As I head into the summer, I will have to miss more and more of the Flyer group runs that I have come to rely on. I am a morning runner, and I never voluntarily miss either the Tuesday 6AM speed work, or the Thursday 6AM 6 mile group run.
With a young child at home, and my wife away until August, I'll have to find other times to run. I'll write another time about how I'll solve this problem, but today I'm thinking about how much the Flyers morning runs have done for me.
I started running with the morning group in January, and I had a hard time keeping up. After meeting these wonderful people, I was determined to get into shape, just so that I could spend time with them. The age range was huge, and I got sage advice from some and a friendly kick in the rear from others. This is a truly inspiring group of people.
I was immediately driven to show up for each run. The 6 mile runs were long for me, and the speed work was challenging, but somehow I had the feeling that I had to show up. In addition, I had to run other times in the week in order to get into shape to keep up with the group. Suddenly, my weekly mileage was a done deal.
How did it pay off? Since January, when I started with the group, I have dropped 20 pounds, and 95 seconds/mile from my 5 mile race pace. The speed work has definitely made a difference. Most of all, I'm even more excited about running then before.
For a while now, my friends in the group have been telling me that I've been racing too much. I'm finally going to take their advice and break from racing for a while. I'm going to focus on training for longer runs. My first target is the NY Half Marathon on August 5th. OK, I might sneak in another race before that, but I'm going to focus on bringing up the weekly mileage and improving my long race training.
After that, my wife will be home and I'll be back out in the mornings -- see you out there!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Spin
I can't believe I'm leading off my running blog with this but... today I did my first spin class.
It all started when I was trying to figure out ways to run at work. You know, run during lunch, run to work, run home from work...
I decided to look into joining a health club near the office. The idea was that I could use the club for it's locker and shower facilities. Of course, I could also use the club for cross training, when needed.
Over the weekend I put in a lot of miles, and my left foot was a little sore. It just felt like a bruise on the front pad of the foot. I decided to give it a rest and try a spin class during lunch.
As it turns out, I had a frustrating morning at work, and I really needed a good workout to blow off steam. As the class started, the instructor was playing some spacey music, which seemed odd for a workout. I was thinking that I was going to have a sore rear end from sitting on this seat for 50 minutes. Then after a few minutes the up beat techno music kicked in and everyone was up off the seats pedaling hard. We hardly sat down for the rest of the workout. It was great.
At the end of the class, my work frustrations were put in perspective, and my need for a good workout was satisfied.
I was also pleased that my running helped prepare me to survive the class. I year ago I wouldn't have lasted half way through.
I loved the lunch hour workout -- it changed the feel of the whole workday. I will definitely do it again.
My foot is feeling better now, so tomorrow back to running!
It all started when I was trying to figure out ways to run at work. You know, run during lunch, run to work, run home from work...
I decided to look into joining a health club near the office. The idea was that I could use the club for it's locker and shower facilities. Of course, I could also use the club for cross training, when needed.
Over the weekend I put in a lot of miles, and my left foot was a little sore. It just felt like a bruise on the front pad of the foot. I decided to give it a rest and try a spin class during lunch.
As it turns out, I had a frustrating morning at work, and I really needed a good workout to blow off steam. As the class started, the instructor was playing some spacey music, which seemed odd for a workout. I was thinking that I was going to have a sore rear end from sitting on this seat for 50 minutes. Then after a few minutes the up beat techno music kicked in and everyone was up off the seats pedaling hard. We hardly sat down for the rest of the workout. It was great.
At the end of the class, my work frustrations were put in perspective, and my need for a good workout was satisfied.
I was also pleased that my running helped prepare me to survive the class. I year ago I wouldn't have lasted half way through.
I loved the lunch hour workout -- it changed the feel of the whole workday. I will definitely do it again.
My foot is feeling better now, so tomorrow back to running!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Hello World
And so, it begins.
Today, I have nothing to blog but the creation of the blog itself.
Since I became obsessed with running, I've seen a few running centric blogs, and I thought I might try it as well.
My goal -- wax poetic about my running experiences here, so that I can spare my family the long winded descriptions. Here I can write freely, knowing that no one is obliged to read.
Today, I have nothing to blog but the creation of the blog itself.
Since I became obsessed with running, I've seen a few running centric blogs, and I thought I might try it as well.
My goal -- wax poetic about my running experiences here, so that I can spare my family the long winded descriptions. Here I can write freely, knowing that no one is obliged to read.
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