Monday, February 28, 2011

Part 2: Long Runs and No Runs

Long Runs

The weekly long run is generally considered a staple of middle and long distance running.  Finally, a topic where conventional wisdom and I see eye-to-eye.  If you're going to run a marathon, you need to get out to near marathon distances sometime during training.  Even for a race as short as a 5k, however, the long run has many benefits - benefits which start in the mileage buildup phase, and continue throughout a training cycle.

Here's the part where I get vague with the science - X causes Y, I may not understand why X causes Y, but sciencey types in labs do and many of them seem to agree that this is the case.  When you do long runs, they are mostly aerobic.  You shouldn't be pushing yourself out of breath, then struggling with your breathing for an hour or more.  This long, sustained aerobic effort stimulates changes in your body at the cellular level - the body adapts to use oxygen and energy more efficiently.  At the whole body level, you feel this as improvement.  It feels easier to run a certain distance or pace aerobically after a few weeks of training.  You get tiny bits of this stimulation from your junk miles, but the bulk of your aerobic improvement typically comes from the long run.  The long run is also a crucial time to practice race strategy for longer races, like half and full marathons (as any of you seasoned marathoners know).

This will be the general theme in my description of how a workout works - the workout stimulates something at the cellular level, then you experience the change in a definable way at the whole body level.  See, that was reasonably painless - almost no science at all!


Off Days

"Everyone should take at least one day per week completely off from running".  This is one of the common things parroted by runners to other runners (especially to beginners) on a regular basis, a statement as common as "always stretch before you run" or "runners should drink lots of water".  And just like these other timeless paradigms of endurance running, it has almost no foundation on solid science.  We're told many things in our lives, and we tend to blindly trust them simply because the person telling us is either A) someone we trust, or B) someone speaking from a position of authority on the matter.  If there isn't any real information out there about something, how can a person be an authority on it?

One paradox of running is that it both is, and is not, a one size fits all sport.  Running can help most people be healthier, most people can get better at it, and most people need some combination of a core group of workout types to improve.  But, no two runners can run the same plan and expect the same results.  To believe that any two runners, even twins, can reach their full potential by following identical training schedules, is asinine (which is a word that smart people tend to use to call something stupid when they're trying to sound smart - one which I tend to use like this:  "I'd say her legs are a 7, but I'd give her asinine!").

Some runners need a day off every week.  Some need 2 or 3.  Some may be able to run 10 or 15 days in a row before they have to have a break.  We're all different, and that's one of the most important reasons for keeping flexibility in your schedule.  Some days, you're just better off staying home and licking your wounds than going out and punishing your legs further just because the plan says so.  And rules of thumb are like any other rules - they aren't laws, they are made to be broken.  A big part of the journey of becoming a runner is getting in tune with your body, learning to listen to the messages it sends you, and learning when to push and when to back off.  We really are made for this running thing, but it is all too easy to let your brain get in the way instead of just trusting your body to do the things it is designed to do.

As I said before, rest is one of the reasons the Kenyans are so good.  When they take easy days, they are really easy.  When they rest, they really rest - no cross training or short workouts just to stay sharp, just relaxing and allowing their bodies to mend while they prepare to break them again.  Everyone needs down time, whether yours comes twice a week or twice a month.  Listen to those legs, they won't steer you wrong.


Appropriate Timing

I finally managed a weekend long run yesterday!  Only 8 miles, but if felt good to run for longer than an hour.  I ran easy, but the pace ended up being much faster than I had intended.  My legs were even a little sore this morning when I headed out into the 70 DEGREE WEATHER for some easy miles.  My motivation could have came from the knowledge that I was heading out to each Chinese at lunch, and felt the need to preempt the buffet, but I'll take it.  10x400m coming up tomorrow...

Friday, February 25, 2011

Part 1: Overview and Easy Miles

Welcome to the first official post of my series about the training philosophy I follow.  Today I'll discuss the overall thinking/structure of what I do, and how easy recovery mileage fits into the picture.

