Rugged Individualist. Certified USA Triathlon Coach & NASM Personal Trainer, Men's Self Improvement Coach. President of Go Farther Sports. National Ranked Triathlete & 100 Mile Grand Slam Ultrarunner, only the fourth New Yorker to finish four of the oldest and most prestigious 100 mile ultramarathons in the U.S. in only 10 weeks.

Friday, July 5, 2019

TGIF Summer Coffee Musings

The dark roast coffee is good today. Maybe because I scored myself a free one this morning.


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The Milltown 5K race yesterday was decent. After a "not-so-easy" easy 5 mile run yesterday that still has my legs sore and achy from Ironman, I ran about 75-80% effort to play it safe. I scored a 22:37 which isn't bad. I also hit the podium for the first time in my new age group (50-59), getting 2nd place.
So recovery is finally happening.

My legs are fine today, so I think I'll be ready to resume some hard training starting tomorrow. The strategy now is for short hard workouts for the swim and bike for my 3 triathlons which are Olympic Distance or shorter starting late July, and long trail runs for UTMB at the end of August. And I have to keep my weight down since that will be critical for UTMB.

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I'll be running 12 miles in the Rutgers Eco-Preserve tomorrow, starting at around 7AM.

UTMB suddenly is looming!

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It was nice for Anne S. to acknowledge my birthday with a Guinness beer. I was surprised how large the bottle was. And I was surprised at how I finished it off pretty quickly too. I guess when it's 90 degrees and finished with a 5K run, I can become quite thirsty. 🍺😁
Thanks Anne!

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I hope everyone enjoyed their July 4 celebrations. It actually had been quite lovely last night with the fireworks on Staten Island but was grateful that everything fell silent by 10PM.

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Unlike previous autumn running seasons in which I just stopped racing altogether, I figure I'll be active in local races and stay quite active through the winter. I don't have to put exhaustive ultras or Ironman triathlons on my calendar, but sticking with shorter distance races for maintenance through the off season will help keep my edge and keep my weight down. It might help focus for the 2020 season a bit better too.

That means I'll be fully active with the 50s team in the fall. I might even consider doing that Grand Prix "long distance" 1 miler in August (Midland Mile).
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There was a 70 year old man that is accused of cheating in some marathons, and there seems to be a lot of evidence against him.

And now ABC is reporting that they found him dead in the LA river.

WTH?!

They're not sure what the cause of death is, but suicide isn't ruled out.
I wouldn't be surprised either if it was suicide.

Remember, running is a lifestyle for most of us. We runners do stake our athletic reputations on our past races.

When that reputation is tarnished, the whole world around us could collapse. The runners that we surround ourselves with will look askance at us, and online running forums can turn quite nasty.

TGIF Summer Coffee Musings
It's not a very good situation. As a matter of fact, the constant insults that can be thrown by fellow runners can push anyone over the edge.

A couple of points I make from this. Firstly, it's not worth cheating. It really isn't. If you're honest and wind up not qualifying for Boston, or getting a world record, or even a PR, it's not the end of the world. Plus, it's comforting that all the times you did in races came honestly.

Second, and this goes for all of us, if we do catch a person cheating, it's really best not to insult the runner, whether in person or online. There are efforts nowadays to stop bullying tactics from our children. I think it applies to adults as well.

Although most of us don't understand the reasoning behind cheating in races, it does happen. I am glad they are called out for it, but hopefully we can give these people a little room to atone for it.

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