bike commute
bike commute
Warm greetings to all of my DYRT brothers and sisters. You bring me great joy by keeping this worthy thread thriving. Thank you!!!
My own running continues at the base building level. Most days feature a 60-110' run over varying terrain. I've been including a weekly tempo or fartlek. I can feel my fitness growing by leaps and bounds!
Thanks again for keeping this thread on the front page. You guys rock! Keep up the good work.
btw, we should be hearing from driske soon and his windy city action. I hope he is alright and recovering well.
Chicago recap ,(from the cheap seats).
Starting temp.65F,winds light and variable,moderate humidity at start diminshed as the morning wore on.
Ran with the 3:20 pacers through 17 miles. GI issues dominated the remaining 9 miles of my race leading to a disapointing 3:57 finish.
Chalk this one up to experience.
High point of the weekend was getting a hand shake and signed poster from Steve Jones, at the Reebok booth.
Congrats to Peter M from Sheboygan on your 2nd place 55-59 finish in 2:59. Were it not for guys like that I would come to believe the Marathon is "No Country for Old Men".
Steve Jones?
THE Steve Jones?
He of the balls-to-the-wall, take-no-prisoners racing style?
Excellent. Have that autograph framed.
Condolences on the mediocre run. It happens, boy do I know that!
Good luck recovering from the injury Gonzo.
Today - 4 miles easy, 1 mile in 5:30, 1/2 mile jog, then 3*mile in 5:10, 5:09, 5:08 with 2:15 active recovery. Then cool down back to the apartment.
10 miles total and change.
So I guess I go back to 7-10 minute jogs on the tree nursery trails (soft surfaces) in ten days? Literally just jogging around??
Rebuild from the ground up yet again???
Maybe it's time to just put racing in the deep freeze (not even the back burner) for a bit and spend the fall and winter just working back up to being able to just Run for 40:00 without ripping or spraining something else????
I mean a total elimination of speedwork and racing...just plain Ed Whitlock style running for time until some base of some sort is in place?????
Yes gonzo,
THE Steve Jones who for a time held the WR in the marathon. Trust me, his handshake mirrored the racing style you described. Electrifying.
What really bothers me about the race is this.The guy who went 2:59 for 2nd in 55-59(Peter), is someone I used to be able to go shoulder to shoulder with. 2 years ago we were stride for stride in a half marathon from start to the 2 second win, he put me away with at the finish. It was perhaps the most memorable race of my life.
The guy would have every reason to be slowing down,(age59 vs. my 57). Nursing lingering hamstring issues,etc. yet he's consistent as a metronome and may actually be improving at the longer stuff.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, I'm playing host to my own pity party while watching this consummate gentleman's train leave the station far ahead of mine again.
I'm disgusted with my own lack luster approach to preparing for this Marathon. Half-hearted attempts at marathoning never served me well in the past.
Unless I can instill some passion into my training for the sport that has served me so well over the decades, perhaps it is time for me to take a break.
I appreciate the condolences for the mediocre run. Were my brother available he would deliver the truly appropriate kick in the pants.
driske: I have a lot of calendar pages between myself now and my best days, too.
Maybe it's time to move DOWN in distance? Why not THE MILE? The Classic Distance. I am swearing off racing any distance over 10K unless it's the Vermont City or Fred Brown Relays from now on.
You younger posters should enjoy your young, healthy running days...one day you might be over Fifty, too.
LOL.
AM:
16min + strides w/up
20min tempo/5min jog/5min hard
18min c/d
PM:
30:00 easy run on grass
gonzo, driske:
just so you know, i am trying to come up with an alternative yet brotherly, kick-in-the-pants, on-line compatible strategy, to implement as swiftly as possible, to manage this aging-crisis self-critique and - ideally - transform it into a progressive and gradual comeback.
It may take psycho-digging, so be prepared.
For starters, driske: how and why did you start Running? (obviously meaning Running in the socially-codified sense)
gonzo: when you are re-healed and pain-free, then and only then, might some queries begin.
Today: bike commute thus far
I couldn't take any more inactivity, so did 30:00 on a recumbent bike followed by some alternative stuff. The leg felt OK.
I will trot for 7-10 minutes on some paths, SLOWLY on Saturday.
I ain't dead yet after all.
Congrats gonzo! Looks like you may be back sooner than you thought. In my experience, doctors usually overestimate time needed off/oftentimes don't even understand our injuries.
Hit an easy 9 today. This week is going to be down, with a race coming up on Sunday, then right back into my buildup to 100 MPW. Should be right around 90 by the end of this month! Legs are feeling stronger than ever!
Hmp, Way to hit it man; Good Luck with your Sunday race.
gonzo, may that alternative stuff hasten the healing.
tpcb, First started running to get in shape for HS Wrestling in 1965. Found out I couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper sack but could run like the wind. That continued to ebb and flow until 1983 when work and family obligations drained my energies and I kicked competition for 20 years. Enter 2 adolescent daughters to challenge the old man to a foot race. The spirit was willing but the flesh weak.Girls 24 and 26 min. Dad blew up at a half mile in to the 5K and walked in @59 min.
The road back to fitness has been arduous, but I've savored every step.( Becoming a letsrun junkie was an unanticipated sidelight.)
PM. 5K in 25:47. Calm moonbright at 39F.
30:00 on the recumbent again today. Looking out the window I can see the oncoming signs of other alternative exercise:
the Annual New England leaf harvest.
Going to be quite a crop this year. That's usually good for a week to ten days of mowing, using the leaf blower, then raking and hauling the stuff for 2 hours or so a day.
Oddity: 2 years back I was speaking to a woman in our supply center in, shall we say, an area where there ain't much foliage. She commented on "oh it's so beautiful up there in New England this time of year when the leaves change color".
I replied yes, until they fall off the trees.
"What" she replied in puzzlement. "The leaves fall OFF the trees?"
Nothing is stranger than truth.
9 miles today with some striders (no distance, just picked it up to sprints at some random points).
Speaking of northeast leaves, love running through them these days and hearing that crunch! I'm new out here, but I think I could grow to love it.
AM. 37 min. Cat-ski. PM.1.5 miles on CC trails getting to mile points for the conf. meet.
Appetite's returned with a vengence.
Did a little pre-race workout today. 16 minute warm up (a little over 2 miles), then 6*800 at goal pace.
2:27, 2:30, 2:29, 2:28, 2:27, 2:22.
Felt really sluggish until the third one, then legs started to feel better. I think I'm ready to go under 15:30 on the roads this weekend, assuming things go well.
2.5 mile cool down.
Walked the dog a mile, then ran 2K with no problems.
driske,
Buon appetito!
Lets level. Started Running as rehab after I broke my legs (yes both)in a skiing accident (flew off a cliff, i was 11) in 1975. My father joined me and it became our thing. Unwittingly I learned that the search for Health could lead to savour the gratification of personal Performance. Overtraining right into college made me swerve right off that road, but i never stopped running. Certainly not in my mind. Come along two siblings and the need to be better prepared to attempt transmitting a wholesome value system and it was tabula rasa, back to the beginning. Like the very beginning...
Letsrun: addictive? Don't think so. The word "compelling" does comes to mind...
today: kids athletics with new obstacle courses and games. Had a blast. Bunch of new kids showed up in that unbelievably tiring 3-7 agegroup. Some of them are from a deaf people's association and I have an assistant who "translates." It is quite a challenge...
Then did my 18x100m wu routine and an unusually nippy 800m in 2:46 (usually around 2:57)
yesterday: forced rest. had people for dinner and wife at work. Bike commute.
Thursday: Bike commute. 18x100, wu routine and 800m in 2:58