Overview

There are probably hundreds of different approaches to training out there, but the majority of them share several things in common.  They all advocate certain levels of mileage for a given race.  All have opinions on the merits of the long run.  Most offer advice on the benefits (or lack thereof) of running above, at, or below your lactic threshold/anaerobic threshold/specific race pace.  I've tried to dig into many of these by reading and researching, looking for things that made sense, discarding those that didn't.  My conclusion is that I need to train the following to improve:

Buildup - start building mileage, establishing a weekly long run as part of my routine, and use fartlek runs as my hard workouts
Tempo phase - sustained effort at slower than race pace, typically for longer than race pace
Interval phase - repeated efforts at faster than race pace
Alternate use of tempo and interval phases, with each building off of the other

All of this is guided by an underlying principle of simplicity in workout design, which will become evident as I discuss each topic.  I am a big advocate of program flexibility, some days are just bad days.  A hard workout doesn't give you the same benefits if you aren't able to give it 100%, so if I need to swap workouts around, I do.  I take days off when I need them, and regardless of phase, my easy miles are present to fill out my running log.


Easy Miles

Often called junk miles, these are those days that you run just because you should be running.  They're stuck in between hard days or long days, when you need to recover, but can't just take a day off.  When I run easy miles, they are EASY.  I used to go full tilt, full time - almost every day was an effort.  It's hard to stay healthy and make improvements that way.  Now, my easy days are little more than a trot, typically for 4 or 6 miles.  I picked this up reading about Kenyan training philosophies (sorry, no link, lost it).  One of the reasons that they can train at higher volumes than we do is that they are better at recovery than we are.  I don't quite buy into them having a better philosophy than anybody else out there (regardless of the evidence on the track), but as I said before, I set out to pick and choose the things I want from various training theories, and ignore the rest.  It's like a buffet, but instead of enjoying tasty, lower quality cuisine, I spend time that would otherwise be wasted on TV reading articles about sports science research.  Mmm, yum.  Since adjusting my easy mileage intensity, however, I haven't had any injuries to speak of.

These junk miles typically fill out 1/3 or more of my weekly mileage.  I never do hard runs on back-to-back days, and I never do my long run the day after a hard run.  Some days, it's nice to just relax and take in the scenery.


Yesterday (Thursday) should have been a hard workout, but instead became a day off - flexible program scheduling!  I moved my workout of 16x200m to this morning to accommodate not feeling well, and an anticipated upswing in the weather, meaning I got another February run in shorts!  Low 50s, a little rainy, not too bad.  The 40 mph wind gusts didn't do me any favors though.  I ended up much faster than my target times, confirming a need to move to 400m reps next week.

Have a good weekend all - Part 2:  Long Runs and Recovery, coming soon!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Training Adam, 101

I've decided (after an outpouring of interest from those following this blog - I put the official estimate at half of my followers!) to do a short series on the training philosophy that I am following.  Parts of this may be wrong, parts of it may have been misinterpreted by me during my research, but I don't especially care.  What I'm doing works for me - I've seen the results.  I've just never been able to put together a consistent span of actually following the plan until now.

Today, a brief overview of what is to come, and a shot bit on nutrition (including beer!).  For those of you reading, feel free to blame this entire series of posts/pontifications on Alecia (tin can treader) - you practically slid the soapbox under my feet for me.

Broadly speaking, my training runs are broken down into the following categories (which will comprise the topics for each post):

Part 1:  My Philosophy, and Easy Runs/Junk Miles
Part 2:  The Long Run, and Days Off
Part 3:  Fartleks and Hill Workouts
Part 4:  Tempo Running
Part 5:  Interval Running, Speed Work
Part 6:  Warming Up, Cooling Down, Stretching, Racing

I'm going to try to post one per day.  I'll keep them short and to the point, as vague as possible in terms of science (since I don't always understand it completely myself), and as free from insults against other philosophies as possible (no promises on that one, especially if I see a chance for a cheap laugh).


Part 0:  Nutrition

This is the easiest topic for me to discuss, because I only follow a handful of broad rules:

1 - lots of fruits and veggies
2 - avoid fast food
3 - don't overhydrate
4 - don't stress about it

#1 should go without saying.  We should all eat lots of these, we all know it, we don't always do it.
#2 is another obvious one that Americans in general obviously don't subscribe to.  Why does Taco Bell have to be so damn good?
#3 is something that I've come to believe in through years of experience as well as talking to many younger runners.  High school middle distance runners have somehow come to believe that they need to drink 2 gallons of water/Gatorade a day to stay hydrated for a race that lasts 20 minutes.  They're young, they don't think, they should be excused for this - their coaches should not.  All that water only makes you have to pee more, or makes your stomach cramp when running.  You only need to drink when you're thirsty, or to replace lost fluids - such as after practice, or during a very long run.  You don't need a water bottle attached to your hand like a tumor.
#4 is my excuse for ignoring the other 3 rules.  To me, a specialized diet as a hobby runner is akin to buying expensive golf balls as a weekend duffer - until that's the thing that is holding my game back, I'm not going to worry about it or change it.  If you're training hard, you can get by with a lot.  Which brings me to the final point:

