 pledged) from 48 donors. This gets me 60% to my fundraising goal. We can make it!
Dedication
Miles over these weeks are dedicated to two colleagues who joined the campaign early: Art G. out on the West Coast, representing the ToolBank as the Western territory Manager and Megan K., stationed in my home state of Ohio as our Replication Manager. Both of these exceptional people decided to go above and beyond their working day commitment to the ToolBank to show support for my journey. Thank you for all you do, Art and Megan!
What’s in the Walkman?
Week 17 – Tool’s first album, “Undertow”. While I didn’t track them for much longer, I have deep musical respect for them and absolutely loved this album.
Week 18 – Hum – “You’d Prefer an Astronaut”. Definitely not in everyone’s rotation but should have been! It stands up after 31 years!
Week 19 – Smashing Pumpkins – More “Gish” and Siamese Dream” than “Zero” with some exceptions for select tracks on “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”. “Siamese Dream” is a masterpiece.
Week 20 – Liz Phair – “Exile in Guyville” and “Whip Smart” are absolutely legendary albums.
Week 21 – Mazzy Star – “So Tonight that I Might See” and “Among My Swan”.
Week 22 – Stone Temple Pilots – “Core”, “Purple”, and “Tiny Music…” were all on heavy rotation. Don’t come for me, haters! STP were grunge for real. I remember going to school one day in 7th grade and the coolest girl in school had used a Sharpie to write the script “STP” on her jean jacket. It was and remains the coolest.
Week 23 – Nine Inch Nails – With musical respect for all stages of Trent Reznor’s career, I stayed away from the straight NIN years just based on being a kid and not relating to the ‘depression as expression’ crowd who swore a daily oath to all things trench coat. But not gonna lie: “Pretty Hate Machine” and “Downward Spiral” were on heavy rotation in the early and mid-90s. And yes, “Pretty Hate Machine” was an ’89 release but I didn’t know about it until 1991.
Week 24 – Moby’s “Play”, which was pretty much the soundtrack to the last year of the 90s for me.
Week 25 – Belly’s stellar two albums, “Star” and “King”. Deeply underrated over time. Just don’t watch any of the 90s videos… the songs work but not with those visuals!
Week 26 – Portishead “Dummy” and their eponymous 1997 release were revelations. I just wasn’t hearing anyone else who sounded like that and I loved it. Dreary and playful at once.
Reflections
While the movement and exercise I log when running is generally good for me both mentally and physically, I am not convinced running is the best way for me to get 30+ minutes of cardio most days. Structurally, I think running is hard on the knees, hips, ankles… and joints in general. I will maintain logging miles and getting 30+ minutes of movement daily, including cardio, but running more than a mile a couple times a week is not likely to persist. I am proud to be pointed at a goal of running a 5K on October 17th and will work diligently to log a strong time. But the goal-oriented nature of this challenge is less interesting to me than the long-term habit of ensuring I move intentionally in a healthy way for more than 30 minutes a day. I am more interested in habits than short-term goals.
ToolBank Disaster Services Deployment
I recently featured a deployment from MU-1 to a(nother) thousand-year flood event, this time in Summersville, WV in 2016. Check it out here.
Thanks for tuning in and don’t forget to lace up (like it’s 1995)!