Your running days are numbered....

     I have been losing motivation to run as I near the end of my training cycle.  Only a little over 3 weeks to go and then I am taking a running vacation!  By that I mean a vacation from running.
     Last night I went to speed work group.  We warmed up, then did fourteen 30 second intervals at 5k pace, and two thirty second intervals at 1 mile pace.  Of course, I don't have a 5k pace or a 1 mile pace or wouldn't recognize them if I did, so I just alternated running 30 seconds faster with 30 seconds of walking.  It was fun.  So now I have a goal for next year....to run some 5k's and maybe 10 k's to find out my pace and learn to pace myself. Also, to get faster.
     Today is a rest day... no running for me....but I read this great blog, "your running days are numbered," which hopefully will get me out the door or on the treadmill tomorrow. Here is the link.  It is well worth the read.
     https://runsmartonline.com/articles/prevention/your-running-days-are-numbered/


     Maybe because of the change in seasons with school restarting for the neighborhood kids, or due to my nearing the end of my running training for this year, I have been thinking about setting running goals for next year. I don't think I will reach this year's goal of running 1500 miles, although miracles do happen.  It is just an arbitrary number which I won't let consume me.
     I recently read a story about Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York Marathon.  One New Year's Eve, he and his non-runner girlfriend were scheduled to attend a formal dinner. Fred discovered that he was short of his yearly running goal of 2500 miles, by 19 miles; so he went out in to the cold, dark, and snow for hours to run those 19 miles and meet his goal.  When he returned home he found all of his belongings neatly packed and stacked in the hallway with a farewell note attached.



     "A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."  Bruce Lee


 

Why Runners Don’t Get Knee Arthritis

     Here is an article from the New York Times on why runners don't get knee arthritis. The results of this study are welcome for all of us who already knew this to be true.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/why-runners-dont-get-knee-arthritis/?emc=edit_tnt_20130925&tntemail0=y&_r=1&


"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."  Robert Collier

Finish what you started

     After all the rain and flooding in Colorado last week, here is a song to welcome back the sun, which we have enjoyed for several days now.

      I am scheduled to run today, but I am not feeling it.  But I will do it!  I will show up.  Eventually....

It does not have to be pretty, it just has to get done.

Even on your weakest day, you are still stronger than most because you showed up.--Bonnie Pfiester

(as always, email subscribers to blog, go to blog to view videos)

Peace.

     Today is the International Day of Peace, AKA Peace Day, established by the UN in 1981.  You can do something simple, like lighting a candle at 12 noon, sitting in silent meditation, or doing a good deed.  Or you can organize with others to accomplish something great.  If millions of people across the globe come together for one day a year to celebrate peace, the impact can be huge.
     Here are a couple of songs to meditate to and to get yourself motivated.

 
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Interesting thought for the weekend.....

MotivateHopeStrength

"If you kinda sorta eat right... you'll kinda sorta get results"

Go Salamanders

     I did a short interval run last night and got to try out a pair of Hoka shoes.  All the cushioning felt interestingly good.  I am not an agile person, though, and think I need to stick with shoes closer to the ground.  I love that ground feel.  It was fun trying them, though, and a lot of people were sold on them.  They didn't provide me with a magical, miraculous increase in speed, which is what I need.  I should get to this group more often, but only seem to make it a couple of times a month. It will be harder come winter, running in the cold and dark.
     FYI, we did 5 two minute intervals at 10k pace, alternating with 90 seconds of recovery (where I walked), then 3 sets of 15 second strides followed by a 4 minute cool down jog.
     Then I went to watch a late evening Salamander's softball game.  They lost by 2 but it was an exciting game.  Go Salamanders.
     P.S.  Last Saturday I spoke with the woman who came in first in my age group at the Labor Day Highlands Ranch Half Marathon.  She beat me by 57 minutes and ran the entire distance at 8 minute miles. She is lean and long legged, and looks like an endurance runner, unlike stocky me.  She also looks 20 years younger than her chronological age.  She ran Boston this past year and finished well before the bombs went off, so she is experienced and fast. She gives me hope that I can get faster....not to her level...but faster.
     Here are a couple of pictures from the interval run.  I'm in green, by the way.

The new Chipotle ad is wonderful!

     I love Chipotle.  It is one of the few restaurants around where vegans can find a filling, healthy meal.  (Also Garbanzos Mediterranean Grill, and Subway).  This ad is haunting and so very creative. I love it.
http://gawker.com/theres-no-getting-around-it-the-new-chipotle-ad-is-am-1308234473
     (email subscribers must go to blog to view videos)

     Speaking of great videos, here is another one making the rounds.  Have tissues handy.  Pay it forward.

