Masters Weekend Races and Runs

Greetings from very rainy and windy No Cal. I love Jessica Ennis's quote about the 800m on the home page. My thoughts exactly. Now that I no longer compete in the pent I have happily said good-bye to the 800m.

My last track workout was Thursday. It was a solo effort and it was getting quite dark around 5:00 pm which was my arrival time. There were some parents outside the stadium selling T-shirts for our high school football team's statewide bowl game (which they WON! GO BULLDOGS!) but they told me they would pack it up and lock the gates to the track at 5:30. So no long sprint intervals for me....I hammered 150s with a jog back to the start. Squeezed in 5 of them and I was exhausted, but finished before they locked the gates.

Our forecast is rain, rain, and more rain. The elliptical and the weight room will be my friends until things dry up around here. Happy holidays to all!

A rainy week on tap in SoCal, lots of treadmill action on the horizon for certain.

Monday I flew from Orlando to Washington DC, connection to LAX - taking a rare window seat as I have not flown this route before in the daylight. Flew over what must be your stomping grounds OMBTS. Beautiful looking. However, it looked very flat and I imagine the winds can be vicious at times.

Last week was treadmill delight in both Orlando and back home, ranging from 3-6 miles, good pace. Lots of weight action and wet sauna's too at the gym.

Made my traditional eggnog again, packs a delightful punch. Not good for the waistline, but so good for the taste. Treadmill will help keep the waistline from expanding.

Have a great week and a Merry Christmas to all!

I feel fortunate to still have a job -- Donovan McNabb, Gilbert Arenas, Ralph Friedgen -- tough week for guys in this metro area. Must be the cold winds we've been getting, blowing people out of town.

good week of running (68 miles, incl. 19 thursday morning with 7 at marathon pace) and exploring. The last couple days I've had to wander around various routes to find ok footing -- the one inch of snow we had midweek is sticking around as patchy ice.

Have a great week and merry Christmas,

Dave

Dave, Big Ralph getting let go after being named Coach of the Year was stunning.

It's been a while since I've posted. My training for most of the year was sub par..and that's being nice to myself. However lately it's been getting back on track. I got talked into running the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte, NC last weekend, and even though it may not have been the smartest thing to do, I still had a blast.

Surprisingly my legs felt decent and I only took a day off this week, (Mon) Got 61 miles in the rest of the week and feel fine. Maybe '11' might be a decent year!

Merry Christmas all!

Good to see you posting again Gary. Good job on the marathon.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

(Delighted to see people still say that, BTW. Every US company I do business with goes to huge lengths to say "happy holidays"...)

60 miles this week. A crazy week at work and a tight back (too many squats, not enough stretching?) ruled out any quality sessions.

Six inches of snow fell on Saturday, and I skipped a day to take the kids sledging - something that happens about once every 5 years in London. Glorious 12 miles over light fluffy snow in the park and the river this morning. Then in lieu of a gym workout I spent the afternoon shovelling snow with the kids in the garden, and we built an igloo! The forecast says -4 (Celsius, that's 25'F) tonight, which I think will be the coldest London has been in decades.

Old Man Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I used to trail run with my Springer Maggie who is now 10 1/2 and still in good shape. Her nickname is Ed Whitlock. She doesn't like it much on the leash and she is always stopping and starting again so I would let her off the leash and then I could keep my pace also. But, I got hasselled by the DNR so I stopped taking her. Well, it will certainly be a white Christmas here. Bought myself some Goretex Nike shoes and it helps to keep out the cold. Waiting to see if I can find a coupon or sale on my Running Snowshoes. Probably be after Xmas. Have a good week. TC

Good afternoon from the cool, rainy western regions.

The ups and downs of deciding whether or not to get a bit more serious about the running thing continue.

Last Sunday's run wound up as a double tempo. During the warmdown phase, encountered a miler friend (3:40 for 1500) doing his "easy" workout. Hung on for about twenty-five minutes. Finished up with a cooldown fifteen in the pool.

Wednesday saw a strong shake-out on the track with some easy effort 200 and 300 bits. Despite rain and wind, they were much faster than the effort would have indicated.

Today, a not-so-good hour (cut short by some light-headedness and congestion).

Seasonal greetings to all and happy running for the week.

Top Cat, we share a love of dogs. I got a late start hitting the trail and it got dark while I was running, very dark, to the point where I rarely saw the moon but my trusty buddy Shooter helped lead me out. Great night for a cold run with my best bud .

CaptRobbo, enjoy hearing about your running over the pond, 25 degrees is nice for a low at night, enjoy !

Just relaxed and got back into work mode after the weekend out in Charlotte for the XC race. Still got up at 5:30 am and got most of my week running in. Nothing fast this week so that I recover.

Managed around 67 miles with a fun little 2 mile road race with 30+ winds howling on Saturday. Finished third but a nice go-at-it.

Wishing all of you the best for the Holiday Season - Health is Everything!!

Cheers

tony

in the fan category - Rae Baemiller, 67, ran a 15k today in central park, NYC at 7:10 pace - over 100% age graded.

That is crazy fast - almost as fast as the m 65-69 winner, and 35th out of 1,700 women. At 67. Not sure what superlative is correct here.

Ran another week on the treadmill with every run at 12% incline. Today was my longest run going 76 minutes and gaining 4,100 ft elevation. I don't know if this will make me faster next year but it is better than the eliptical and has treated my back pretty good so far.

I too had been too busy to post in quite a while but now I have all the time in the world. I have been running 60 miles per week for the last four months, the most mileage I have done for 5 years.

The weather is ideal for training here in Iraq, just not a lot of routes to run. There are races all the time here with a lot of them being 5K's. I guess it will force me to work more on my speed.

Take care, and Merry Christmas, Tim

Merry Christmas to all. Had a good week as I'm back in my homestate of Az; running in the sun. Got in 4 'runs' this week at 10:00 per mile and it went fairly well. Glad to run again.

As we end up the year, I am thankful for a few things:

1 - that I'm vertical after my surgery

2 - that my kids are involved in sports and school

3 - that OMBTS took control of the mothership again

Time, I am stunned there are lots of races in Iraq, heres hoping you win your fair share and get back safely. Merry Christmas to you.

typo Tim

Merry Christmas to one and all.

TC; DNR hassles, let me guess. The guy at Blue Mound by any chance? He reamed 2 of us for skate skiing over some of his set track last winter. No signs? Anyway it was a new area for us, but he shared the full extent of his thought process. Oh, well.

Training here has been a mix of running 2-3 times a week. 2-3 times on the spin trainer, and 2 X-C outings. All in the 30-60 min. range at moderate effort.

Signed up for the Birke again and may go to the Noque.