RL.4: The White Album (Updated)

13:44 minutes, 1.2 miles

Felt better than the last few times out. Though was sucking air pretty hard for the last 2/10ths or so. Right foot and right shin* discomfort bordering on pain. (I’ll take what I can get, but not too happy with the 11:27 pace.)

So yeah, running log, there was a lay-off in there since my last run. There were several days of bike riding and several days of strenuous yard work, so it isn’t like I wasn’t exercising at all. However, there were also a few days of soreness and recovery from the yard work, followed by some days of laziness. So it isn’t like I was working out every day, either.

[The following is un-proofread and unedited.]

I again heard the loathsome theme song to The Wizards of Waverly Place on the way out the door, but forced it out of my head as I began running. I was thinking first, as cyclists do, about “claiming the lane” and came to the conclusion that running against traffic was different enough from riding a bike with the flow of traffic that my instinct of moving off to the side when cars approach was the way to go. This thought gave way to the headsong, Why Don’t We Do It In the Road by the Beatles. So I was rocking out ’till my right shin started hurting.* That put me in mind of an article I skimmed the other day. Then I started blaming that article on screwing with my placebo effect. I mean the shoes had worked just fine alleviating my knee and shin pain until now. Then, in thinking about the placebo effect, I realized that the placebo effect can be used to justify a lot of things, even aside from the potential claims that could be made as to pharmaceutical effectiveness. The whole justification for torture as used as an implement of US state power, for instance, is based on the placebo effect. The idea being that it is not torture if the torturer does not intend to cause irreparable harm to the victim, as a rationalization; and the idea that if the enemy knows the details of our techniques, the techniques will no longer be effective. We do not torture, we just want our victims to think they are being tortured, so that our interrogation methods can be effective. Placebo effect, in full effect, motherfucker!!! During this train of thought, the pain in my right shin subsided (hey, I thought, gating!) and I finished running relatively comfortably except for the sucking air thing.

UPDATE: I have fleshed out these thoughts over at the other place.