Age is just a number.

AM-6 miles this morning. Ran the last three at 6:40, 6:35, and 5:44 with the last half at 2:34.  

A good friend of mine called me last night and after talking with him I have come to this decision,

IM SICK OF MARATHONS!  IM READY TO RUN FAST lol!

  They have become overrated lately and that's all anyone talks about when they discover that you are a runner.  Has any one ever tried to run and train for a fast 5k or even a mile?   It hurts just as much as a marathon only in a different way. Besides as you age the first thing to go is your speed so maybe it's time to get off this train for a while and look towards another goal.   Maybe by then I'll be ready both physically and mentally to run a good marathon.   Time to hit the track fellas.. 

PM-4 miles easy on the treadmill. 

Intevals on short steep hills tonight,  10x30 sec up 9400s to the top of 13th east.  8 miles total. 

One hour easy recovery, 8 miles total on 13th and 7th east.

Easy 6 miles today.  7/min pace on 7th east up to 13th and back home via the Cafe Rio loop.

AM-6 miles easy today. Sorry, I have been really busy as of late looking for a job and so my posts have been infrequent and sporadic. ok... I'll admit it..  I haven't wanted to post and mainly because I have been too busy feeling sorry for myself I guess..  

But something happened to me today and it I felt so good.  In fact way more so than I expected to.  You see, a young guy approached me on the street today and asked me if I spoke Spanish, I politely responded no..  He looked despondent after that, but then asked if I could hear him speak anyhow.. I already knew what he was going to ask so no big deal.  He smiled and then proceeded to give me a story about trax and his wife needing a fare etc.. Broken English, oh well..   But then, a feeling came over me and said;  Hey Steve, It's ok go ahead and give him some money, he is in far worse need than you are.  I then pulled out my wallet and found an unexpected  five dollar bill!    Oooh.. I need that.   No Steve, he needs that...  Even more than you do.  Ok Lord, your right.  And so I gave it to him... To see the look of unanticipated joy come with that smile!   Nothing can compare guys.   I needed that cash to as much as anyone but.. All I can say is I'm so thankful I was in a position to give it to him.  If you find yourself in this same place all I can say is;   please search your heart and give...  There are so many out there who hurting right now.    Dark Horse out.

PM- Felt really good this evening , so I went for a 4 mile run. So much for my gradual buildup..

Just went for a run today.  Listening to a favorite new song of mine by Tim McGraw; " Live like you were dying" Skydiving, and 2.7 sec on a bull named Fu Manchu..  Short but sweet.  

Last quarter mile in 67. 

Easy 5 miles early this morning with some speed changes at the end.  Just got back in time to make breakfast for the family and get to church for once.   Amazing..

PM-Easy to medium 5 miles with some light fartlek of 4 pickups about a minute each at 5k-mile race pace intensity.

AM-Speed workout consisting of 30 sec on at about VVo2 pace, and then 30 sec off at about half intensity. One mile easy in between for a little over 4 miles total.  Very tough workout especially as it got towards the end.  Short cool down and some walking afterwards.  7 miles total.

I think I'm starting to bounce back from that meat grinder of a race on the 24th. 

 PM-4 miles easy jogging.

AM-Easy 5 miles recovery.

PM-Easy 5 miles. 

Easy 8 miles at noon.-  Bored of the usual route so I went down into Old Midvale area and around taking the scenic route.  One of those meditative runs I guess.

You know I was thinking about some things that have happened in the media lately and in life.  Has anyone but me noticed a lack of intolerance really growing at an exponential rate lately?  Any more I see a trend consisting of people incapable or just plain unwilling to get along with their fellow man/woman whatever and especially in the common everyday public arena.  Example; Just the other day I saw someone literally screaming at the top of their lungs just because the poor fellow in front of them was having car problems and could not turn in time at a green light. Jeez!  Is it the stress of the poor economy? Or maybe do you blame the rise of social networking via the internet and it's impersonal influence..  I hear people all the time say how they reached out to so and so on Facebook and how I should get on it also...  Really?   Your telling me that you "reached out" to someone on a computer website?   Wow,  maybe I'm getting old and out of touch but the last time I "reached out to someone" was when I went to their house and visited them or we went out somewhere and had real face to face interaction.   So much for texting..   By the way I refuse to text anyone or even receive a text for that matter. Just ask my daughter. LOL!   I know, These new formats I understand have some advantages but maybe it has just been taken too far I believe.   I don't know..   Out.

