Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Track Manners

Can we talk about track workouts for a minute? I'm no expert but need to vent for a moment.

1. It's not a race. I don't care that you can blow by me on lap one and then I breeze by you on lap 3 while you are sucking wind. The whole point of having a goal pace is so that you run that pace consistently for the workout. We all run different paces and if you are having a fast week that is excellent. A slow week and you have my sympathies, but I am running my own pace. Please stop trying to race, let me know if you want to schedule a 100 yard dash and I'm game, looser buys the beer.

2. Stay in lane 1. All other lanes are a waste of energy and slow people down when they need to pass you. If you are running with other people, note running with not racing, then all run in lane one and stagger yourselves. There is really no reason for you to be in lane 2 or 3. Also, on this same note, if you are being passed move to the inside of lane 1 if running solo. This is a non contact sport and you can't elbow me out of the way. Lets face it, most of us are going to get passed, get over it and just let it happen.

3. Get out of lane 1 RIGHT AWAY when you are done with your laps. Please, it is terribly annoying when I get tripped up because you have stopped suddenly and are trying to stretch out a hamstring. There is a whole field to your left, use it.

4. This is a risky one, but bothers me, workout hard enough that you can't have a full on conversation. Unless this is the dreaded tempo run on the track workout, you should be running hard enough that you can't talk more than a few words. I don't need to hear about your vacation to Austin and what your kids are wearing for the first day of school.

5. No spitting, and you know who you are! God it's gross, just don't do it or if you insist please don't spit where we all keep our keys and water bottles.

I could keep going but I'll stop now.

Miles trained today: 5

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Hi, Remember me?

Yep, it's been a while. Sorry! So today was my first "long run" on the roads in a month. Yep, a month. Sorry, again! Long run? Yeah, I'm talking 8 miles. Do I even say sorry again? Here I am, ready to run again. After a month of distractions, disappointments and tears I'm here. Running didn't fit, but it fits now. Where do I go from here? I don't know to be honest. I'm thinking a half marathon in Sept/Oct. What I've learned is there are no guarantees with running, like the rest of life. If you had told me that I would walk away from Chicago and be ok with it, I would have called you a liar. But here I am. So will I do a half? Who knows? I call tell you that today I ran a good 8. I would like to get my mileage back up slowly. I would like to run a half but I am not going to allow it to worry me. What I can tell you is that right now I'm laughing on my runs, laughing hard and I want that to continue.

Miles trained today: 8