(to the tune of Eight Days a Week)
I've had this bloop idea, and the accompanying earworm, for weeks now, so now I foist it upon you.
When I started blogging I would run 3 times a week. At best. Only rarely would I get to four. I managed to run a few marathons on three days a week, but it was really only good enough to let me finish with a lot of walking. As the Loop motivated me to get serious, I got up to four days a week whenever I wanted to get serious. It has become the defining l
Every day it seems there's something that reminds me that I'm past the stage of "getting older." I'm the old guy. I've been with my company longer than most of the newer employees have been alive. 3 of my 4 children are older than many of the people I work with.
There's sadness but no longer shock when someone from my high school class shows up in a death notice. Young to be dying, but also not so out of the ordinary. Heart attacks, cancer. People should die when they're 80 or 90, not 60, b
I’m tired. This past week was a cut back week for running but there’s no cut backs on master’s degree work for another 9 or 10 weeks* (well I think I get a “spring break” but since it is an on-line class the professors don’t always honor that – last year one did and one didn’t) This isn’t really harder than I expected, but it is just as hard as I expected. Training is going pretty well for Asheville, especially considering how little spare time I have. One 18 miler is done, and I have one more o
January 2020 in Review - Happy New Year!
Total mileage for the month: 230.2
Dec. 30-Jan. 5: 79.2
Jan. 6-12: 68.6
Jan. 13-19: 63.8
Jan. 20-26: 13.1 (PR for the most days I've taken off running when not injured, at 5!)
Jan. 27-Feb. 2: 45.5
Jumping January returns!
Races:
Jan. 19 - Chevron Houston Marathon in 2:58:45 for another chance to use the title "Houston, we had a problem...". With as sick
For one day, at least. That's apparently all winter had to offer.
It was on Monday, I think. And it was 50o. I ran in shorts. I'm in the grind it out, put in the miles phase of training so I won't say it was glorious and left me feeling amazing. But it was certainly a high point of 2020 so far.
Then it was cold and overcast again, and yesterday we got a couple of inches of snow. The heavier stuff went to the north and we ended up with not much.
Dreadmilled for an hour yesterday to
It has been a few weeks since I started a new Half Marathon training plan by Richard Diaz that is time and heart rate based. The first thing I had to do was determine my aerobic heart, determined by subtracting my age (62) from 180 to arrive at 118 bpm as my aerobic heart rate. The goal is to do my aerobic runs at my aerobic heart +/- 5 bpm. My weekly training workouts have thus far consisted of three 60 minute runs at my aerobic heart rate, two 30 min strength workouts, and two Motor Ski
I'd sure like to see the sun.
The other day I saw two friends while I was out for 5.
The first was Janet (not her real name), walking her dog. I was surprised because it was in front of the high school, almost two miles from her house. I didn't think she exercised at all and her dog has been sick so going that far was quite a feat, seemed to me.
Then going by a little strip mall with a jewelry store, takeout Chinese and a Papa John's, Mary (not her real name), was walking across t
Throughout my Olympic Trials Qualifying time-chase, I've connected with many amazing women who shared the same goal. Over the past couple of years, I've celebrated with several who have reached the goal. I've commiserated with several who have missed. I've connected with many who kept dreaming.
Before the Houston Marathon, I was included in a message group with the 2:45 pacer and other women planning to run with the group. While I struggled with feeling like an outsider because I was
It occurred to me as I was driving an ambulance, my hands trembling from the rapid descent after a spike in adrenaline: I enjoy my job because it’s a lot like running and racing.
Just a bit prior, I was on my knees in a crowded, semi-lit living room, surrounded by 3 firefighters, 2 paramedics, and 1 other EMT with the same title as myself… hovering over the exposed chest of a male in his 60s who was sprawled supine on the floor. My palms were face down over his sternum just above the xiphoi
I'd have to race first.
Unless anyone's interested in that one I did in 2004.
Did my longest run in over a month, since the hamstring thing. That was Friday, out to the Chili's on Eight Mile and back. Nothing to be especially proud of, but just running is good. Since it was my 61st birthday, I ran ... wait for it! ... 6.1 miles. You heard about the guy who ran 70 miles for his 70th birthday? Yeah, I'm not doing that. Call me lazy if you want.
Missed Saturday, also because I'm lazy
In late 2019, the dog and I were out for a run, quietly. My plan (if you want to make God laugh, just tell Her about your plans) was a run focus over the winter, running 3-4 times a week with no goals other than getting the runs in, and no timing. Of course.. came back from that run with a sore hip flexor, the next day could not walk. Not sure if it was torn or just badly strained, anyway that was a good month off.
I toughed it out for the last Roost Run Club run of the decade, touring the C
Hello,
I am have been a long time reader of the bloop, here and when it was part of the Runner's World web site. I am not much of a writer and sharing information about myself is a little uncomfortable, but in the spirit of new year resolutions/changes I am going to give it a try as I really enjoy reading about the other runners on the bloop . Also I have heard that if you are not uncomfortable then you aren't growing/improving.
I've been a runner for about 12 years, I had
I'm almost afraid to put this into writing...
I'm running....
a lot (for me)... like 45 mpw....
this hasn't happened since March, 2017.
I'm afraid if I start dreaming and hoping it will go away as suddenly as it seemed to come back.