Yes, I know I'm bored today but I wanted to practice my writing skills and pass some time this afternoon.    Anyway, it's time to get back to washing dishes.  Oh joy..

PM-Easy 4 miles. 7th out and back. 

AM-Easy 6 miles with strides up a short hill this morning.  Concentrated on stride mechanics and running more relaxed.   The workout felt decent so maybe I'll start doing a  few more 8-10 runs starting tomorrow.   Scratch that.. I meant today:)

PM-Medium 10 miler with 5 miles at around 6-6:10/mi/ pace.  The body is telling me it's ok now to start putting some more miles in the bank.  Not very hot today compared with last year. But how long will it hold? 

Easy 6 miles on 7th east out and back.

I was horrified to wake up this morning and  saw that I had accidentally left out a word on my blog title, instead it "A man has got to his personal limitations"  Oooh.. that doesn't sound right at all.  So I went in and changed it to read "A man has got to know his limitations."  I'ts a famous line from a movie with Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry.  

I may not get my miles in today but I'm thinking of taking the kids to the park and then maybe running in circles on the grass open area until I get an hour and a half or more.  I can just imagine the looks..  

Kids wanted to do something else today so I took a goose egg and thats ok because I haven't taken a day off this week anyway. 

AM-Easy 6 miles this morning at 6:50-7:15/mi pace.  7th out and back.

PM- No run.  

AM- 6 miles easy at 7:30 and 3 miles at 6:50-7/min pace.  I may keep the volume at 70 mpw for a while with 2 hard workouts per week.  Seems about right.

AM2-Went home grabbed some fluids and decided to go do my hard workout before the heat set in this afternoon. Glad I did that because wow I really felt strong this morning for some strange reason. Was it a cooler temp? Earlier start? Possibly combine those along with recovery now from the marathon and I think that just may be the answer.

Anyway, I went 6 miles total with some faster fartlek segments of 3 min on with 1min off working on form and turnover.  Stretch afterwards.  Saw Maurine on the road and waved hi but didn't have time to chat as I was doing my repeats.  Kinda selfish of me I know..

PM-8 miles easy at 8/min pace trying to keep the heart rate low. Felt ok but a little toasty out there this evening..  7th and 13th east.  So much for 70 mpw:)

AM-Easy recovery run with 6 miles at 7:15-8/min/mi.  7th and 5th east.

PM-It's a recovery day..  Put on some some music from "Havana Nights" and just enjoyed the rest of the afternoon :)

AM-Easy 4 mile jog on the grass field outside the house while the kids played.  When we reached the field we could hear the chimes from the Lutheran church playing;  " Come Thou Font of Every Blessing".  I thought that was remarkable considering the church is about 1.3 miles away. You know we have never heard those bells from here and we all just kind of stopped what we were doing and listened.  Aaron, my 2 yr old said; "Daddy the Ice Cream guy"!  I said no it's even better than that..  It was kind of a peaceful and spiritual moment for us.  

PM- Lunchtime 10 miler at 7/min pace with last 4 at 6:30-40/mi.  Indoor track.  6x100m strides at 5k pace effort with some bounds and knee-up drills. The body really wanted to push things today but I held back and resisted the temptation.  I need to be fresh as I can be for Saturday's run.

AM-LT run with 2x3 miles at LT with 1 mile easy in between.  Focused on keeping the HR around 150-156 bpm as much as possible.  Monitor strap kept falling down from sweat..  Pace felt ok, not too hard but not easy either.   

Medium Long run with 5 MP miles.

I had a total of 72 miles for the week with 1 Vo2 max session of 3x1 mile at mile pace effort and 1 AT session of 2x 3 miles hard.  Long run of 16 miles with 10 miles 80-85% mhr.