How one particular ‘fool running’ started and connected with SRC
Midlife Crisis (#1: Published in 9/7/19 RUN REPORT)
READ and COLLAPSE
Back in 2011, my attitude toward my work as a university librarian had started changing. I now know I was entering a mid-life crisis, a time in people’s lives when they can start champing at the bit to do things differently. I decided to do something to improve my health: running.
I started running by myself block distances that soon turned into miles. My standard route had me passing the house of a certain Shawmont Running Club member, BB Betsy. Though I didn’t initially like the idea of driving to a run, I did discover that I liked SRC members, including BB. Combine a big set of members doing every variety of speed and distance (but favoring a 14-mile route that includes a certain 1-mile, 6%-grade hill) with helpful advice about running and intelligent conversations, and I’m still coming. It helps that the talking makes the running so much more bearable.
I’m still a librarian. (It was never the profession that was the problem.) But I’m faster, more fit, and still challenging myself. In the meantime, I also picked up 2 new interests, craft beers and coffee. As crises go, it’s all been pretty reasonable, even the hill.
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption and link to expanded blogpost (Fool Running: Mid-Life Crisis): 2022’06’03’F.]
The company on one particular run
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (#2: Published in 9/29/19 RUN REPORT)
READ and COLLAPSE
I was in a rush for our 9/14, S run. I’d just finished 6 miles around Whitemarsh Township and still had to do a Shawmont-Standard run for a total of 20 miles before leaving for an appointment. Happily, Austin and Maya were happy to help me lead the group.
Though I groused about the pace being too fast for a LSD run, the conversation was awesome so the time and distance went fast. Among the 3 of us I’ve done Shawmont Avenue by far the most times. That made me the old.
Austin was running with the club for the first time and jumped in with both feet doing Shawmont Avenue. (If you were at the 2019 annual SRC dinner, you saw his piece on JustGene: https://youtu.be/4Wdd1wU_Q2c.) That made him the new. Since, he’s also JustGene’s videographer, let’s also call that “borrowed”. (Work with me here.)
Maya would follow her friends off a cliff: She only meant to do an on-the-trail 10 but got absorbed by the scintillating conversation and just added on the extra 4 miles with hill. A true-blue Shawmonter.
The run was a marriage made in heaven. (Tell me that tortured metaphor wasn’t worth it.)
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
The disgusting etymology of the word “rumination”
The Definition of Rumination (#3: Published in 10/12/19 RUN REPORT)
READ and COLLAPSE
Have you ever thought about what the word ‘rumination’ means and nearly got sick when you discovered the disgusting truth after you actually looked it up? I have. (Nod to Tom Papa’s ‘Out in America’ segment of ‘Live from Here’—formerly ‘A Prairie Home Companion’.) Wikipedia’s definition #1 is what some of us actually have occasionally when puttin’ in the miles: a deep or considered thought about something. Definition #2 is what it really means: the action of chewing the cud. You realize it comes from the word ‘rumen’ don’t you? As in ‘the first stomach of a ruminant’ like cows (Lexico). When you’re ruminating, you’re coughing up an idea and mentally chewing on it again until it’s fine enough to pass through in the thoroughly-masticated state to the long-term memory. If no one’s ever shared that in the Run Report, it’s time someone did. And if someone has, it’s time someone did it again. Chew on that during the next Shawmont ascent. If it doesn’t make you sick.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
Familiar faces that raise an event to the next level
A Meeting of Like Minds (#4: Published in 11/9/19 RUN REPORT)
READ and COLLAPSE
The first time I ran Rehoboth Beach Marathon in 2017, I was checking out the bookstore in Rehoboth. Inside, I just happened upon Desi, Lakshmi, Diane, and a couple of other familiar faces. It was awesome! There’s something about misery loving company and adoring familiar company.
In the 2018 race I even got to run with Lakshmi. We had a great time comparing notes and encouraging each other. (Then she dusted me. Which was kind of discouraging. Not her fault!) And it was great seeing Tall Dave in both 2017 and 2018 even if we didn’t share a single step together. (His dust had settled by the time I even reached where he was when we met on the nature preserve switchback.)