I wrote a training plan.
I've been able to follow my training plan and even add on extra miles.
Unheard of.
I've had a mental mind shift too. I used to be afraid of big work outs.
Long runs used to be my mental kryptonite
You know how you have a pain that's real and feels likely to put you on IR for a long time and really mess up your training plans?
I never worried about this before I started running marathons. Running for fun means you can just stop whenever you want or whenever you don't feel like it or whenever something hurts. Then you can start again a week or two or ten later after you're all healed up.
Of course, planning the months long investment into marathon training sort of makes me antsy n
Races: 7 (1 half marathon, 1 10K, 5 5Ks)
Total miles: 458.7
Number of PRs: 3 (1 half marathon, 2 5k)
Time seems to pass slowly and quickly at the same time! I think about all the writing I want to do, and in the blink of an eye, a month has passed and I've written no words - not on here, not in my journals, no where.
But, as the husband and I have an unusually quiet evening, I figure it's a good opportunity to truly reflect on 2019. I'm not going to lie, sometimes it's easy to forg
Apple Pie asked me about intervals. I've run plenty of them, obviously. Like everything else in this world, intervals have become increasingly complicated. I've never had the patience or memory or even ability to focus long enough on the numbers or the science to know what they all mean. I know that stressing your system just enough will help you get stronger and faster. Do I really need to know all the rest? Maybe I'd be the next Yoshihisa Hosaka if I did. But I'm just Dave, so...
I do rem
My philosophy towards marital bliss is simple. I'm a simple guy, so I figure there's no need to make being married anymore complicated than anything else. The first rule is: make sure Mrs. Dave is happy. Of course I'm not 100% on that, but there are enough hits vs. misses that she's kept me around for going on 39 years now.
Things get more difficult when Rule #1 contradicts some other aspect of life. Like training for a marathon. The older I get, the more I feel like I need a full recovery
Hey all. Its early January of a new year so I thought I'd write out a few goals I'm going to work towards in 2020.
1. Get Faster. I spent last year building up distance and more generally, just enjoying running. Did my first half marathons in a number of years. My times (2:31, then 2:27) weren't great in comparison to where I was about 5 years back (1:57). I'm not hung up on the slower pace, but do want to eventually get back to where I was. With absolutely no scientific reasoning (o
I'm pleased to report that my strategy of "To hell with it, I'm running through it" has been successful.
Since 12/1 I've been running every other day, just about anyway. I've piled up 97 miles over 5 weeks, just being careful with easy runs of 4 to 6 miles. Got up to 7 twice now. The foot/ankle pain has slowly faded since I hurt it 11 weeks ago. Six weeks of not running didn't do much, but 5 weeks of running seemed to let it heal a little faster. Or at least didn't setback the healing proce
It might not be fair to say I've been putting this off for the last week. I've been off work since the 17th, just coming back today. This holiday time off may be my favorite part of working where I work. After careers in retail and transportation, it's pretty chill to have two weeks of retirement practice every Christmas. But not working has the effect of letting time sort of slip away. Before I knew it, I had so much that should have been written down that it's now at an intimidating level. I'm
Somehow, another year passed! I learned a great deal on this journey around the sun.
I ran 3853.6 miles this year (3854 per Strava), which was a significant yearly mileage PR, surpassing the 3047 I ran in 2018 and the 3043 I ran in 2017. I didn't check my yearly mileage until December 31, because I am already too obsessed with all numbers running related, but I knew I was in for a yearly mileage best since I've been running my highest mileage ever and haven't taken any time off. Before 2
As a Goal Person, I have to tell you that I LOVE resolutions. I love them so much, I usually have one round in January and another at my birthday in July. I don't sweat it if they don't happen in the time frame I want (yes, rock climbing has been on the list since 2016) but I always do more than I would have otherwise. And many, many resolutions have inexplicably stuck, like waking up early to run.
So 2019 was a pretty bad year in a number of ways and a pretty good year in others. My ba
December 2019 in Review
Total mileage for the month: 400.2 - my first time ever running a 400 mile month!
Dec. 2-8: 88.5 (hit 100 on the rolling 7 from Dec. 5-11)
Dec. 9-15: 92.6 (hit 100.8 on the rolling 7 from Dec. 7-13)
Dec. 16-22: 88.6 (with one scheduled day off)
Dec. 23-29: 91.7
Dec. 30-Jan. 5: projected at 80
Family love
None Races:
Belated race pho
Hey there Loopsters! Hope you all had a good holiday and are excited for what 2020 has in store for us.
2019 was a good year for me in a lot of regards. I changed jobs and as a result, am in a much better work environment. I like what I do now, feel appreciated, and have much less stress. Can't ask for much more than that, right?
Because I have more time - and more importantly, because I've been healthy - I had my strongest running year in a while. On Saturday, I went over 700 tot
We always think of the coming year with what we need to do more of, get better at, etc. Aren't we just telling ourselves we didn't do life well enough this year? We weren't successful enough this year? Think about what you did this past year. You ran, maybe you did some strength work, maybe you went to yoga, maybe you learned to meditate. You juggled the needs of your job, kids, school, parents, loved ones, neighbors, etc. You did enough. You are enough. Think about the coming year differ
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