Monthly Archives: April 2008

Well here we go again with all the running here and running there. How boring is that? What’s with all the running already? It’s because if I don’t run, strange things happen. I’m far from the first to mention this, but every time I am going about my business, and I see a runner, I am immediately envious. All I remember is the joy of running, and the accomplishment. I never think about anything else when I see a runner. Every runner I know always notices another runner on the street and as they drive by, they smile thinking and looking forward to their own next run. I always wonder about their planned route, how far they are going, and I wonder how they are doing and how long they’ve been running. All of these thoughts flash into my mind in the same instant. That’s why today I ran 8 … Continue reading →

I can’t believe I really did this but I did. I decided to go out and run a 17 km in spite of the fact that I have a huge chest cold and can barely talk. Maybe it was because I did not feel too down in the energy department. Who can say? All I know is that there are generally two reactions to a situation like this. Which one is remembered depends on the outcome of my run. The first outcome would be death. Then the survivors would say, “He had it coming for doing such a stupid thing! Imagine running when you’re sick! What a retard.” The second outcome would be me finishing and living. Then people might say, “What a determined person! What grit to run when you are sick!” Personally, I am still not sure which reaction is appropriate even though I did finish and survive. … Continue reading →

Another 7 km in a chilly, overcast, and brisk day. I ran a slower pace today than when I did the indoor track. Today I ran it in 49:41 for a 7:05 pace. The thing about my 3 day a week marathon training plan is this: I plan to run the marathon at a 7:30 pace so I should finish in about 5 hours and 17 minutes. In a normal training plan, you are supposed to run between a minute and a half or two minutes slower than your 10 km race pace. In this program it’s no slower than 30 or 60 seconds. And that, apparently, is the challenge over my long training runs. Am I following this training plan? Of course not. The pace is a guideline not written in stone. The program calls for intervals. I don’t do intervals religiously. I usually run as fast as I … Continue reading →

Ran a 6:30 pace for 7 km in the indoor track today (45 minutes and 31 seconds). I did not have a great run as I felt the burn and had a burning “shin splinty” feeling in my left leg so I had to walk it off, stop and stretch it out a little. After that I hit the gym for a brief period and used a lifefitness treadmill to do a fitness test. I’ve never used it before, so I chose the shortest possible test (5 minutes) and ran 4.5 MPH (an arbitrary choice of speed) and the machine inclined 5 degrees after 1 minute. Then it checked my pulse (I was not breathing very hard as this was not even an effort for me it was so easy). Nevertheless, my pulse showed 163, my VO2 Max was 32.4 which according to the machine was below average. There were … Continue reading →