Priorities

Cactus Rose 50 will have to wait.

 Planning and looking forward to running 50 miles at the race tomorrow, but life intervened.

 I had trained as well as I wanted too. And was ready to have fun on the rocks of HCSNA near Bandera,Tx. when family asked me to attend an event celebrating Union Pacific's 150th anniversary. 

Family day with my grandkids, wife, nieces, nephews, and friends. There will be fun and games, train rides, and Abraham Lincoln will be the guest speaker! He signed the Pacific Railway act in 1862!

I had to ask myself, Will my grandkids remember me telling them about a 50 mile race I ran or will they remember me being with them riding a train and listening to Honest Abe?

I enjoy the friends I have made through out all these years of trail running. Some remain constant and I cherish them. New ones come, and go, and keep it exciting. But in the end, Family is the most important.

There will be another race, another day. Or maybe not. 

There always will be another chance to be with family,

Or maybe not.

John's first Race!

Last weekend My 12 year old Grandson John and I ran a 5k benefiting St. PJ’s children’s home. Driving over to the event I asked him if he’d like for each of us to run our own race or would he like us to run together. Let’s run together he said. OK that’s good. I then explained the whole pacing and saving some energy for the later stages of the run concept. I told him to think about how long three miles were. He’d run a one miler before, so I said, triple that.

We stood around waiting for the start going over our plan to start off at an easy pace then speed up after we warm up. The field of runners  seemed to consist of more teens and pre-teens than adults. The race started on the Campus of St. Peter’s, Saint Joseph’s Children’s home and would wind through a portion of the Mission trail straddling the San Antonio River just south of San Antonio’s downtown. This is a pretty and peaceful paved trail that takes runners and bicyclist to all of the old Spanish Missions built in the 18 century. The horn blew and runners took off running full speed, and so did John! I laughed and knew I’d see him soon. Sure enough, at the one mile marker there he is. I passed a walking John, waving and saying, “Remember what we talked about. Take it easy and pace yourself. See you at the end!” After I crossed the finish line I grabbed some water and headed back out to find John. I ran into him about half a mile from the finish and asked if he needed water. “YES!” he said. I laughed and he smiled. John drank some water and we trotted to the finish of his first 5K. 

Over our breakfast of Pancakes and sausage, served at the race, we again talked about the importance of pacing. Maybe next time John will take my advice. Maybe. We did not talk about running for a fast time. Although John's finishing time of 30:14 is respectable. But as my good friend Liza said in a recent interview on Trailrunner Nation, " At the end of your life, who CARES how fast you ran anything!"

The best thing about running at a race with my grandson for the first time was, He liked It! I hope it's the beginning of a love for running. A love he and I can share.

I'm done setting weekly goal miles

Today as I was heading home from a 4 1/2 mile easy run , I started recalling the miles I've run so far this week. I start my week on Sundays, like most calendars. Last Sunday I ran 16 miles at Hill Country State Natural area in Bandera TX. 16 Quality Miles, I thought. Tuesday I ran 5 and a quarter at hilly Freidrich park where I have been spending most Tuesdays with my friend Lalo as he pushes me to run hard up every hill. This has helped by the way. I ran up Ice Cream hill at Bandera last Sunday. Well, almost all the way up. I did power hike the last five yards. But I would not have attempted to attack this very steep, rocky, rugged, roughly 1/4 mile hill before the Friedrich park workouts. So, almost 26 miles for the week. Maybe 10 tomorrow and Saturday is up in the air but it won't be a long run. Then I thought, I really don't care how many miles a week I run. As Long as I'm getting in quality miles, I'll be OK at the Cactus Rose 50 miler Oct.27. The only thing I'm worried about right now is which shoes to wear. The Bandera rocks really beat up your feet if you don't choose the right shoes. People have said things like "Bandera is where rocks go to die" -Nick Clark. And, "It seems like every time we come to Bandera, there's more Rocks. I think they have babies" - Chris Russell

Recently I heard a podcast where a Tri-athlete who wins his age group at many half and full Ironmans talked about how he only works out about 10 hours a week. That's not much for an Ironman but it's obviously working for him. His theory is it must be quality over quantity. He scoffed at tearing up the body week in and week out leading up to an event and then hoping the body fully recovers in the last two weeks. This made me think of many runners I know who have been injured while training for a marathon or an ultra only to go into the run beat up, injured, or miss the event all together. And also about another who due to a new job only had time for one maybe two short weekday runs and one weekend day when he could run long. Chris went into his 100 miler after this training schedule and performed very well! I think he set a PR.

I've often said I need to preserve my aging body. So I'm going with the quality over quantity training plan. I'll tear up my body on race day.  Now, I've got to tell my training buddy to ease up on me on those tuesday runs. Race day is just around the corner.