Friday night was the Chester Tester Hill climb, which was on my calendar back when it was the Spirit Mountain 1 Mile; the course got changed from the original plan of just running up the ski hill as hard as possible and I decided it didn't sound as much fun.
Today's the PACE 5K, raising funds for prostate cancer (awareness? research? treatment? I forget.) Carl Gammon's doing it, as he's had a personal encounter with that particular cancer and I thought I'd join him - after all, I know perhaps a dozen men with prostate cancer - but he's running it with his daughters. Then I looked at last year's results; Pete Kessler and Kirt Goetzke ran 16 and 17 minutes and they're exactly my age and I'm not in that kind of shape.
Tomorrow's the MMRF 5K on my home course at Lake Phalen. It's for multiple myeloma and Don Wright's doing it, as he's dealing with that cancer and I may join him, as his pace would make a nice warm-up. I looked at last year's results and I could enter and win without much trouble (under 20 minutes would do it). I don't need the "low-hanging fruit" that badly. I looked at my old calendars and found that my streak of years with at least one win is far spottier than I thought; there were many years I thought the same thing: why win a race that I don't... race.
Today's also the In Yan Teopa 10 Mile, a trail run I've always enjoyed, despite/because of one killer hill. I'm just not in shape to race it just now, but look forward to seeing the results.
I'm reconsidering my racing plans again. The plan to do a 5 minute mile has a few snags. 1) I'd either have to find an indoor track once it snows or run fast in snow. 2) My heels, especially the bursae under the achilles tendons, hurt all the time now from the speedwork. 3) I'm not sure I can get in that kind of shape that fast any more. 4) I have a couple of new ideas about how to train for long races that have me thinking about changing plans.
I burned out on ultras from over-racing. I've always raced often, but I stopped looking forward to doing them. I think what I need to do is to just get back in gernerally good shape without exact plans, then enter races in which I develop an interest (but which don't require signing up months in advance) and not announce to everyone what my plans are, to take off the pressure and performance anxiety.
And so it is Christmas!
11 hours ago
7 comments:
Sounds like the Bearsharktopus has got you running scared. Or should I say NOT running?
Blog Post Title suggested by this post:
"Low-Hanging Fruits-of-teh-Loom: Saggy N*ts@cks I Have Known (But Not in the Biblical Sense)"
And my word verification is "corni" - a comment on my humor?
Interesting. I also always debate about whether or not to announce the races I'm doing in advance. It creates a huge amount of anxiety for me, but it's almost as if that somehow makes it more fun.
Well, whether you announce it or not, we both hope you plan to run Chippewa again, since that is the Midwestern run we are planning this year.
FANS 24hr masters record.
Thanks for showing up at the MMRF Race for Research today. Sorry I couldn't stop to say hello. If you stopped by the finish later, I went back to run in with my girls, so you would have needed a lot of patience :-)
BTW the winner finished in 18 something, and several finished under 20, so you might have had to race it. Great day for running.
Take care
RE: Chester Tester run - For a dollar you can do a very, very similar course in the spring as part of the NMTC Spring Series. Used to be we ran an even more similar course, but further down (and then back up) the hill in the Fall as a time trail.
I bailed on the Duluth area races and headed south to Frontenac. had a blast running that trail and hanging out in a new (to me) part of the state for a couple of days.
Bad-mouthing me over at Teh B*tch's site, eh?
This Will Not Go Unanswered! (<-- Rhetorically more effective way of saying: "This will go answered!" Which latter is kinda lame-sounding.)
I have you in my sights, sir! The gauntlet (in the form of one of Dr. Nic's long-sleeved ladies' running gloves) has been thrown down by you & taken up by me!
Leading me to the next issue:
What the HELL were you doing with one of Nic's gloves? Could the rumors about you two be true?
In conclusion:
Dr. Nic For First Lady!
Why would a knight throw down his gauntlet, anyway? Is it like hockey players who remove their gloves before a fight so they can better injure their hands?
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