The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old

Week starting Jan 22, 2012

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Location:

Logan,UT,USA

Member Since:

Dec 15, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

PRs after age 40:

 

5k     15:15  Running of the Leopards.

8k      22:21  Alta Death Dash

10k   33:02    Des News

Half Marathon      1:10  Timp Half

Marathon        2:32    Ogden

First solo R2R2R Bass Trails Grand Canyon 

First R2R2R Grand Canyon Toroweap Overlook

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Not be fat all year

Long-Term Running Goals:

Smell the dirt, feel the mountain, taste the wind.

Personal:

 

"Our legs are tight, our feet are flying, and we are gliding over the roll of the land. The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old, and we are free and at peace. The clock has stopped because another time has taken over." C. Bowden

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
77.7527.000.004.00108.75
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.400.000.000.0013.40

Medium distance run. 8:05 pace

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.0010.000.000.0016.00

6 miles easy morning run in Denver before work.  10 mile Tempo in San Fran at a 6 minute pace after work. 

There has been a lot of interesting reading the last while on th subject of marathoning.  I have only have about three years of experience in this sport and feel pretty new to it, but even so, I followed what was going on through the years that I wasn’t running.  The marathon is changing again.

I began marathoning about the same time as the trend started to shift from an event that took a decent runner 4 months of planning and training to an event that you did on a weekend with your office buddies.  Not that it's bad, either way it’s something to be proud of, but you have to miss the old magic of it sometimes.  I read this week in Mens Fitness that the fastest men's age group for marathons by a huge margin is the 40 to 44 age group.  Their average finishing time is 4:15.  Really not that bad, but yesterday, one of the flight attendants that I was working with told me that she had just spent 4 months running one of Hal H’s programs to run a 3:37 for her first marathon.  That’s what it’s about.  Change your life with some dedication and do something special.  I worry sometimes about what road racing is about, maybe because it’s given me so much even though I’m not really a fast runner, or maybe that I throw so much away because I just have fun with it sometimes.

As the sport gets bigger, is the identity getting blurred, especially the half marathon?  That’s one of the reasons why I support the big money in marathons.  Yep I don't agree with the crowd that wants to take it out of the sport now.  Back in the day, my dad would tell me stories of the great marathoners and  always envisioned them as odd outcasts in a way.  Skinny bearded dorky guys that would never have taken money for the race.  No professional would accept money.  It just wasn’t right.  It was against the very reason why you competed in the first place.  But now, it seems to be holding part of the true spirit in the race.  Countries with runners who chase the dream, who have the courage to try and redfine the marathon are changing the face of it.  The February issue of Running Times has one of the best articles I’ve read in a while about the Kenyons redefining how a marathon is to be run.  For the first time that I can recall, a running magazine now says the 2 hour marathon will be broken.  That’s funny, didn’t the entire running community, especially those pessimistic bean counter runners on LetsRun.com, tear Hobie Call apart last year for saying that he was going to go for a two hour marathon?  One of the longest threads there deals with the opinions and stats showing why it cannot be done.  It will be done.  It will be run by someone or some team that everyone says is too weird for the normal standard, someone who is running a 10k race for 26 miles.  I love it.

Which brings me back to the sport.  I keep reading articles in Outside magazine about the growing sport of adventure racing, mud racing and the legion of fire warrior races etc.  Long regarded as the weekend warriors pastime, these races are taking off and attracting serious competition.  We're talking 20,000 runners at events here!  The guy that beat Hobie at the Beast (Spartan) was a member of the Canadian Olympic Biathlon team.  Yowser!  These guys are animals.  What are they doing at these races?  They say it’s more fun to train, to race and for your family to watch.  I don’t know is it the warrior/soldier dream all us guys entertain sometimes?  It makes you want to try one.  It makes you also wonder if the day of mega marathons will start to taper.  Will the marathon swing back to a small group of serious runners, almost every one of whom is considered a serious weirdo by the public, that compete like crazy with each other and away from the popular?

All right, thats my rambling for the week..

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
22.400.000.000.0022.40

Sometimes real life is stranger than anything you could make up.  This morning we arrived at the San Fran airport to fly the plane to Orlando.  The gate started loading people on and I walked around the plane doing a preflight.  When I came around the left side of the plane I noticed a huge puddle of jet fuel under the left engine.  The rampers had their belt loader parked in the middle of it loading bags into the forward cargo hold.  It was unreal.  I had them stop loading and asked the supervisor how long the 7 foot puddle of fuel had been there.  "Well", he said, pointing out down the ramp to a long trail of fuel leading out to the runway, "They trailed it in and it's been leaking ever since".  I just looked at him, trying to digest what kind of an attitude a person must have to work in the middle of a puddle of jet fuel getting a leaking plane ready to fly 190 people 2,800 miles.  Insane.

Long story short, the plane was dismantled and we swapped into another one.  That's another story..

We finally got into Orlando and I had the afternoon for a sweet long run.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.750.000.000.0014.75

Picked up the girls in the double stroller at school and did a 5 miler together.  These kids are just getting too big for this stuff!   Later evening we went to the gym and the kids went swimming while I got in another 10 on the treadmill.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.307.000.000.0015.30

Ran the kids to school today in the stroller the long way, 4.3 miles.  Pretty good pace this morning.  Busy day but managed to get down to the gym after lunch for a 7X1 mile workout at around 5:45 each mile, 3 minutes jog in between with cool down and warmup.  Nice uper body lifting afterwards for 45 minutes.  The week is taking it's toll, I'm pretty much at the limit with this one today.

I start refinishing my piano today which should take me several days.  Good times...

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.5010.000.000.0016.50

10 mile Tempo in the morning.  Tempted again to run the kids to school in the stroller but they complain about the cold!  Ended up on the treadmill..

 

6.5 evening at 6:30 pace.  VERY cold tonight!

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.400.000.004.0010.40

Not much time today to run.  This is two weeks down of base training now.  No injuries and dropped 4 lbs doing it, so I feel all right about the progress.  As usual it seems like I cut out about half of the time that I feel I should put into it because there is just too much to do in a family.  How do guys train for an iron man and still be a father?

3 mile warmup, 8X1/2 mile hard hill repeats, cool down.  It felt good to get this workout in since it is the first high intensity in months.  

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
77.7527.000.004.00108.75
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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