As I write this, 2 days before Wineglass full in Corning NY (10/28), I’m planning to meet Heather, Christine, BB, and some Elkins Park Beer Runner buds at the start. Even if we don’t run together, being able to see each other and cheer each other on during the race proceedings will be a special experience. Because it always is.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
Different training strokes for different training folks
One Way to Train for a Marathon (#5: Published in 11/23/19 RUN REPORT)
READ and COLLAPSE
One of SRC’s marathoners has a training plan that really caught my attention. I use the basic strategy of training for around 3 months, building up to around 50 miles/week doing 4-5 runs, and completing a maximum long run of 23 miles. Including alternating 1-3 speed workouts per week in the last training cycle, it’s brought me down to a PR of 3:47:24. It’s worked for me.
They (anonymous 3rd-person singular) are using the basic strategy of 30 miles/week doing 2 runs with a maximum long run of 23 miles. It seems to defy the conventional wisdom which I’ve both read and heard from other marathoners but our running buddy’s training seems to be holding up. For this marathon training cycle, they’re injury free and able maintain a long-run pace faster than my PR, week after week.
One thing I can say is that different strokes work for different folks and notions of what’s conventional and unconventional can flip for any given runner. I’m wishing for continuing health and success for each of us with our individual running conventions.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
Unexpected environmental influences on running
Weather Extremes and You (#6: Published in 11/30/19 RUN REPORT)
READ and COLLAPSE
The late October news about the Getty Fire in northern LA—polluting the air, charring the landscape, and harassing my fraternal twin(!)—got me thinking about climate change and running. Leave it to Runner’s World (What Will Climate Change Mean for Your Favorite Marathon?) to tackle the topic with its own brand of velo-journalism. They mention Superstorm Sandy’s cancellation of The New York Marathon and the 60° temperature extremes of Boston, all of which have affected Shawmont runners. Sea-level rise isn’t far behind. On the plus side is more ideal race temperatures in normally more frigid cities. Weather(!) or not you believe in the phenomenon (Srsly. To a sizable percentage of people, I’m writing this piece undergirded by an outlandish assumption.), you still have to plan for the best in any race and settle for the worst. And maybe walk the talk. Unite Philly Run 5K anyone (or something like it)? Support for environmental change and 3.1 miles in our own backyard. Btw, I’ve actually run with an ultra-fine particulate mask on a poor-air-quality day in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. It’s okay until the condensation saturates the mask on a long run and the inhaling starts to get tortured.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption and embedded hyperlinks: 2022’06’04’S]
FOLLOWING IS SAME AS ABOVE.
How one particular ‘fool running’ started and connected with SRC
Midlife Crisis (#1: Published in 9/7/19 RUN REPORT)
Back in 2011, my attitude toward my work as a university librarian had started changing. I now know I was entering a mid-life crisis, a time in people’s lives when they can start champing at the bit to do things differently. I decided to do something to improve my health: running.
I started running by myself block distances that soon turned into miles. My standard route had me passing the house of a certain Shawmont Running Club member, BB Betsy. Though I didn’t initially like the idea of driving to a run, I did discover that I liked SRC members, including BB. Combine a big set of members doing every variety of speed and distance (but favoring a 14-mile route that includes a certain 1-mile, 6%-grade hill) with helpful advice about running and intelligent conversations, and I’m still coming. It helps that the talking makes the running so much more bearable.
I’m still a librarian. (It was never the profession that was the problem.) But I’m faster, more fit, and still challenging myself. In the meantime, I also picked up 2 new interests, craft beers and coffee. As crises go, it’s all been pretty reasonable, even the hill.
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption and link to expanded blogpost (Fool Running: Mid-Life Crisis): 2022’06’03’F.]
The company on one particular run
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (#2: Published in 9/29/19 RUN REPORT)
I was in a rush for our 9/14, S run. I’d just finished 6 miles around Whitemarsh Township and still had to do a Shawmont-Standard run for a total of 20 miles before leaving for an appointment. Happily, Austin and Maya were happy to help me lead the group.
Though I groused about the pace being too fast for a LSD run, the conversation was awesome so the time and distance went fast. Among the 3 of us I’ve done Shawmont Avenue by far the most times. That made me the old.
Austin was running with the club for the first time and jumped in with both feet doing Shawmont Avenue. (If you were at the 2019 annual SRC dinner, you saw his piece on JustGene: https://youtu.be/4Wdd1wU_Q2c.) That made him the new. Since, he’s also JustGene’s videographer, let’s also call that “borrowed”. (Work with me here.)
Maya would follow her friends off a cliff: She only meant to do an on-the-trail 10 but got absorbed by the scintillating conversation and just added on the extra 4 miles with hill. A true-blue Shawmonter.
