What if Your Best Friend Slows Your Runs Down?

First off, I'd like to thank the Academy - or rather Yourrunning, which syndicates my blog and recently awarded me a very cool t-shirt for my post about my bad race. There's an irony there - getting a prize for not winning a prize.

Along those lines, there's a column in this month's Triathlete Magazine which suggests that taking a week off of running results in a 10-15% drop in fitness. If true, coupled with the high mileage week that followed my vacation, that probably indicates why the race went so poorly for me.

In other news:

a. Still ramping up my mileage - currently doing 32-35 miles most weeks - but still feeling a bit sore on it. I'm wondering if cross-training will be the best route for a good injury free marathon. The plan? I've got a 5 mile road race planned on July 4. If my VDOT bumps up, I'll stick with running only. If it doesn't, then there's no reason to risk injury via additional miles. I'll put together a cool cross-training program for the marathon. Three months ago

b. Trail race this weekend. While they tell me nothing about my fitness level, they're fun. I can't wait.

c. So the dog has been a bit hyper of late, which makes the family hyper, which makes me grumpy. Solution? I've started jogging with him in the morning. He's slow - 10:30 miles - but we do a 1.25 mile loop. The pace is plenty slow to not hurt me, but in the end, I figure that could add up to a few dozen miles per month. We'll see how it goes... I don't see us becoming running pals, but if it serves a purpose....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The gun in my basement.

Image
In my basement, I have a safe. And in that safe, under expired passports and birth certificates, there's a gun. It's unloaded. Hasn't been loaded in probably twenty years, and yet every time I take it out, I check to make sure. If you're a gun nerd, it's a 9 shot .22 revolver. On this website , it says that "it is true that many people have been killed by a .22 LR in the course of history," but the writer concludes that this weapon is a bad choice for self defense. I didn't buy it for self defense. I didn't even buy it. It was my father's and after he died, my mother gave it me, along with an Elgin watch he'd worn for years. The watch was weathered and worn and I took it to be restored. The jeweler refused, saying it was worthless. Two decades later, the watch is still in my jewelry box. There's no need for it to be locked up. I have no idea if this gun is in my possession legally. No idea if my father had a permit for it, or w...
Read more

Happy D-Blog Day, Uh, I Guess...

So according to diabetics blog-wide, today is D-Blog Day, the day when those of us affected by diabetes are supposed to blog about it. Or draw awareness to diabetes... Or something like that. I'm really a bad poster child for the disease. Not because I'm not in great control (actually, I am), but because I've just never been bothered by the disease so much. Red sums it up well in Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living, or get busy dying." So if living means three blood sugar tests a day, so be it. If living means being hooked up to an insulin pump, go to it. That being said, I feel for anyone with diabetic kids... I'm a tough guy about the disease. I wouldn't be if my kids had it. If either of my kids had diabetes, I'd be screaming about the politicians who are spending money on wars instead of research, and I'd be yelling about the schools that make it difficult to be a diabetic in the classroom. But my kids don't have diabetes, so instead I ...
Read more

The Bright Side

“ And if you ever get scared, look on the bright side: You’ve got a new life.” – Amos Lee Last month, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Since then, I’ve tried to write this essay a few times. The first attempt followed a narrative arc rife with suspense, with a few years of frustrating doctors’ visits, mysterious symptoms that came and went and the all-around sentiment that the batteries that powered my body were no longer able to sustain a charge or be fully refueled at the end of the day. But if you Google Lyme disease, you realize there’s nothing unique about that story. In fact, the reality that my own diagnosis came only two years after all of this started makes this a much shorter story than it is for many. The theme of the second version was more pitiful, tinged with regret about what this had taken from me over the past two years and what it might take in the future. But honestly, that one didn’t get far at all. If there’s a good time for something like ...
Read more