The Write Stuff

Where does the time go??

This is the latest photo of my son and his family. Seems to say everything. Terry and Holly have their hands full keeping track of the twins, Hunter and Siena, and the little one, Ray.

It should also be clear that I'm not having much luck getting into the Blog business. Jenny's now Blogging for Runner's World online and is doing a MUCH better job than I am in keeping up.

Without getting into a therapy session, I think some of it is that because I write for a living it's more difficult for me to write as recreation. If this is supposed to be professional, then I worry that it won't be at the same level as the columms. If it's just for fun, then I can't imagine what it is that people would be interested in.

I ran in my 100 acre woods yesteday. I saw the BIGGEST turtle I have EVER seen in my LIFE. The thing was HUGE and prehistoric looking. I've decided that this was the King Turtle. Probably King of the Forest. At least, that's what I believe.

We are off to San Diego and the Rock 'n' Roll marathon this weekend. Hard to believe that this is the 10th running of the event. What a great job Elite Racing has done.

So, I'm PROMISE that I will try to Blog AT LEAST once a week. Let's start there.

Waddle on,

The Long Way Home

I'm not sure if I've said anything publically about this, but I'm "thinking" about doing a marathon later in the summer or early fall. I know that for now the best thing I can do is start getting some extra time in on my feet.

My "training plan", based solely on what I think will work and therefore not subject to the rules and regulations of legitimate training programs, is to LENGTHEN my daily runs by increasing the walking interval while decreasing the running interval. The results of which will be longer training sessions that aren't likely to get me injured.

So, if I do a 4/1, 40 minute session I run for 32 minutes. If I do a 3/2 interval for 60 minutes I run for 36 minutes. Not that much difference but I get an additional 20 minutes of training.

Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

ORN: 60 minutes and 3/2 plus 10 minute walking warm up and 10 minute walking cool down. Total time, 1 hour 20 minutes.

Cycle-ogical

Last Saturday I had a chance to do some real mountain biking for the first time in about 2 years. Actually, mountain biking is the wrong term. What I did was ride on some hard-packed running and horse trails in the forest preserves. No mountains, although the area used to be called Mount Forest.

Today, in an effort to do some kind of activity 6 days a week, I got out the mountain bike [which, now that I think if it, is a really dumb term. It's really just a fat-tired bike] and rode along the lakefront path. Nothing even like a hill out there.

I'm re-committing to getting in some cross-training on the days when I can't/shouldn't/don't want to run. Monday, when it got so late that I knew I couldn't get in a bona fide run, I dropped off the car with Jenny and walked the 3 miles home.

So today was just one of those kind of days. Get up. Get out. Get going. No pressure. No plan. Just move.

John

ORN [obligatory running note] 45 minutes of cycling on a fat-tired bike.

The times they are a changin'

Because I live in Chicago, 4 blocks from Wrigley Field, a block and a half from Lake Michigan and the lakefront path most of my runs are on that path. Today, though, I hopped on the motorcycle and rode out to Willow Springs to run in the Palos Forest Preserves, or, what i will now forever call the 100 acre woods. [If you're not a Winnie the Pooh fan, you may not know about the 100 acre woods.]

The goal was to use a run 3 minutes/walk 2 minutes plan and go for a solid hour. I ran for an hour for the first time since last fall about a week ago, and so I'm still a little nervous about trying to go that long.

It was fantastic.

I saw 5 deer as I entered the woods and thought "this is a good sign". It was peaceful, quiet, rolling, and just what I needed today. There were times when the watch "beeped" and it was time to walk and I wanted to keep running. I didn't. I'm still recovering. But, it was great to have that feeling again.

Don't know how far I ran. Don't care. I enjoyed every step today and that' all that matters.

Waddle on,

Gone, but not forgotten

No, I'm not dead in a ditch, just been busier than usual. And, as I have shared with some of you in person, even when you're a writer by profession blogging doesn't come all that easy. Or at least it doesn't for me.

I've been to Indianapolis for the Indy mini since I last blogged. It's a fantastic event and if you want to do it you should go ahead and register NOW. It closes earlier and earlier every year.

I then rode - the motorcycle - over to Columbus for our Cinco de Mayo 4 miler. That was also great fun.

We've been filming for the Reebok "Run Easy" campaign. I'll make sure to get everyone the information on that as soon as I know it.

And finally, my running has been going very, VERY well. I ran for an hour yesterday which was the longest I've run since last October.

I've got an announcement to make, but I'll have to wait for another day.

Waddle on,

John