faster

Another nice, easy 4 miler this morning with Sam, Mark and Justin.  We ran one minute faster than last week.  51:50!

Sam's route

Great 5 mile run with Shan in the 'hood.  We ran from my house down Duval, left on Dull Knife, (Sam had already left for work) down Thunder Creek to the 183, back up Duval, left on Aspendale, right on Eton, left on Amherst and then back home for a 52:57 finish.

I think a big key to some of our Thursday morning runs being better lately is the easy 1 mile run/ walk with Ellie (I'm always so happy to hear about her whining for me the whole time I'm gone after I drop her off) for a good warmup!

So, this morning was good for several reasons.  This morning I maintained basically the same pace as the 10k a few weeks ago but was able to carry my part of the conversation.  Another was that I felt like my run this morning actually had a purpose.  Even though my race is 255 days away I'm trying to be keep myself focused on remembering that EVERY run is a brick in the wall of my success.  We only had one short walk break, about halfway up Aspendale which was another minor break through!!

For future posts I'll refer to this route as Sam's route since it goes right in front of his house and we're great pals too.... 

transition

These last 10 days I've been giving a lot of thought to changing the direction of my running.  The funny part is that my running hasn't really had any direction or plan at all in several years.  It's basically just been adding miles to my running blog and some occasional events. 

Misty, Sam and I ran the Lampasas 10k Saturday the 24th and since then I haven't been able to stop thinking about the possibility of running fast (that's a very relative term) again.  I ran a 1:05 without any specific training.  Just my usual lackadaisical running.  For the hell of it I checked the '18 Cap10k results to see what percentage I would have finished in.  Boy was I surprised to find out I would have been in the top 40% of finishers.  And realistically I would have been higher than that because I surely would have been at least a few minutes faster in April vs. the middle of July!

So, I've been mulling this over the past 10 days and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try an experiment.  I'm going to try to get some speed back.  I was faster than most all of my peers growing up.  The first time I ran anything like distance was the 3 mile run as part of the PFT in Marine Corps bootcamp.  I was always near the front of those runs too.  I ran two 18:40's and an 18:30 in the three tests we had.  In the summer of '82 I ran a 3 mile in 17:30.

Flash forward to '86-'87.  I began a running program then that culminated in a 41:05 10k and a 1:42 half marathon.

Another running flashback is from '89.  I was 29 living in the wilderness camp working with the teenage boys.  They were 15, 16, 17 years old and I could still out run most of them in something resembling a 40 yard dash!!

Fast forward to June '98 and I begin running again to help me quit smoking and 8 months later ran a 3:42 marathon!  I remember having a conscious thought about not wanting to put in the work to get any faster.  I wanted to go long.  I'd wanted to go long since I was a teenage and now I had my chance.  I joined a loose knit club that ran a marathon a month for a year and met some lifelong friends along the way.

There are many factors involved in my thoughts about shifting my running focus.  I sprained my right ankle really bad at the Pandora's Box of Rox Marathon.  80 days later it's still not right.  That was my good ankle too.  Running shorter and faster would actually be much less stressful.  I've been managing a neuroma in my right foot for 18 years, mostly successfully, but it's been quite a challenge.  A couple of years ago I started having a problem with burning in my feet when I get up near marathon distance in long runs.  I've rolled my left ankle very badly at least three times over the years and can't tell you how many times I've fallen down on the trail.  The thought of getting out on a trail now almost makes me fearful.

Switching to much shorter races and roads removes all these obstacles.

This is definitely not going to be an easy transition though.  It's actually going to be very painful.  I haven't pushed any speed in so many years.  The 7 mile Thursday morning tempo runs could be quite painful at times but I'll be needing to do that regularly again plus add in shorter repeats.  And, I'll need to do a lot of strengthening/ core stuff too.

All that being said I'm very excited about having a new focus.  I started out fast, went long and fairly fast to slow and long and now attempting to get back to relatively fast......why not!! There hasn't been any excitement at all regarding my running in a very long time.....

 

  

reunion

It was reunion time at Townlake this morning.   Myself, my cousin Justin, Sam V. and Mark L. ran together for the first time in at least 18 years.  In the spring of 2000 the 4 of us used to get together at Mark's house once a week and run a 4ish mile loop.  I can't remember how long that went on, it seems like at least several months.  This morning we ran pretty slow.  We did the 4.3 mile Mopac/ 1st St loop in 52:54.  Mark is still recovering from breaking his leg in three places on Christmas Eve last year!!  This is the time of year for slow running anyway!  I'm excited about us having a weekly run again!!

fartlek

Me and Misty did 1 mile with Ellie and then 2 more that included some Fartlek!!

We came home and got in some core and stretching too!!  Great way to start the week!!

3

One mile with Ellie and then 2 more with Misty.  3 nice easy miles to end the work week!!

I'll have more to post next week regarding a possible major change in my running direction.  Still giving it a lot of thought....stay tuned, lol.

groove

Best running morning in quite sometime today.  Me, Misty and Ellie gott in 2 miles and then Shan and I got in 6 more!  I felt amazingly good during the miles with Shan.  I'm fully convinced now that it takes me several miles to get warmed and in any kind of groove.  Outstanding morning of running!

100k

One mile easy with Ellie and then two more easy solo miles.   I'm ramping up for the Rocky Raccoon 100k in February!!

miles

2 mile walk with Ellie Saturday morning.  1 mile walk with Ellie yesterday and then I went downtown and ran 7.  This morning Ellie and I got in 1 mile and then I did 2 more!!

July 4th

Ellie joined me and Shan for the first mile of our 5 miles this morning.  Me and Ellie were both dragging a bit because she was up late pacing because of the fireworks last night.  I hate that they upset her so much.  Interesting how the fireworks don't seem to bother the cats one bit.

We had a great July 4th.  Steve and Tracy invited us out on the boat Tuesday evening and then we had a big cookout at their house yesterday.  I cooked 40 of Pa's burgers yesterday for a boatload of people and got a bunch of compliments!!  Very good day!!

reconfigured

I spent part of the day out doing deliveries but I spent my office time reconfiguring my blog.  I've got all my mileage charts separated by the first 20 years of running and then whatever comes after that.  I'm weirdly anal about getting all my stats organized in a coherent manner.

Early 1 mile with Ellie and then a solo 4 mile loop this morning!!