Saturday, May 9, 2009

The Reeducation of the Red Fox



In my quest to conquer the half marathon later this fall, I've begun to read Tim Noakes' LORE OF RUNNING. I really don't know much about running. I know that the more you run the better you'll race. I know about the importance of workouts and long runs. I know about rest and recovery...but there is a lot I don't know. Hence why I read. I am not going to lie, this is pretty heavy reading. I can get through volumes about the The First World War, Daniel Boone and Lincoln with playground ease, but reading about the mechanics of running can be tedious. Anytime I see a diagram of a muscle I have Vietnam-like flashbacks of Bio 101 in college (where I scored a 33% on my first exam...which was rounded up to a C! Swish!). However, the book touches upon some great things and I simply glean over the chapters I don't care much about (anything with golgi bodies and mitochondria). In addition, the book is filled with great quotes which I intend to post on this blog (see bottom of post).

I ran an easy 7.5 yesterday along the CCT. Nothing new/exciting to report. Near the end of my run I caught up to an older man who was bent half over plugging his way forward. He half turned and said, "I've been waiting for you". Was it a pick-up line or was the meant to imply we would race? Thankfully it was the latter. "Let's see if we can push it to the city center" he declared. He started to sprint and I just sat on his shoulder pushing him along. After a minute or so he gave up and told me to have a good weekend or something like that. Lot's of characters on the trails.

"You have not lived in the world of competitive sport until you have fought a battle that is not against an opponent, but against yourself"
- Peter Pollock

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I really don't know much about running"

I doubt that.

RM said...

Did he offer you a pill?

I take the blue ones everytime.

JARRIN said...

That was actually me Klim.

- JARRIN