Saturday, July 11, 2009

Progress - 7/11/09 (Moriarty, NM)


I'm now 1,882 miles into my journey and am close to Moriarty, New Mexico on my way to Albuquerque. I'll continue on Route 40 for at least the next 500 miles as I head through NM and into AZ and then finally in my last state, California.

Apparently, Moriarty is known as the "Crossroads of Opportunity"... little did I know. The Chamber of Commerce describes it as a place for retirees to slow down from the hustle bustle of city life. Just my kind of place... in 40 years.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Fireworks with the headphones controversy

This week's Take It and Run Thursday focused on 4th of July fireworks--the big controversies in the running world. When I read it, the only thing I could think of was headphones at races.

It's a topic I've discussed before, so this is really more review than anything else. The USATF recently reversed their stance on using headphones in races. Very intelligently, they recognized that elite runners aren't wearing them and non-elite runners (um, the majority of us) gain a lot by using them.

When I'm on a long run, it's the music that keeps me going. It takes my mind off of how my knees are feeling and how many miles I have left. If I the right song comes on, it takes me back to the first time I heard the song or a happy memory when I heard it. More than anything, it stops me from being bored while my feet continue to pound.

I see two distinct philosophies when making laws or rules. You can either allow people to do something because you know that the vast majority of people won't abuse it. Or, you can restrict everyone because a few people abuse it. And, rather than dealing with the abusers, you can punish everyone.

Needless to say, I subscribe to the first theory. Allow the rule followers to use headphones and deal with the abusers separately. And by abusers, I mean people who have their music too loud so that they're running into people and creating a danger. It's easy enough to find and that should be the focus, if at all.

I haven't run many races since the USATF made the policy change so I'm hoping that race directors will follow their guidance. After all, I'm nowhere close to winning the race so what's the harm in having the melodic sounds of the Beastie Boys serenade my final mile?

Saturday, July 4, 2009

My, um, training runs

I've posted before about my lack of organization (on purpose) when it comes to training for a marathon. It's not that I'm not dedicated. It's that it's no fun to have to do X miles on Y day and then intervals and whatever else a plan requires. To me, it's boring, boring, boring.

I've got the Lehigh Valley Marathon in September, so that's what's on my mind. But I still can't be bothered to train for it in any organized way. Would I do better if I did? Probably. Do I care? Definitely not.

That said, I've been in the habit of doing long runs on the weekends and have been feeling pretty good about them. I've even incorporated long bike rides on the opposite days for cross-training (though biking is less cross-training and more total fun).

From last weekend to the beginning of March, here are my long runs:

6/27: 15 in 2:18
6/6: 18 in 2:41
5/30: 13 in 1:55
5/16: 16 in 2:26
5/2: 16 in 2:23
4/19: 16 in 2:21
4/12: 14 in 2:06
3/22: 15 in 2:13
3/14: 14 in 2:05
3/7: 12.5 in 1:47
3/1: 10 in 1:29

Now that I look back at it, I just might have been training for a marathon. I've made a point to do one long run at least 3 weekends a month, and, for the most part, that's happened. If I look too close, this may just be a marathon plan... uh oh.