It's all about how you look at things....

                 shared from Favorite Run

It's raining, it's pouring....

     Another rainy day in Colorado.  They are now calling the flooding a once in 500 years to a once in a 1000 years flood.  I am very fortunate, there is no flooding where I live....just rain.  I thought this song appropriate, James Taylor's "Fire and Rain", as we have had our share of both in Colorado lately.

             (email subscribers must go to blog to view videos)

A good day for some CCR...

     Still rainy, but less so.  The forecast continues to be for rain through this next Sunday, so 3 more days.  You may have read about the 100 year flooding going on in Boulder, CO and points east right now.  My thoughts are with them.
(As always,email subscribers must go to blog to view video).
                                      Have you ever seen the rain?

   

There is nothing like the smell of wet dog in a closed-up house!

     I've always thought this song should be titled:  "It never rains in Colorado".....

     It has been raining on and off for 3 days now here.  At least the reservoirs should be refilling a bit, if not the Ogallala aquifer, so I guess it is a good thing.  I have never seen my lawn so green.
     I have cabin fever already, and it isn't even autumn, much less winter.  I keep telling myself, I won't melt...to quit being a wimp.
      (email subscribers must go to blog to view You tube videos)

     Yesterday a song refrain kept running through my brain as I walked the dog.  I was hearing "Misty Morning" by Joni Mitchell.  Came home and checked and of course it is "Chelsea Morning" by Joni Mitchell....still a good song but has nothing at all to do with a misty, rainy day but is about sunshine.

       
     I do that all the time....my brain switches out lyrics to meet my thoughts.  While running I am thinking "I can run for miles and miles and miles and miles" while humming The Who melody to "I can see for miles."
     Do you do that, too?

"Vegan power"

     Vegan Patrik Baboumian, 34, carried 1212.54 pounds for 32.8 feet!  Amazing!  I would love to meet this guy.  Here is the link to the article from the Toronto Star.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/09/08/vegan_strongman_shoulders_550_kg_a_record_perhaps_at_vegetarian_food_fest.html

Vegan strongman lifts record breaking 550kg

Vegan strongman Patrik Baboumian breaks a world record by carrying 555 kilos 10 metres on the West Jet stage at the Harbourfront Centre September 8, 2013.

This and that.

     So it's not just me. I always use subtitles when watching videos for this very reason.


                                                     Sun. Sept. 8, 2013


     You have probably already seen this wonderful Guinness Ad, but I don't have television or cable and just learned about it from Facebook.  It will make your day.

http://www.businessinsider.com/new-guinness-ad-breaks-the-mold-2013-9

(email subscribers to my blog must go to blog to view video)

"We are all just trying to survive being born."

     I just completed reading "Running Ransom Road,"  an autobiography by Caleb Daniloff about his recovery from alcohol and drugs, and his running.  One paragraph jumped out at me and I thought I would share it with you.

     "In many ways, recovery is simply a synonym for life.  We are all just trying to survive being born.  Recovery, like life, like death, is ultimately an individual journey, a single-seat row-boat with no life preserver.  If you capsize, you have to learn how to turn your own jeans into a flotation device. There's always work left to do, more road, more corners, more hills.  It is the grappling with invisible monsters on a road with no name that leaves fang holes on your neck.  The struggle is in learning to open your eyes, to see."

     What do you think?

Have a fun Friday.

For a funny Friday, here is a video of relay racing with strangers, thanks to  Official Comedy.

This second video, also a prank relay video, was fun because of the soundtrack.

(As always, if you are an email subscriber to my blog you will need to go to the blog to view the videos)

I am supposed to do a long run today.....as you can tell, I am procrastinating, watching youtube videos instead.

"I walk slowly, but I never walk backward."---Abraham Lincoln

     On Sept. 2, I ran the inaugural Highlands Ranch Half Marathon.  It was my 4th in 2 years and my best time out of the four.  I was happy with that, but wish it had been even better. I guess everyone always wishes their efforts had turned out better. I finished 8th in my age group (out of 8), so have a ways to go.  I need to remember that it is a personal best and not second-guess myself. It gives me a goal for the future....to get faster.
   

Bling

bib number:	321
age:	62
gender:	F
overall place:	579 out of 637
division place:	8
gender place:	341
time:	2:44:43
pace:	0:
"chiptime":	2:43:57
"total pace":	12:31

Words to live by...

     I'm sure you noted the news this week that 64 year-old Diana Nyad, on her fifth try, completed a 110 mile swim from Cuba to Key West, Florida.  It took her 53 hours.
     What you may not have noted were the 3 messages of what she had learned:

        “One is we should never, ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it takes a team.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/sports/nyad-completes-cuba-to-florida-swim.html?_r=0