Running

The other day, when we were kayaking on the St. Croix river, Sheila
asked me which I liked better: running or kayaking. Without any
hesitation I answered "running".

Afterwards, I thought about it. I love to run. More than cycling. And
WAY more than swimming. Running is many things. It is primal,
calming, energizing, peaceful, healthy, personal, social, zen and
more. But there's more to it... It's also convenient.

A long time ago I loved sailing. From the time I was 5 years old I
sailed almost everyday. From Memorial Day to past Labor Day, I'd wake
up, do my chores and hop in my sailboat. It was easy. We lived on a
lake and my sailboat sat at our dock 50 feet from our house. After I
moved to Illinois, I continued to race sailboats. First at the Cedar
Lake Yacht Club in Indiana, and later at Lake Michigan. The problem
was it wasn't convenient. I had to drive over an hour, oneway, to get
to my boat. Sailing became an all day event. It took planning and it
conflicted with other activities. Soon sailing became a burden and I
stopped.

Next, I started hunting with my dogs... Same thing, too much travel
and planning. The inconvenience took all the fun out it.

Cycling was better. I had always riden, and soon the simplicity and
convenience of riding a bike quickly made it a new pleasing activity -
a release. As my riding intensity increased, so did my running. They
were not only compatible with one another, they were also mutually
convenient. I could open the front door and go. Together, they formed
the perfect combination of sports.

However, now that I have a 400+ mile commute, plus lots of business
travel, time management and convenience have made running my priamary
activity. No matter where I am, Minneapolis, Frankfort, the north
shore of Lake Superior, Nisswa, New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas,
Toronto, or anywhere else, I can run. Simply throw on the proper
clothes, lace up a pair of Newtons and be gone. When I travel away
from home it is usually two-a-days - once in the morning and once in
the evening. It's convenient.

Yes, I love to run.

See you out there

Doug

Good Days and Bad Days

I've been injury free for years. Nothing. Nada. I actually attribute it to my fairly large running base (which seems to be increasing with age).

Then, exactly one month ago, I went water skiing - first time in over 20 years. Yeah, sure, no problem. I'm light, and the boat seemed powerful. I put on a slalom (which was a little on the small side for me), hoped in, and gave the sign... Um, it didn't pop me out of the water. Actually, it was more like a long slow drag that ended in a face plant with the full length of the ski catching the water and attempting to separate my right leg from my torso. Not good. The boat came back around, and I grabbed the rope. I now knew what to expect, and after a long slow drag, the boat got up to speed and I was off for a tour of the lake. Along the way I could feel my right leg, or should I say butt. Later that night I could feel it - it was either my glut or my ham string. And not in one of those "it will be better tomorrow" kind of ways.

Now, I'm a reasonably intelligent guy. But, I'm also an athlete of sorts. So in the case of an injury, the athlete mentality takes over and says "Rest? Time off? I don't have time for recovery! Ice it three times a day,eat ibuprofen like candy, and it will be gone in no time. Six, maybe seven months tops!"

So, for the past month I've been training through it. There have been good days and bad days. For the first two weeks, running sucked. Maybe 1 to 2 minutes per mile over my normal LSD/Recovery pace. Intervals and speed work were out of the question. For the past two weeks, my LSD/Recovery pace has pretty much returned to normal, but the power and speed are still gone. I tried some 800 intervals last week. I was completely missing my power, missing my normal 800 time by 15 to 20 seconds (30 to 40 seconds per mile). I could feel the lack of top end power. However, I know that will come back.

The frustrating part is the good days and the bad days. Last Wednesday and Thursday I had decent middle distance runs during the week. On Friday I went out for a Tempo run and nailed it perfectly - I had that floating feeling of endless speed, and never felt like I was pushing. I took Saturday off and went long today. Today was a bad day. Never quite got into the flow or pace. Sure I was able to maintain a decent LSD pace, but it was forced and a LSD pace should not be forced. Good days and bad days.

Sheila and I have the City of Lakes Classic 25k next Sunday, and I have the Twin Cities Marathon 3 weeks after that. The intelligent person would rest and recover... I think I'll press on and hope for the best. Maybe I'll get lucky and have good days for each race. I can always recover this Winter when I back the weekly mileage down into the 50's ;-)

See you out there.