Beer.  Ah beer, how I love your cold, bubbly wonderfulness.  In my last post, there was a comment concerning beer - specifically, it's use in cooking and drinking.  Generally speaking, no, the cheap beers mentioned aren't good for cooking or drinking.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind using beer in cooking - real cooking, like making a sauce or something.  But I was making a pre-mixed, pre-packaged bread dough with it.  While the bread turned out pretty good, it still felt like a waste, tossing that empty bottle in the trash felt like slapping a childhood friend.  As for cheap beer, if you are drinking a brand of beer which is available in a can, you are either A) in college, or B) someone who really doesn't need to be spending their time and/or money on drinking beer.  Learning to enjoy good beer is a smart move, because the price keeps you from drinking too much of it.  And with that, I'll sign off till tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Two for Tuesday

Or more correctly, 200s for Tuesday.

Today was my first interval workout of the year, 12x200m, with a target of around 52s each.  That didn't last, as I found myself reeling them off closer to 48 or 49s, so I've adjusted my targets for Thursday accordingly.  It was a bit rainy, and a bit cold (35), and I really am missing the nice weekend weather.  This workout would have been so nice in shorts.  I used to hate intervals.  I did my first marathon without running any - my attitude was that since I'm not on a team, I'm writing the schedule, there's no reason to do things that I don't like doing.  But that was before I learned the secret to intervals, a secret that has made them my favorite hard workout.

And what is that secret, my inquisitive readers must be asking themselves right about now?  You shouldn't run intervals hard.  We spend our whole high school running careers hammering through 400m repeats at a pace just slower than the best 400m we are capable of - burning out before the halfway point of our workout, struggling through until the end, missing targets here and there.  This is wrong and just plain dumb.  I run my intervals at just slightly faster than my current race pace.  This makes them hard, but not unbearably so.  This also produces very good gains in my pace, allowing me to make solid progress without dreading any of my runs.

I'm glad some people are enjoying the nice weather they are getting (not naming any names).  We had our spurt of warm weather this weekend, in the low 60s at a couple of points (but typically in the mid-to-high 50s).  Yesterday morning was a nice 50 degrees, shorts and a t-shirt for an easy 5 miles.  I miss it already.

I managed to spend the weekend doing the exact opposite of what I intended.  I was going to run.  I was going to lift.  I was going to behave when eating.  Instead, I allowed having a house guest become an excuse for not running, not lifting, and stuffing my face like a fat burglar in a cupcake shop.

Most of Saturday was spend shopping for a china cabinet with my wife and mother-in-law.  Let me give you a quick list of my 3 least favorite places to go shopping, in order of how much I dislike them:

1.  Thrift Store
2.  Yard Sale
3.  Antique Store

So I spent a large part of Saturday dealing with antiques.  Woohoo.  Hardly the worst thing in the world, I guess.  After some polishing by my wife and MIL, the cabinet does look really nice, and my wife really did want it.  And when the wife is happy, Adam is happy.  Krispy Kreme for breakfast didn't hurt my mood either.



My wife and mother-in-law enjoying breakfast.

Sunday was spent recovering for me.  A very little bit of housework, a lot of lounging around and doing nothing, followed by not accompanying my wife and MIL to Goodwill (see #1 on the above list), followed by homemade pizza.  Anything that good can't be healthy, right?

The problem with family (especially my wife's family) is that when we're together, we eat ALL THE TIME.  We cook big meals, which leaves big leftovers.  In between there are big snacks and big junk food.  It's all great, delicious, and entertaining.  Until you step on the scale...


Postmortem

I'll leave you with 2 important (possibly only in my mind) thoughts.  First, I think I will post more often.  It should allow me to recap less and wisecrack more (or, on that rare occasion that I've got something useful, philosophize more - yes, it's a word, spell check didn't flag it!).  Secondly, I did something that almost made me cry on Saturday.  We made bread from a mix that called for using beer.  Which means I was forced to pour a beer somewhere other than a glass or my mouth.  I get emotional now even talking about it...

Friday, February 18, 2011

I Owe One

This weekend I MUST do my long run.  Not because it's really essential to my training - most of my races are 5k's, I don't really need a ton of long runs to increase my volume.  Not because I'm feeling lazy without it like before - I've come to terms with the fact that I struggle to get out the door running on the weekends, and I need to add these miles in gradually.

