Day 218, 147 To Go

August 6, 2013

We are in the dog days of August and it is hot, humid and kind of boring.  I mean, in the land of perpetual summer, August doesn't feel much difference than, let's say, March.  The difference is that I actually have something to look forward to at the end of August this year.  Honey, my little monsters, my mom and I are all going to Brazil at the end of the month!  This should be fun except for the actual travel part.

Can you imagine traveling with three 16 month old babies?  I should post what flight I am on in case the one or two of you who read this blog is on the flight.  Believe me, I want to change my flight, but I can't.  You need an adult per child.  We are screwed. 

Let's move on, shall we..today I will talk about rule #12 from The Golden Rules of Running from Runner's World magazine.

12. The Seven-Year Rule
Runners improve for about seven years.

Mike Tymn noticed this in the early 1980s and wrote about it in his National Masters News column. "My seven-year adaptation theory was based on the fact that so many runners I talked to ran their best times an average of seven years after they started," he recalls.

The Exception: Low-mileage runners can stretch the seven years to well over a decade before plateauing.

This is a hard one for me to comment on.  I haven't paid enough attention to my progress to see if this is really true.  Let me think.  I probably started running when I was 28 or 29.  That would mean I peaked at about 35.  Hmmm...that was when I met Honey...and that prior year, I had my fastest 5k time.  The year I met Honey (in fact, a week before) I had done my first 1/2 Ironman, and I was in the best shape of my life.

So, it seems that this rule does fit my trajectory, but there could also be other mitigating factors.  First, Honey.  I used to train at least 5 days a week.  I would swim twice a week, run about 4 times a week and bike 2 - 3 times a week.  My weekends were long Saturday bike rides (60+ miles) and long runs on Sunday.  After I started dating and later married Honey, that dropped precipitously.  She didn't like me out every night (women).  On top of that, I was 35 going on 36, and so on and so on.  I was getting older.

So, was it me hitting my peak, or did life changes and aging have as much to do with it?  I don't know, but I do know that in my peak, I definitely felt fast and strong and like I had finally gotten it together.  So there is probably something to this rule. 

What about you?  I'd love to hear if this rule rings true for you.

Here are my numbers today:

Time: 25:00

Distance: 2.73 miles

Pace: 9:10/m

Max Pace: 8:07/m

Calories: 290
Avg HR: 132

Max HR: 143

I gotta be honest, I felt like crap today.  My legs were sore and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath.  I'm not sure what was going on, but maybe it had something to do with my hard weekend workouts.  I also ran the entire run on the golf course.  I started at the 6th hole (that is where my house is) and ran up to the 9th and I could not find the 10th.  I still have no idea where it is, but I did find the 1st hole, so I went that way and I ended back at the 6th at the end of my run.  I had to circle back a bit, but it worked out nice.  The big problem was the smell.

I guess they are trying to fertilize the grass on the course.  So, it looked like they spread manure all over the course.  When I say all over, I mean ALLLLLL OVER!  Holy crap!  It was everywhere.  At first, I thought I stepped on something, but it was everywhere.  It looked like dry dirt, but it wasn't.  It was shit.  I tried to not let it ruin my peaceful golf course run, but I can't say I succeeded!  Hopefully, it will be gone soon!

Run for Life!