Grab Bag

Greetings Fellow Runners,

Nothing like a good run to refresh and re-invigorate your enthusiasm for running. To help you keep the momentum as you get ready for the fall race season, here are a few of our favorite running relate websites!

Map My Run, a great site that utilizes Google maps to allow you to create, map and share your favorite running routes. You can view routes as Maps, Satellite Images, or a Hybrid of both. In addition to the maps, Map My Run also has a really cool Training Log and community message board!

The Furman University Training Program advocates fewer miles in exchange for higher quality workouts. The Furman First Marathon Training Program is the basis for a new book from Runners World magazine. Basically, each week you have three key workouts, a fartlek or track session, a tempo session, and a fairly brisk "Long Slow Run" based on your Predicted Marathon Pace. Swimmers are familiar with the phenomena of "Garbage Yardage", many runners may very well be putting in "Garbage Mileage" and would benefit greatly by reducing the frequency of workouts and increasing the tempo of the remaining workouts.

Well, there is a teaser for you! Now get out and run!

Cliched

One of the first rules of good writing: Don't rely on cliches, avoid them at all costs.

The worst running cliche in the world is the comparison between life and a marathon (or race, etc..).

Well, sometimes a cliche is the most efficient, effective way to convey a thought or feeling to a like minded community. This is why writers are told to avoid them at all costs, they are too easy. Writers, like runners, seek the most difficult route and usually are guilty of going about "re-inventing the wheel".

So here goes: Life IS like a marathon. Sometimes you are on pace, feeling really good and then the very next moment WHAM you get the sensation that you have an anvil squarely placed between your shoulder-blades and your legs are made of both lead AND jelly!

And then, There are analogies and metaphors. A good writer avoids analogies and metaphors because they can easily become a prop. Like cliches, Analogies and metaphors can be an efficient, effective way to convey a thought or feeling to a like minded community.

So: The miles in a run can be likened to the chapters in a book. Each is a component of a larger whole, but also self contained and unique in it's experience. Chapters in a book can be like the phases in our lives, we reach the end of one and a new one begins.

Here a fun way to enjoy running with your friends without relying on cliches, analogies or metaphors; a relay:

or the

Well, so much for hackneyed writing. Go out and run!

Committed

Well, I did it. I picked a goal and committed to it. (That is to say, I sent in the entry form and check).

My objective: complete (and compete in) the Big Bend Ultra 50k run, January 20th, 2008.

Looking at the calendar, there are fewer than twenty-three weeks until race day.

Time to sit down, come up with a training plan and figure how to manage it around an already hectic life!

One Small Step..

Greetings all. This is the first of what will hopefully be a regular chronicle of my running life and training.

The objective of keeping this blog is to pick a goal, and successfully implement a training program around that goal.

Today, I ran 3.3 miles pushing my youngest son in a stroller. Run time was approximately 10:10am, it was already a sticky 88 degrees with 60% relative humidity!! UGH!

wish me luck on my journey!