No, I MUST do this run because of lunch yesterday.  We always go out to eat on Fridays, every week without fail.  But there is a group of guys here at the office who also go out on Thursdays to Buffalo Wild Wings for 50 cent boneless wings.  I normally don't go, maybe once every 6 or 8 weeks, and it had been a while, so I decided to tag along yesterday.

Mistake.  The BW3's here has been having trouble drumming up lunch business, so they've got an all-you-can-eat boneless wings promotion going on.  How could I resist, right? 

No part of wings are healthy for you.  Chicken coated in heavy breading, then covered in syrupy, spicy sauce.  And if 1 is bad for you, how bad are 20?

Luckily, my morning running this week meant I didn't have to run after that kind of lunch, only lift.  My legs and back are a little sore, but not as bad as last time.  And Thursday's tempo run was the last for about a month - next week, 200m intervals, then 400m intervals after that for a while.  I'm finally starting to feel like I'm training instead of just running.

Not a lot going on with this post, huh?  My mother in law is visiting this weekend, so I should have something interesting to talk about next week.  Until then, MUST BEHAVE AT MEAL TIME...

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Workin' Overtime...or, Get Out of Bed and Run You Lazy Bum

Not literally workin', but runnin'.  I've decided that since the weather is beginning to break a little and the days are getting longer, it's time to switch to morning runs (I had been running after work, which is roughly the peak temperature in the winter here).  This transition is done one of two ways:

Way #1 (the easy way) - After my next day off, run in the morning.  This requires me to hold off until Saturday, as my day off is Friday.

Way #2 (the impatient way) - After a hard evening run, get up and do the next day's easy run in the morning.  This requires me to run twice in a 12 hour span.

Which one do you think I chose?

I moved my hard Tuesday run to Monday night - a 4 mile tempo run just under a 7:30 pace.  It was brutally windy and chilly for 45 degrees last night.  Then I got up and ran an easy 4 miles this morning.  My legs are fried, but they get another easy run tomorrow before Thursday's hard run, and my heart rate doesn't indicate over training, so I'll march on...

Morning running helps my schedule a lot.  It allows me to go to work later, then get home a little later, but have more free time in the evening when I can use it for something other than running.  And I'd been hitting the weight room with only 1/2 hour of rest after running, this will allow me to have all day between the two and cut out that half hour of nothingness. 


Also, I love the Rocky and Bullwinkle style of title (such as the one above).  Dr. Strangelove is one of my favorite movies.  If you see me overusing these, feel free to berate me for being unoriginal, as I probably deserve it.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Sleepwalker, What's My Line

First I'll apologize for using a song lyric as a post title.  It's lame.  I promise to try to avoid such shameless, adolescent ploys in the future.

The past few days I've been going through the motions.  Doing the things I'm expected to do on autopilot.  I even bailed out on a run to do something else, then when I finished that early, strapped on my shoes and ran anyway - sleepwalking isn't all bad I guess.

I dropped the long tempo on Tuesday, it was too cold and windy, so I'll be running tonight to make up for it (Friday is my usual day off).  I've lifted well all week, and aside from that minor hiccup, the autopilot has been lacing my shoes up and marching me towards my target times pretty well. 

Work has been an automated process this week - do a thing, make a small refinement, then do it again.  Hardly the exciting life you'd expect from a structural engineer - oh wait, never mind.  Am I becoming Dilbert?  I'd rather be Wally.

I nearly skipped my run last night, but found myself looking at the clock and saying "I've still got time to do this" rather than "Oh well".  I'm not sure if it was dedication, or just doing what I planned to do like a lemming, but either way I'll take it.  2x1.5 miles at just under a 7:20 pace, exactly where I wanted to be - but was it on purpose?

This evening I'll go sleepwalk through a 4 or 5 mile easy run, my dreams filled with visions of warmer weather (which the fortune teller on the morning news claims is coming next week).  I've already sleepwalked through this blog post.

But you never saw my best scene...
The one where I sleep
Sleepwalk into your dreams...

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Sacrificing the Gift

Anyone who's ever talked running with me probably knows that I don't care for Steve Prefontaine and his legacy - wait, what did he accomplish again?  He was before my time, he didn't do anything spectacular (not really his fault, since he didn't get much of a chance), and he talked a big game that he didn't manage to back up (hmm, sounds like someone I know well).  My running-centric friends also know that I'm opposed to drawing inspiration from famous quotes - if you can be driven to reach your goals by someone you've never even met, you're either easily manipulated or you need harder goals.

