Wednesday, July 17, 2013

America's Last Great Mtn. Race

Superb article from Senor Gates on Mt. Marathon Race.

http://www.salomonrunning.com/us/blog/rickey-gates-writes-about-americas-last-great-mountain-race.html

I am not one to bucketlist but this race is something I'd like to do someday, hopefully before I am too old to destroy my knees...

Also:
Training is going well-ish.  Avoiding injury and doing quite a bit of significant quality stuff.  Long runs are a bit short though I've managed to hit 15+ miles on Sat. and 8 or so on Sun. which adds up to the typical 20-25ish on Sat with Sun off.  Afterall, the upcoming event, Mt. Ashland Hill Climb, is a half marathon not a 50k.

Confession:
I've crossed over to running's darkside.  I sold some rock climbing gear to pay for shoes/races.  I even started running on the mill (hamster wheel) to get the sustained uphill workouts I can't get to at 4am on the weekdays.  Miles and miles at 8-9% grade, and quite a few minutes/hrs. creeping at 15%.  I hate the confines of the gym still but I am sick and can't help myself with this uphill running disease.

Races:
Not much to report, especially after the report in the link.  On the eve of my 31st birthday some friends and I made it out to Sprague HS Triple Crown track meet for a 1 mile event.  I jogged over there from my house to warm up.  Effort felt mellow for laps 1-3 which was intentional as I wanted to burn the last 400 with the last 200 being my best attempt at wildfire speed.  Not sure how well this panned out as the last 200 was fairly solid but a real live short distance dude slipped by me in the last 10-15 feet and Don G held much of the gap he had the whole race.  I finished in 5:07.  Next time I am setting my watch and doing a little more effort in laps 1-3.  I also plan to eat less cookies and cake on race day.  Additionally, new kicks feel faster than Fluidflex squishfest (which are comfy but kind of suck the life out of speed workouts).  All that said, I think sub 5 is within reach.

Over and out, Superfans of Mediocrity.  May all of your most mediocre dreams come true.

3 comments:

  1. this blog is a good blog.

    signed,
    a sub-mediocre fan of mediocrity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. p. your blog is most presh. i feel creepy, in a stalker sense, when i read it twice but i do (most of the time). it's the nuggets like "she'd only be known as Carmen if she'd ever met me" that keep me frequenting your writings from distant lands. keep up the jogging and writing--let your mediocrity shine moderately bright.

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