Friday, May 09, 2008

SOMETHING NEW

I was able to make it downtown last night to watch the TC-1 mile race. I know people want to run fast, but if you were complaining about last night’s weather – more specifically, the wind – then you’re never going to be happy with race conditions. It sure seemed like ideal conditions to me. Anyway, it was fun watching all the different waves. It made me realize that the majority of the people I know in the local running community are old – fast, but old - and fast women. Seriously, when the 30-39 year old age group went by, I didn’t recognize a soul.

Results from the event can be found HERE. You may notice that the winner was a 17-year-old Kenyan. I’m sure his high school classmates are thrilled with his victory and the $4,000 he pocketed.

I have to admit that I’ve been feeling pretty good lately. During this morning’s easy 7 mile run with strides, I tried something new. Rather than listen to music on my iPod, I downloaded the latest Toni and Matt podcast. I admit the previous times I listened to their podcast, it was during lunch, while trying to blog at the same time. That makes it really hard to catch everything they have to say. I really enjoyed being able to listen to them during my run instead. I’m sure it helped that this was a great episode. I highly recommend checking it out if you have any interest in how to improve the sport’s TV coverage, financial support, and just generate overall interest among the general public.

Quote of the day;

“Everything is finally adding up. I’ve always been a high-mileage trainer and I upped my mileage even more this year. My summer training was more intense than ever before; I was up to 92 miles a week. My highest before was around 75. I took some risks with mileage, but have remained injury free, so I thought, “Why not?” I’ve been working out hard more often. All of these little adjustments have really paid off!”Lisa Koll, on what she attributes her recent success to, which includes lowering the American collegiate 10,000m record to 32:11.13

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always thought it was funny when Florence Joyner would compete wearing all her jewelry. Now I go to races and iPods are everywhere, there are people with all sorts of electronics beeping at them - telling them they're going too fast, or too slow, or the altitude has changed by another inch. I see people in very well supported races with Camelbaks or waist belts, lugging water like they're backpacking the Grand Canyon. What ever happened to just lacing up your shoes and running? Sure, listening to an iPod can help to pass the time and distract you from the crushing boredom of training, but overcoming the crushing boredom is big part of what training is about. Electronics are a crutch.

Anonymous said...

RE: faceless coward.

Couldn't the same be applied to other items as well? Why not wear sweatpants instead of tights? Why not wear cotton t-shirts instead of dry-fit? Why not walk instead of drive? Cars are a crutch.