That said, sometimes my brain needs realignment.  Occasionally, we all need a story or an idea (or even a quote, as much as I hate that) to reach out and go upside our heads, a gentle but firm reminder that we're wandering off the path without realizing it.

People that know me know I'm a voracious reader when I have the time.  Books, science articles, blogs, anything I get my hands on that is of interest.  Daily, I stop by to visit 3 or 4 running blogs and a couple of websites that are running-focused, just to see if there is any news in the world of running and to see how some of my favorite fellow runners are doing.  One of these sites is called Competitor, and is a collection of articles and excellent blog links about running.  Today featured this article by Matt Fitzgerald about Dathan Ritzenhein, a runner who's career I've followed off and on for a while - mainly because he's always injured.  I've also got friends who are hurt, dealing with bad injuries and long layoffs preventing them from running.  I look out the window and think, "Geez it's cold, I wish I didn't have to run today", but I've got a friend in Canada who is looking out her window where it is much colder saying, "I really wish I could go out for a run today".  It's easy to spout about "living in the moment" and being "thankful for what you've got", but it is very hard to actually do these things all day, every day.  It's also hard once you slide into the habit of taking things for granted to break that habit.  Mr. Ritzenhein is a professional, running is his livelihood.  My Canadian friend is going stir crazy for want of a weekend long run.  There's an elderly gentleman (be proud of me, I didn't call him an "old guy") with one arm who lives up the road from me, who likes to walk when the weather is nice.  Once day last summer he said to me, "I wish I could go running".  Even the thought of that still makes me sad, and a little uncomfortable (and even a little ashamed when I think about days I took off because I WANTED a day off rather than NEEDED a day off).  Sometimes we need God, or the universe, or Karma, or whatever it is you believe in, to reach down and not so gently cuff us on the side of the head and let us know we're losing sight of something.

I've been running for 14 years now, and I've got exactly 1 DNF on my record.  Only one, and until this morning I was pretty proud of that - I caught myself reminiscing about it when reading the latest installment of Adharanand Finn's Running with the Kenyans (for the whole series, click his name in the article and it'll take you to all of his articles).  But is dropping out of a race really so much worse than skipping a workout when you don't need to?  Anyone can have a bad day and need to stop, but is there any real excuse for not starting?  What about when you know that there are others who are burning to be out there, who are struggling with a empty part of their life that can only be filled by lacing up their sneakers and hitting the road, or the "usta-runs" and "never-dids" who are now lamenting an opportunity that has long passed them by...

I've struggled with motivation lately.  I've been trying to find my muse, my reason for training outside of just a desire for results - desire is great, but it doesn't lace up sneakers.  I'm there.  I've found it.  I was a training warrior once, and I can feel it, something in me that was missing has returned.  It's time to get to work.


Long post, maybe I should talk about my training for a minute in this training blog before I sign off?  I didn't run Thursday, and told myself that it was because of the weather and not feeling well - I think we all know after this post that I was lying to myself.  I moved my tempo work to Friday, and did 2x1.5 miles at around a 7:24/mile pace - right where I wanted, and I really did need to cut back the distance on those a little.  I finally did squats and dead lifts that night, and was sore on Saturday - a legitimate day off because the leg soreness was causing my stride to be funny, and the wind was gusting about 25 mph that day anyhow.  I skipped Sunday claiming the same reason, although really I was being lazy.  Easy 5 yesterday, with a 4 mile tempo run coming tonight, looking for around a 7:40 pace, but I'd be happy with a 7:50-8:00 in this weather.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Buzzer Beater?

I had an "Oh hell!" moment this morning.  I thought I had tons of time.  Thought I could go through several different phases and cycles of training heading into spring.  Thought I had a lot of time to cut time. 

Not so much.

The clock is winding down, and the scoreboard says I'm behind.

I adjust my schedule frequently.  If I miss workouts, miss goals, I need to continually change my short-term plan to reflect this so I can continue to move forward.  So I pulled out my running log this morning (meaning I double clicked on the Excel file, which I use to keep track of everything), and aimed to take a minute or two to review my status, adjust the plan, and check the realism of my goals.  I've missed some workouts, had a slow start this year, but I figured I was generally on track and had 15 or 16 weeks left until my first 5k of the year.  I have 12 trainable weeks, and realistically only 10 of them are weeks that will move me forward significantly.  Then I looked at my times.  I'm about a minute short of where I want to be at that race - per mile.  Time to change the plan and be a bit more aggressive (had you seen the original though, you'd have thought I was nuts).

