Category: 
I’m sitting at the kitchen table slowly sipping on a glass of Spanish red wine - Hoya de Cadenas Reserva Tempranillo, a 2003 vintage. It has a generally smooth taste and hints of red-vermilion tints. but I digress …
This past week I’ve thought that I haven’t done all that much in terms of exercise - a couple of sessions on the trainer, and about 4 times in the pool. So today Kerry and I went off to the Y and swam 1800 yards (3rd day in a row - yesterday was 2400 yards, Friday was 1800 yards); the swimming is definitely on an improving trend - when I try sprint sessions I seem to be able to get into the 36-42 second/lap range, but right now I’m not capable of sustaining that for a long period of time. I can currently do 1/3 mile at around 45-50 second/lap, so I’ve got a looong way to go before I’m really any good …
Coming off of the swimming, I was feeling a little frustrated that I hadn’t managed to do much any running over the last week so when Kerry stepped into the shower I thought I’d go for a brief run. The last run I did was a little over 5 miles exactly a week ago at something like a 7:47 pace, so I thought I’d do a shorter 3-ish or so mile run.
Halfway through the run I started thinking that it was a little harder than I expected, and things didn’t get any easier as I progressed. I kept up what I thought was a reasonable pace and made it back home. Expecting it to be a really slow 8:20+ pace, I did the calculations - 3.54 miles, 24:31, 6:55 pace. Holy crap!
I guess I’m getting better at this running thing, but apparently I need to work a little on pacing.
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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
I’ll see if there’s a place for you on our RTB team for 08
Sweet!
Ok, so you’re popping sub 7’s less than two months after starting to run?!?!. At two months into my running career I was struggling just to break 10:00/mine. Way to go! (I hate you…)
Now, as far as RTB is concerned, you’re going to need to pass a strict set of requirements:
1. Can you overcome the other team members and alternates ahead of you on the depth chart? Nothing a well-timed whack on the knee couldn’t take care of, right? I think Shane Stant is finally out of jail (why me… why…).
2. Can you overcome the physical demands of running that pace (or faster) for twice the distance. And, then doing it again two more times in less than 18 hours on almost no sleep? We’ll see.
3. Can you overcome the mental strain caused by being in a van with 11 other stinky, cranky, sleep deprived runners and their incompetent captain? I guess living with Kerry, her hormones and her death cat is a good start in your training.
4. Can you overcome the constant nagging, ribbing, harassing, bragging, calling out, bad race time posting & bad race picture posting, that comes with being a member of this particular RTB team? Ask Kerry what it’s like. She’s just a shell of her former self.
5. 6:55?!?! Welcome to the average pace for all of my 70+ mile/week training runs. Ooops, look at that, I started in on #4 and you’re not even on the team yet! Just kidding. Based on your early successes, if you can keep from having Ms. Litka break you, you might have a future in running after all!
Right now I’m thinking it was some fluke of nature that I managed to do that time and next time I go running I’ll revert back to a more normal for me pace (it was 9 degrees outside this morning, so I didn’t feel all that motivated to go outside) :-).
Lets see, about “taking care” of other team members and alternates: I’m pretty handy with a shillelagh, and can always plead insanity as a defense. After all, the strain of having the death cat around has probably already unhinged me, so inflicting wounds on people and dealing with cranky, smelly runners probably won’t be a problem.
I’m still basking in the glow of completing a meager 3.5 miles at that pace. We’ll see where I go from there; the prospect of doing that pace or better for something like 20+ miles sounds rather daunting right now.
Her Majesty has, however, already broken me. I’m pretty much at her beck and call and do whatever HRH Litka
demandsasks.