The run was a marriage made in heaven. (Tell me that tortured metaphor wasn’t worth it.)
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
The disgusting etymology of the word “rumination”
The Definition of Rumination (#3: Published in 10/12/19 RUN REPORT)
Have you ever thought about what the word ‘rumination’ means and nearly got sick when you discovered the disgusting truth after you actually looked it up? I have. (Nod to Tom Papa’s ‘Out in America’ segment of ‘Live from Here’—formerly ‘A Prairie Home Companion’.) Wikipedia’s definition #1 is what some of us actually have occasionally when puttin’ in the miles: a deep or considered thought about something. Definition #2 is what it really means: the action of chewing the cud. You realize it comes from the word ‘rumen’ don’t you? As in ‘the first stomach of a ruminant’ like cows (Lexico). When you’re ruminating, you’re coughing up an idea and mentally chewing on it again until it’s fine enough to pass through in the thoroughly-masticated state to the long-term memory. If no one’s ever shared that in the Run Report, it’s time someone did. And if someone has, it’s time someone did it again. Chew on that during the next Shawmont ascent. If it doesn’t make you sick.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
Familiar faces that raise an event to the next level
A Meeting of Like Minds (#4: Published in 11/9/19 RUN REPORT)
The first time I ran Rehoboth Beach Marathon in 2017, I was checking out the bookstore in Rehoboth. Inside, I just happened upon Desi, Lakshmi, Diane, and a couple of other familiar faces. It was awesome! There’s something about misery loving company and adoring familiar company.
In the 2018 race I even got to run with Lakshmi. We had a great time comparing notes and encouraging each other. (Then she dusted me. Which was kind of discouraging. Not her fault!) And it was great seeing Tall Dave in both 2017 and 2018 even if we didn’t share a single step together. (His dust had settled by the time I even reached where he was when we met on the nature preserve switchback.)
As I write this, 2 days before Wineglass full in Corning NY (10/28), I’m planning to meet Heather, Christine, BB, and some Elkins Park Beer Runner buds at the start. Even if we don’t run together, being able to see each other and cheer each other on during the race proceedings will be a special experience. Because it always is.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
Different training strokes for different training folks
One Way to Train for a Marathon (#5: Published in 11/23/19 RUN REPORT)
One of SRC’s marathoners has a training plan that really caught my attention. I use the basic strategy of training for around 3 months, building up to around 50 miles/week doing 4-5 runs, and completing a maximum long run of 23 miles. Including alternating 1-3 speed workouts per week in the last training cycle, it’s brought me down to a PR of 3:47:24. It’s worked for me.
They (anonymous 3rd-person singular) are using the basic strategy of 30 miles/week doing 2 runs with a maximum long run of 23 miles. It seems to defy the conventional wisdom which I’ve both read and heard from other marathoners but our running buddy’s training seems to be holding up. For this marathon training cycle, they’re injury free and able maintain a long-run pace faster than my PR, week after week.
One thing I can say is that different strokes work for different folks and notions of what’s conventional and unconventional can flip for any given runner. I’m wishing for continuing health and success for each of us with our individual running conventions.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption: 2022’06’04’S]
Unexpected environmental influences on running
Weather Extremes and You (#6: Published in 11/30/19 RUN REPORT)
The late October news about the Getty Fire in northern LA—polluting the air, charring the landscape, and harassing my fraternal twin(!)—got me thinking about climate change and running. Leave it to Runner’s World (What Will Climate Change Mean for Your Favorite Marathon?) to tackle the topic with its own brand of velo-journalism. They mention Superstorm Sandy’s cancellation of The New York Marathon and the 60° temperature extremes of Boston, all of which have affected Shawmont runners. Sea-level rise isn’t far behind. On the plus side is more ideal race temperatures in normally more frigid cities. Weather(!) or not you believe in the phenomenon (Srsly. To a sizable percentage of people, I’m writing this piece undergirded by an outlandish assumption.), you still have to plan for the best in any race and settle for the worst. And maybe walk the talk. Unite Philly Run 5K anyone (or something like it)? Support for environmental change and 3.1 miles in our own backyard. Btw, I’ve actually run with an ultra-fine particulate mask on a poor-air-quality day in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. It’s okay until the condensation saturates the mask on a long run and the inhaling starts to get tortured.
CtCloser (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
[Original version in Facebook. Republished with caption and embedded hyperlinks: 2022’06’04’S]
Last update: 2022’12’23’F
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