All-Star Small Star

Wow, I haven’t written anything in a week and a half. Been swamped at work (both at the office and home), but still trying to keep running a priority of course. Don’t know what to say. If you care about my daily workouts you can just take a look at my training log.

I will say I’ve had at least two good runs lately. Monday was the Firecracker over the Bouldin course, and I just hung with the group until we hit Bouldin, then did progressive run the last 3 miles or however far it is. I surged all the way up Bouldin and felt great all the way home, which means it was hard, and I was pushing myself, but it was a pleasurable pain. This is the type of run that keeps me running, inspires me to wake up at 5:24am nearly every day and try to get better.

The second nice run was Tempo yesterday morning. As a test I woke up a little early and did 2 miles on my own before the normal warmup. I guess it helped because twas another PR in 24:23, with 6.13, 6.06, 6.02, 6.00 splits. Again, I felt confident, controlled, fit, fun … except for the part where a biker nearly flattened me. Around the 1.5 marker I had to spinhurdle out of the way as this wacko barrelled down the hill, swerved around 3 other runners and nearly planted his handlebars in my chest. I got a little cramp at the end of mile three and experimented with breathing on my left footfall. Otherwise, this was the first run in awhile where I ran solo and still felt strong. Remember, I’ve often said I hate running alone, or perform better when with others, but on this day it was refreshingly enjoyable to get lost in my own pace and thoughts and not be cognizant of others around me.

Circuit was kind of tough on Tuesday. Last Saturday’s “long run” was just the 10-mile TLT loop and my legs ached most of the way, until I picked it up to 6.10 pace on mile 9, and you just sort of forget about the bodily aches and pains. Sunday was a good, if relatively short bike ride.

Update on my son’s T-Ball saga. Turns out there are All-Star teams in T-ball. Four of them in fact, and the parents get to nominate 6 players from their team. Our coach said, “I expect you to nominate your own son, but really, it’s about stamina and commitment, because there are four practices a week and round-robin tournaments every weekend for two and a half months. Basically, your summer is nothing but All-Stars.” When he said this, the parents were all standing around and he asked us one by one if we thought we could make the commitment. Everyone else nodded and said “definitely!” I said, “I doubt it, but I don’t know.” Of course I nominated my son, because I don’t think there are 6 better players than him on the team, but if he gets selected there’s almost no chance we’ll be participating.

So today he and I went out to his t-ball field and he took some cuts, took some infield, worked on catching popflys, ran the bases, whatever he wanted to do. Just a dad, his five-year old and baseball. Does it get more beautiful? He loved it. It was the most fun I’ve had on a baseball field in a long time. Who needs stinking All-Stars?

So I was thinking of backing off Gazelles workouts over the summer and trying to increase my mileage in anticipation of the Fall and Winter racing season. Just a thought though. I’m afraid of slacking without the group, losing speed (not that I have any) without the workouts.

This title reminds me that when I was about seven or eight I wrote a poem that went something like:

Jamie Farr
Got in his Car
And Drove Real Far

My mom really liked M.A.S.H. I can’t stand it. But there you have it. Jamie Farr and my little All-Star.