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September 24, 2005

Faster

Richard and I did three around Greenlake tonight, for a total of 8.4 miles. (And it was totally no big deal. Which blows my mind.)

So now that my marathon training is tapering down, my thoughts have been shifting to "what's next" in terms of my training. I'm very goal-oriented, so it helps me to have some external, objective, benchmarkable thing to work towards. In 2005, I set out to run the St. Patrick's Day Dash, the Capital City Half Marathon, and the Seattle Marathon. Although I changed out Seattle for Portland, I've been on target. And it's helped, you know? It's not always easy to get out and run on some idle Tuesday afternoon. Having the specific goal is an excellent impetus to get my ass off the couch on days like that.

So, while I still have some distance left in me this year - I'm putting together a group in Planning to do the Seattle Half, and will also train with (and go cheer for) Richard when he takes on the DisneyWorld Marathon in January - most of my long distances are behind me.

So my thinking is ... go faster.

I've never been a fast athlete. I swam as a kid (and in high school), but was always the guy doing 250-yard events and above. If you needed a guy to do the 1650 Free, well, you called me. Part of this was my (ahem) bouyant shape (ahem) at the time - sprinters tended to be lean-n'-mean, and I was more, uh, not.

Running is different. I'm 6' 2", and almost half of me is leg. Lately, Richard's been getting annoyed with me because we'll start out on a run together, and I'll gradually pull away. It's stride, mostly, but Char noticed it, too, on our 22-mile run last weekend. And tonight, the Shuffle served up Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero" and I found myself really working to not start streaking around the lake. Music helps, yes?

So. My times have been going up. I was running about 6 miles an hour (10 minute miles) when I first got out around Greenlake; tonight, I did three times around in 1 hour, 15 minutes - that's a little better than a 9-minute mile. My suspicion is that, with some training (and lacking the need to keep my reserves for longer distances), I can shave my times down pretty quickly.

My new goal, then, is to be able to do Greenlake three times in less than an hour. (And I think I can do this before the end of the year.)

For those not so handy with the calculator, that's 8.4 miles per hour, or a touch slower than a 7-minute mile.

Look, I know I'm not going to be beating any Kenyans any time soon, but I gotta know if I can do it.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at September 24, 2005 9:23 PM. Posted to Fitness.

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Posted by: ravi at September 25, 2005 11:02 AM

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