Running The Race

This long hot summer is finally over but not without one more warm morning run. Even though Saturday’s run started pre-dawn, it was still warm.

The run was rather uneventful, other than I was soaked in sweat when I finished a little after 7 am. I was just glad that I did not have to run 20 miles this week rather than last.

Here are the splits…

We are now two weeks out from Chicago, so I can not start obsessing about the weather. I know that the forecast will change several times between now and October 7, but currently Accuweather is calling for an overnight low of 50 degrees with a high on the 7th of 59 with rain showers. Not a bad forecast for a marathon. Stay tuned for weather updates.

Training for the week
Sun: Rest/Bike
Mon: 8 miles – 1:12:52, w/ 5 x 600m intervals
Tues: 5 miles – 47:58, 9:34 pace
Wed: Rest
Thur: 4 miles – 38:50, w/ 6 x 100m strides
Fri: 8 miles – 1:11:56 – 8:59 pace
Sat: 16 miles – 2:33:13, pace 9:34

Total for the week: 41 miles

Ran an easy 4 miles after work. Temperature continues to be in the upper 80s. Makes for a rather warm run.

The family went to the Cheesecake Factory for supper to celebrate the Spring birthdays, Laura Anne, 16, Sara, 18 and me (old as dirt). I know I only ran 4 miles but it allowed me to justify the white chocolate caramel latte cheesecake.

Good luck to Michele who is doing a half-ironman Saturday.

As the years have passed, I don’t feel older. Sure I have the “normal” amount of stiffness in the morning and the usual aches and pains. And I know I have an AARP card but I guess I convince myself that I just don’t look old.

Last night my wife and I went out to eat and then to the movies. It had been a while since I had been to the movies on a week night but I was a little surprised at the price of the tickets, they were less that I though. I later realized that I had been given the “senior” discount. The sad part is that I don’t “qualify” for two more years.

I was telling this story at work today and one of co-workers quipped that the I may look old the kid selling tickets but I could probably out run him.

Ran 5 miles today. It had warmed up to about 50 but the wind was gusting from the southwest and I alternated between hot and cold.

Training for the week
Sun: Rest Day/Weight Machines @ Y
Mon: 9 miles with 4 miles @ Tempo – 1:17:31
Tues: 5 miles – easy 45:59, pace 9:10
Wed: 10 miles – 1:33:28, pace 9:20
Thur: Rest Day
Fri: 5 miles – easy 46:06, pace 9:11

This week’s email from Active.com, had a link to a great article by John Bingham, “Doing your best”. In the article Bingham talks about growing up doing your best always seem to be not enough unless you were the one setting the standard.

“…it became a matter of your being able to do not YOUR best, but THEIR best. For many of us…[it] suddenly became an opportunity for us to be ‘not as good as..’”

Growing up, I would never considered myself as athletic. I can remember many times my “best” was to just finish. One time in gym in the 8th grade we were playing flag football. I was lucky enough to block out a football player. He was embarrassed that a tall skinny guy could block him out so on the next play he came after me. He kept pushing me until I fell and broke my arm.

Bingham goes on to write:

What has changed, or what can change, is that we can now say to ourselves that our best IS good enough. Our best. OUR best, not the world’s best, or the group’s best, or the family’s best, but OUR best is good enough.

I understand that I have no more to offer than my best. It will be better than some and not as good as others. I’ve come to stop comparing my ability to run, to think, to love, with the people around me. And I’ve come to understand that my life, like my marathon, is for me — to get through any way that I can.

Over the years, I have learned to measure my success by my measuring stick and have learned that doing my best is something to truly celebrate. Coming to a sport like running later in life, I see that it is truly an individual sport (even though I may be racing with thousands of others.) I track my times and do my best, but it is by my standards and my PRs, no one else’s.

Age has brought a greater perspective of what’s important and what’s not and how to properly determine my best. I have learned that no matter where I am in the pack, I can do my best.

Onward and upward.

This article by John “The Penguin” Bingham was in the weekly email from Active.com, Penguin Chronicles: Failing to run. Bingham talks about the many reason people have for running including his own.  There was one quote that I really liked:

It was time to get back to basics. It was time to rediscover the joy of earlier years. It was time to find myself. It was time to run.

How amazing it was to set off on an odyssey of self discovery without a guide, with nothing more than my body and my mind. What I was going to learn was not to come from a book or the words of a teacher or therapist, but from my own feet. Each step would reveal a new insight, a new thought, a new feeling.

There is something basic about setting out for a run, just me and the road. I can go where ever my feet will carry me. There is something freeing about setting out early in the morning when most folks are asleep and alone with your thoughts and the steady sound of my shoes hitting the road. Or running in the heat of the day and learning that I can live without air conditioning.

Running for me has been an odyssey where I have discovered that I can run farther than I ever though possible. That I have time to look at things from a new perspective and give thanks to God for all that I have learned.

Onward and upward.

One of the things that I have always enjoyed about running is that it allows me time to think.  This is especially true during early morning runs on Saturday.  I try and leave the house around 5:30.  It is quite, very little traffic and I get to see the sun rise.  Today was no exception.  It was in the upper 60′s, so the temperature was not too bad even though it was a little humid.

After settling in to a comfortable pace, I started solving the world’s problems.  After I had resolved everything and the world was at peace again. I started in on my world. I don’t know what it is, it is always easier to solve others’ problems than your own.  I knew that would take awhile.

Got to thinking about a devotional that I read yesterday.  In passing, it mentioned the Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my Shepard, I shall not want.”  I don’t know how may times I have read or heard this passage but what struck me was the second phrase….”I shall not want.”  I find that comforting.  With all that is going on around me, it is comforting to know that God is taking care of not only my needs but also my “wants”.

That thought made my Saturday morning 12 mile run even better.

Onward and Upward

“Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow”

I think Henry David Thoreau was on to something. I don’t know how many times I’ve solved a problem, worked through an issue, or had an epiphany during a run. I like to run outside if at all possible and don’t listen to music. I enjoy my time with my thoughts and as Thoreau seems to know, once my legs start moving, my thought start flowing! That’s why I run.