State Of The Union

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these so here I go. I haven’t been too descriptive about the state of my running or even my state of mind. I have been wanting to do this for a while but I just have not found the time to do so. Life has just been getting in the way. What I have been able to do is just post quick summaries of my daily progress. While I think this can be a tad bit boring, this has been a great help to me because I have been able to track my progress over a nice period of time. I still go back and read previous workouts or try to find the last time I ran a particular workout in a decent manner. But I also realize this can be rather mundane to the faithful reader. So alas, I have time, and I offer you a break between all the stats and details.

My running has finally gone on the uptick. I feel I’m getting stronger every week and gaining more confidence day by day. The hard work has been getting done and the results will be reaped in a short time. Last July 4th, I got things started with a nice rust buster 5k victory. Although I didn’t push myself in that race, I gained confidence that I wasn’t too far off from where I needed to be. I then decided upon a course of action to get where I need to be. Granted, all previous plans had failed in the previous 6 months, but that would not keep me from trying something new. I decided I was going to work even harder than I was working before. But I wouldn’t focus so much on huge mileage. I would focus on higher intensity. So for 3 weeks I would be working my tail off. On the fourth week, I would take it easy. Very simple but it has been effective!

My first test came when I ran a 30/30 fartlek at the end of July. I had not run a fartlek in a while but the previous time I had run one it was a pretty sad site for sore eyes. I passed the test with flying colors as I had run the second fastest 30/30 I had ever done at 15:41. Feeling high as a kite off of this workout I traveled down to Lake Jackson to truly test the fitness. I blasted out of the gate expecting a solo time trial effort but found myself in a race versus an Aggie harrier. I came up a bit short but once again I was able to find the silver lining as I felt I was still on my way up. Since then I’ve run a progressive workout and a tempo and a few other workouts and all were pretty darn good. So as I sit here typing I feel I am in uncharted territory since I believe I am in the best shape I’ve ever been in.

One of the things I have tried to do when I picked up this running habit is to not try to analyze too deeply what it is I’m doing or all the possibilities out there. I’ve simply made very simple easy to reach goals and I’ve accomplished pretty much way more than I ever expected. So I feel I’m playing with house money here and whatever I do now is gravy. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t expect bigger things, because I do. I just try not analyze it all and just enjoy the experience. One of my favorite British phrases is “To just get on with it”. And that is what I’ll be setting out to do the rest of the year.

And finally, I appreciate you, the faithful reader, for showing an interest in my running exploits. Hopefully I can generate a few performances worthy of your interest in the future.

Yours Truly,

Bill