8 x 400

I did 8 x 400 this afternoon, not too much but just enough, down from 85 seconds at the start to 75 to finish the last two.  What's really helping my speed lately is to finish each run with exercises like side-to-side shuffles and karaokes that work my hip flexors, in addition to doing leg-lift-type ab exercises: I hang from a tree branch and raise my knees to my chest, in lieu of a gym.  I use nature's gym instead.
Here's a great video of Fugazi performing in 1991.  What a great thrash band, what a captivating performance.  I love the way this video captures the intimacy of the performance and underscores the energy of college rock with the inadvertent campus buildings in the mise-en-scene.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzC0RNkBXM0&feature=related

Now, the great unanswered question of this blog remains: is running a psychic pathology?  It's unbelievable how when you're deep into something, be it a hobby or an academic subject, you forget that not everyone in the world shares your passions, which happen to be--let's confess it--those for which moderation is actually a hinderance.  Academics moderate in their reading habits and measured in their writing are ignorant and unproductive; runners too habitually moderate in their training (as determined by the standards of a world that sees running as exercise and a means to an end) don't improve.