Running Shorts

...and sprinters, jumpers, throwers, vaulters, etc... ...basically, anyone who is tired of training mostly solo and looking for a group of people to train with. I'm sure I've mentioned this before , but training alone kind of sucks sometimes. I mean, I'm generally pretty self-motivated when it comes to getting in the work everyday, but logging those miles day-in and day-out can get pretty lonely sometime. And here's the thing: there are plenty of really good runners in the city, but coordinating days and times to meet up gets challenging, especially when you're trying to do it every week. So here's what I'm proposing: a consistent schedule of places and times to meet up and run, four days per week. A Sunday morning long run, Monday recovery run, Tuesday and Friday track workout. Or some variation thereof. All meeting at the same time and some place every week. Come every day if you want, or just come whenever you can. Run with a larger group, or trai

I may be slightly unique among distance runners: I prefer to run my races without a watch. That's right. No watch. Nothing. This is my watch-less wrist:  My watch tan, in all it's shameful glory   I rely on my torn-up Timex Ironman for my everyday training, and like most runners I'm probably a bit of a slave to the clock. But come race time, the watch is off. Why? Isn't that unnerving? How do you know if you're on or off pace? If races are all about finishing time, shouldn't the watch be a necessary tool? I've actually found -- and this is my own personal experience, mind you -- that I've run worse when I worry about the watch than when I just run. I get nervous and worried about hitting my splits, staying ahead of target pace, keeping my effort within the ideal range...and inevitably, what ends up happening? I start out too quick (to get ahead of pace; in case, you know, I fall off later), then fall off pace later (because I started out to

Sorry for the brief lull in the blog...I don't have an excuse, just laziness. Anyway, over the past two weekends I ran two races, a 5k and a 15k -- here's the recap for both. Race 1: Bockfest 5k, 1st place, 15:12 First race was another 5k, this one in Cincinnati as part of Bockfest weekend. I won this one (finished second last year), but more importantly improved my time from a couple weeks ago, which tells me I'm getting more fit each week. My time was a few second slower than at the same race last year, but then I was chasing the eventual winner and was also in much better racing shape (looking at my log, I had done a lot more 5k-10k-LT pace quality work at this point last year). This year, on the other hand, I ran 3 of the 3.1 miles by myself while also coming off of almost sole base training (mileage, sub-threshold runs, and hills). So what does this tell me? At the same time as last year, I'm in about the same physical shape. The difference, though, is that las