Born to Run - a fun book

Over the top? Most certainly. Fun? Totally. If you want to read in words the unreasonable energy that propels you on the trails, this is a fun book to devour. Don't take it too seriously, though. Except for persistence hunting, and how we were... well, born to run!

And we're off

Cindy has loaded my TP (as in Training Peaks) with months worth of training sessions. My immediate question: can I pack them all up in the next few days and be done with it? :-P

The discipline these bring will help me complete my recovery runs - the ones that make our running more efficient... little... by... little...

The plans also makes it clear that I'll be running the DRATS 50M - yes, mam!

The plan starts tomorrow; in the meantime, I ran

with members of the IPR tribe to celebrate Thanksgiving - thank you Cindi, Dave, Amy, and Marianne! And thank you, I guess, to the rock that gave me the little kiss on the knee... :-P

First, the coach

I managed to learn how to run 50 milers all by my lonesome - literature, asking other people, training and experimenting. 100 miles is quite the step up. I am looking for someone who will know what is going on with my body better than I can myself.

I have interviewed a few coaches, local and not. After interviewing them and the references they provided me with, I have found my coach. The references were invaluable in understanding and characterizing the coaches. Thank you to the coaches for supplying the references and to the references for taking the time to guide me. In fact, several of them were passionate enough about their own running that they shared their own experiences and advice. Thank you Megan, Joy, Kyle, and Ryan. And thank you Buzz Burrell and Scott Fliegelman for your recommendations.

How we got to this point

Without ever having run a marathon before (as my friend Craig Skinner likes to point out in amazement) I successfully trained for and ran the North Face Endurance Challenge San Francisco 50 miler (injuries on the way there are reported on http://onthewaytonfec.blogspot.com/) .

It was an epic and wonderful run. Peak moment: cresting a tall hill and getting a plunging view over Stinson Beach, bathed in a double line of ocean breakers. And with a happy ending, as the finish pic indicates.

After taking it easy in 2009, it's time to go for the next learning challenge: the 100 miler.