Jeff Edmonds has a fascinating blog. In his most recent post he talks about the extremes of philosphy in its purest form & racing in its purest form. While Jeff finished his PH.D in philosophy this past spring, I know very little on the matter. But I'll take a quote from his blog (hopefully not out of context): "philosophy in its purest form, like all living things, can never be completed."
As a runner, training can never be completed. Steve Prefontaine said "If you are a runner your never completely satisfied unless you get a World's Record." I dare say that Steve Prefontaine would not have been completely satisfied even if he did break a world record. This is the man who held the American record at 2000 meters, 3000 meters, 2 miles, 3 miles, 5000 meters, 6 miles, and 10000 meters the night he died.
So why did I fall in love with a sport in high school, come to loath it by the end of college, and rediscover a passion for it in my 30's? A sport where you can never be completely satisfied? Well... what do I look like? A man with all the answers?
I think the answer is that I enjoy the challenge of training again. I'm excited for my track workouts, and not anxious. As a runner if you don't enjoy that grind, then you'll be way too impatient if you don't see the race results immediately. A recent Wall Street Journal article featuring Kara Goucher discussed the approaches that African runners take compared to Americans runners. "Africans 'enjoy the battle' in endurance running while most Westerners 'race with anxiety.'" I still have some anxiety in races, which must be part of why my races haven't reflected my training.
Moving on.. I had my first race of the year 2 weeks ago finishing 19th in the Santa Cruz XC race in 22:11 (compared to 21st place in 22:57 last year). I'd rate the performance as not bad, but not great. My place didn't improve much from last year, but that was due to a much more competitive turnout. The race climbs steadily for the 1st mile, mostly uphill (but rolling) for the 2nd mile, then turns around and runs back down. Somehow I managed to die in the last mile going downhill. But had I held my position it would have been a good race. One thing I promised myself this year was to not get too disappointed anytime I significantly improved a performance from last year. So I'll stick to that.
Next up is a 4 mile race in Golden Gate park. This is a course I've raced several times, but usually on the 6 mile course (which is just one additional 2 mile loop). I ran the 6m course - the league championship - at 5:31 pace last year. My last race on the 4 mile course was my 5th year of college coming back from injuries. I ran that race in 21:15. If I can get anywhere close to that time I'll be really happy.
My best workout of the summer were 5 times a ~1400 meter (7/8 mile) loop where we ran 800 meters around the base of a big hill, then 600 meters charging up the hill. I managed to stay relaxed on the flat part, then be able to really attack the top of the hill. It's been the only time I've ever managed to push our top runner all the way through a workout. On the last interval he was 10 meters in front, when I caught him looking back. That was all I needed to quickly catch him, then sprint along side to the top. After the Santa Cruz race (where he finished in 2nd place roughly 2 minutes ahead of me), he joked how when he was tired at one point of the race he told himself "this is nothing compared to running the hills with Gifford". Well... glad I could help him with that one aspect of his training. Now I just need to work on running flats and downills!
Other than that, I've gotten a lot of good mileage & long runs. Last week was frustrating because I had hoped for a good week of mileage, but missed running all together on Friday when we headed to Washington, DC, and I only managed a very short run Sunday. But Dana & I had a great time at Tyson's wedding, then kicked around the Mall and the Air & Space Museum Sunday. So it was a great weekend. And I'm sure I won't have any problem making up for the runs missed.
This weekend we're heading up to Mammoth Lakes for some camping and hiking.
Hey Jamey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout-out. It's funny--I just wrote you a reply on my blog then thought I'd come over here and see if there's anything new.
I'm racing 5k on the roads on Saturday and looking to go sub16 for the first time since fresh out of college. Yikes.
Sounds to me like the fire's still down there. One you get really fit, the racing will take care of itself. That's one thing that's sorta weird about training--the fitter you are, the harder you can push, the deeper you can go.