On the Grind

I woke up at 6 today—initially I pushed Snooze but I got my act together after I realized what I'd done. I don't know how I always used to wake up so early...

Anyway, just a four-mile run today. I tried to do it fast, but I guess it wasn't that fast. Anyway, I felt like I was going to puke at the end.

Really enjoying the Newtons, though. So that's a plus.

And here's a little excerpt from this book I'm reading:

Quenton Cassidy knew what the mystic-runners, the joggers, the runner-poets, the Zen runners, and others of their ilk were talking about. But he also knew that their euphoric selves were generally nowhere to be seen on dark, rainy mornings. They primarily wanted to talk it, not do it. Cassidy very early on understood that a true runner ran even when he didn't feel like it, and raced when he was supposed to, without excuses and with nothing held back. He ran to win, would die in the process if necessary, and was unimpressed by those who disavowed such a base motivation. You are not allowed to renounce that which you never possessed, he thought.

That last line is pretty powerful... It reminds me of the art world, how they say you're not "allowed" to draw or paint abstractly unless you've already proven yourself classically. Not sure if I buy it completely, but it is a nice sound byte for the elitists to put people who won't double-think it in their place.

Pace: 7:48