Training

Now I remember, its not the marathon that's tough (B.S.) its the training. Actually its all hard for me, but I'm still on track. My long run is now 14 1/2 and speed sessions are 3 miles of work (5 800's & 2 400's). I want to get up to a 20 miler and be able to do a Yasso 800 workout with 9 weeks to go. If I can end up with a few 20's and Yasso workouts by game day plus some 40 - 45 mile weeks I should be OK.

Danbury 1/2 - April 11,2010 - Kaboom

Didn't feel good, should have stayed home. Oh well. At 6 miles I though about picking up the pace and shooting for sub 2 hours. At 8 1/2 I was dehydrated and headed toward a bonk. Call it a bad day and move on.

Bunny Boogie, Darien Ct, 04/03/2010

24:47; better than the 25:12 disaster of last year and a minute off the 23:45 of 2 years ago. I ran on fairly dead legs so not a bad effort, things are looking up. Sunday I did a hilly 13.35 from the house and it was a struggle the last 2 1/2 but not monumental. Next Sunday is the Danbury 1/2 and then the training starts for real for San Francisco

WSSAC - 4 Miler - Jennings Beach, Fairfield,Ct

Threshold races at this time of year are not something I look forward to running. After a long winter with no speed work and limited anything else intense I'm just not ready. Add in some extra pounds, reduced mileage, paranoia,the other usual excuses and I was really dreading the rescheduled Warren St. race today. Since I'm slow to begin with I can get pretty dark in the low expectations department, so today an 8:50 pace would have been good enough to keep me off the ledge. I was around 25:30 at 3 miles and even though I ran out of air in the last mile I finished at 34:22 (8:36), 4 whole seconds better than last year's 10th place in age group finish. I grabbed a bagel, shot the breeze with a friend, hopped in the car and drove to Westchester with Ray Davies doing "Kinks Choral" and Amy Winehouse saying no to rehab. Later when I saw the results I found out I was second in age group. Obviously with these kind of times I don't get many trophies and I had just left one on the table, literally. All in all (I did another 5+ in the afternoon) I feel like things are looking up for S.F. Got the Bunnie Boogie 3 miler in 2 weeks and the Danbury 1/2 in 3. Long runs, some tempos, speed work, and a few races that's the plan.

WARREN ST 4 MILE CANCELLED

Sunday was to be a test of aerobic fitness at this 4 miler I've run the last few years, but the massive windstorm Saturday forced it to be cancelled (today it was rescheduled for next week). So I did an 11 1/2 mile long run dodging fallen trees and downed power lines everywhere. What a mess. Temp was high forties and it rained the whole time. All in all a good training run, at least on the mental side. Check out the storm at one of my favorite spots to run, Rye Play Land.

Am I really gonna run San Francisco

The worst of winter is over and I'm thinking more and more about 26.2 in San Fran in July. With no long runs in ages I tried a little 11 miler today and that seems like something I can build on, so far so good. I also tried some speed work last week before snow covered the local tracks and while I only punched out 4 x 400 the workout had a decent feel to it. Add in a few tempo runs with some decent pop and maybe I'm on my way. BUT, lest I forget I'm also slower and fatter than I've been in a long time. AND OLDER

Let the games begin.

Running ain't new no more

I had lunch with a couple of guys from way back when today and we rehashed High School sports, who we knew, where we were, what we did, and of course now. Nice day !!! I had a 2 hour ride home and somehow I began thinking about how simple play is when its new and and how it changes as time passes and we complicate the game. Some examples:

- Play as a kid is running around and maybe inventing a game or two, play as an adult involves buying lots of stuff and making a ton of plans.

- The first time I sailed a boat ( Sunfish) was simple and easy. Owning a cruising boat was a lot of work, money and time, eventually it owned me.

- Skydiving was a big thrill the 1st time, got scared, looked down, jumped (static line jump). Later it was how many people on the jump, how many formations, who funneled the dive, etc.

- Hunting!!, cool but you can only shoot one gun at a time and squirrels as a kid were probably the most fun.

- Skiing, were long drives to Vermont or flights out west really any better than just driving to Camelback and getting a morning pass?

- And then there is running, in the 60's it was gym shorts, cotton socks and a tee shirt. Now its tech shirts, tech shorts with liner and just the right pockets for whatever, road shoes, racing shoes, trail shoes, ice shoes, lots of pairs to rotate and a sock collection that's just plain shameful. Oh! and winter gear, rain gear, 2 to the 3rd power times pi pairs of gloves, hats, balaclavas, ear warmers, Gu, sport drinks, Cliff bars, 3 watches, and I'm on my fourth GARMIN. An Excel spreadsheet for a log and lest we forget a BLOG, gotta simplify now.

I didn't dwell on winning here but if you have to win it can be rewarding, fulfilling, satisfying, blah, blah, but it ain't PLAY.