Sporadically Strewn: mileage. the latest minimalist victim.

Sometimes the road is smooth, slightly downhill and your stride flows endlessly, without effort.

Sometimes the trail is rocky, rooted, rutted, you are ducking branches, the trail disappears or goes in three directions or you run into a baby bear cub and turn around to see Mama snarling at you... you never know what is going to happen on your run- until you are running it. If- you are running it.

Lately, my running has been spotty. Life has taken the driver's seat and running is packed in the trunk under a dusty box of old cassette tapes... it is not gone, but like listening to Young M.C. sing the "apple sauce" song, it is lingering, painful the day after experienced.

It seemed like a good idea to run 9 tempo miles after 3 weeks off...

Last week I got out for a grand total of... 23 miles; and then back to back runs on Friday/Saturday left me limping along the aisles of Baby's R Us on Sunday afternoon. I am just thankful for the young guys who carried the (lead-filled??) crib box all over the store for me, and as if it were filled with packing peanuts. I had the excuse at least that I was carrying Sylas... but still... I was limping about, happy to have Mother's Day here, because "hey, I could run... but it's Mother's Day, better just take a zero..."

This is where I stand (sit, lay, sleep...) as the May mountain weather has turned perfect, the forests have exploded with color and sounds and my running has turned sporadic at best... what is a runner to do?... better get out for a long one tonight! Take it slow and take it in:)

Happy Running!

On the 7th day...

Finally a solid week of training in the legs. A far cry from what I need to be doing BUT exactly what I need to be doing to do what I need to do. Right? Right! With a couple of quality runs mixed in with some easy paced, low effort longish runs the pattern of habit seems to be taking hold at least. Consistency is soon to follow. I am feeling pretty worn down at this moment but was able to get out for a 6 miler with Lily last night.

Here are the bookends of that experience in moving pictures, in sound and in English! Enjoy its brevity.

Music from Gordon Lightfoot. Filming by Lynnea.

Happy Running to all! and may your rest days be restful.

Kick me to the Curb

I am tired, beat down tired.

Following Saturdays all out race I have completed 3 additional runs. The cumulative effect has me moaning and groaning but not very sore.... just tired.

Monday
13 miles of progression type running. This one moved from very easy to aerobic threshold.

Tuesday
Feeling a little tired I back off and completed a long 9 miles at a relaxed effort... still I was feeling the fatigue coming on pretty strong.

Wednesday
The plan was to run 10 miles at whatever kind of pace I felt like running at the given moment. It turned out to be 6.5 in 39 minutes. At which point I was ready to have the dirt shovelled on top of me for a long sleep. Fortunately I still had 4 miles to run in order to get back to the car. I moseyed along step by step and reached the promise land in 26 minutes... slogging it. Nice to know that even on the most fatigued days I am still carrying some momentum in my stride.

Super-Compensation
This could go in a lot of directions, but here I am just talking about rest. Tomorrow I will come home early and not run a step. The time with the family will do me well (and I have a Pre-Calc test on Friday). Wish me luck, I DO need it!!!

History of the Sean and how it Relates to Today

This Week
Reindeer 5k on the schedule this weekend so it is back over to Southern Pines! Last 5k I ran was a week out from a self-supported marathon distanced training run. I ran 17:05 and fell short of my goal of 16:59.

Next Week
I am currently in the midst of tapering for next Saturday's Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte where I hope to run sub 3 hours... so tomorrow I believe dipping below 17 minutes is possible.

The main focus is to get one more race experience before next week's goal effort. A little background here...

...and how the hell we got Here...
In 2003 I qualified for Boston running my PR of 2:58 (and change) at Chicago. That was a long time coming for me... a good five years of running the distance to break through. After Chicago I was deployed to an airbase in Kuwait and while there was injured while running leading to a long lay off. I missed Boston in 2004 and then in 2005 as well.

After leaving the USAF I fell into some traps and bad habits which led to less than ideal training environments... my running fell to 4 miles a week on a good cycle. Let's just say the quarter repeats came in plastic baggies, not on an oval. After a few years of that I made the decision to get myself together. This past January I began running again for myself, for the enjoyment and to this point I have run at or above the marathon distance 4 times this year, Charlotte will be number 5... matching my lifetime total coming into the year of 2009.

So, what?
Will I get back to Boston (for 2011) qualification? I think I can run 2:53 if things go well... on a larger scale I could not be happier to be writing about such things.

A small pile of steps

Got out for 1 whole mile last night with the family. Felt great. Only 12 more days of rest:)