I had intended to do tempo work through most of February, then switch to intervals for March, lengthening them though April and sprinkling in the tempo work to keep me accustomed to race-level pacing.  Well that ain't happenin' anymore.  Week after next, my old enemy and recent friend, the interval workout, will emerge from his hibernation, signifying four more weeks of intense workouts.  Then a couple of weeks of tempo work to get back into the groove of sustained effort, while the intervals head to the back burner.  This is less than ideal, but if I can get a break in the weather it'll work out.

I'm still working towards a big year.  I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't expect to fall behind schedule so early.  Luckily I'm dropping one early race from my schedule, opting instead for a trip to the Outer Banks on Memorial Day, which has a double positive effect - I can train through that week instead of doing race prep, and I get to run for 2 or 3 days on the beach.  Did I mention the beach part?

Tuesday's tempo run went great.  I think I should note the freak weather, 55 degrees, cloudy, and windless.  February 1st, and I was running in shorts and a t-shirt, feeling OVERDRESSED.  Right now, 2 days later, it is 26 degrees and snowing.  I've shied away from giving specific times until now out of some bizarre sense of embarrassment about them, but they're training times, and I've hit my targets on the workouts, so why should I hold back?  I like to do my tempo runs at around a 30-40s slower per mile than race pace for a continuous effort, or 20s per mile slower if they are long intervals.  Tuesday was a 4 mile tempo with a mile warm up and mile cool down, and I hit my goal of 7:45/mile right on the nose - 7:43/mile, with a slow 3rd mile and a faster 4th to make up for it.  I estimate this puts me around a 7:15 pace over 3 miles at a race effort on the ridge I live on, and past experience has taught me that I can run about 15 seconds/mile faster on flat courses than I can on the mountain.  I wanted to start February 15 or 20 seconds/mile faster than this, but that's just not where I'm at. 

Where I am at is a 2x2mile tempo run this evening, hoping to go just under a 7:30/mile pace for both reps.  After most of a week off I'm back in the weight room, and I hope to finally incorporate lower-body lifting tonight after my run - these are lifts that I hate, so it has been a struggle to get started with them.  Tomorrow will be a sore day...

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Quality Over Quantity... or The "Why" of Adam

It is not my intention to drum away at my few readers everyday on this blog.  It is meant to be about running, training, and racing, with short sidebars into other parts of my life.  I don't want to scare off my readers now that I've got a few (I'll admit, I felt a bit nerdy at how excited I was to get my first follower) with excessively long, opinion-filled pieces about running and life and whatever I have a mind to rant about on that particular day.  I feel a blog should be more like dating, less like an interview.  Readers should get to know a blogger gradually over time, soaking up little tidbits about the blogger's personality piecemeal.  They shouldn't be bashed over the head with a club inscribed with "HERE I AM, THIS IS WHAT I THINK, THIS IS WHAT I AM ABOUT".  That being said, today is a sidebar post about my love of running, rather than just about the mechanics of my running.

This post spawns from this article, written by Jeff MacGregor of ESPN, about the recent Millrose Games.  It is one of the best pieces about running that I have read in a long time, expressing sentiments about track and field that I have always had.  Great ideas, topics that you love, these inspire great writing.  This article is great writing.  For all my love of the sport, I don't feel I've done much more than adequate writing here.  I want to write something great.  I want to write something meaningful, something that has weight.

This blog has been great inspiration for my running so far.  Knowing that when I say something, others out there can read it and expect me to stick to my word is making it harder for me to slack off and be lazy.  I don't know my audience, they are largely anonymous.  Maybe they are just reading in passing, maybe they hope to learn something from me.  Or maybe they are seeking an inspiration, someone else like them who is trying to get better, who's strength they can borrow in their own training.  It is this thought that holds me to my workouts, that leaves me feeling ashamed when I skip a run and have to come on here and fess up.

I've been phoning it in when it comes to writing.  So it seems to me the best way to do better is to declare to the people reading my blog that I will do better.  I've always felt that there is a writer in me, it's time to work on that, to try to realize those goals.


Easy 5 miles in cold rain yesterday, but no weight lifting.  Warm weather today, 4 mile tempo run coming up, but no more posts until late in the week.

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