Hello, Mr. Rono.
At first I was, like, no way. Like, no way. And then, when everyone else started taking you seriously, I was, like, COOL. You were actually mentioned just a couple of days ago- in the same conversation as Doug Padilla. Something about a session of a kazillion 800s in 1:52. The funny thing: the conversation started as a comparitive study of the training regimine of horses vs. humans.
The closest I can think of ever coming to you was, once I beat a guy who was second in the steeple on the day your record was finally broken. Not only that, but I brag about it whenever I can.
So I have this horse (by the way, I bought another race horse. actually, half of her. Which brings my total to 3 and a half. I bought her on Monday. She's on the track at Arlington). She raced a mile on Monday (and won!!!), and then just walked on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Friday and Saturday, she got jogged- just an easy canter- for about 6 or 8 minutes. Nice and easy. Then, this morning, she got gallopped. I drove down to Chicago to watch (which meant getting out the door at 4 to get there by 6:30 which was especially hard since I was out drinking until midnight... ok, 1 AM). Tomorow she'll walk, she'll jog on Tues, and she'll gallop on Wed. Like that until her next race and she races every 2-3 weeks.
I have no idea what that means for humans. As for me, I'm happy to be able to run an hour or so a day.
As for planter fac., kids running under 5, ankle pain, heat, and complicated schedules: ugh, wow, bummer and good luck I have no advice, and keep it simple says I unless you were actually coached by the originator of modern interval training. But I knows practically nothin' so ignore me. But wait- what should you do if I say to ignore me? I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to hope that I can run from now till Friday so I can beat Bill Rogers. And Joan Benoit-Samuelson. I just know they're going to beat me... worse than that, I'm going to be destroyed by Dan Held and even Suzy Favor- and Suzy isn't even running!
Wait another sec- where's SF this weekend? Beating up on old guys? Beating up the brother in law of a 1600m relay gold medalist?
And as for running while your watch sits on the toilet lid-you know, the lid over the tank behind the toilet- I can't do it. If you can, then good for you. I can't. I tried, and I'm still feeling kind of nervous.