Reading and Running

Maybe you didn’t notice, maybe you did. But while I was locked away in no-internet land, I finished my old book “Outliers” and moved onto the new book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougal. (See the new picture in my right sidebar...) It was first recommended to me by a friend in my running group who stumbled onto this unlikely national bestseller while he was on sabbatical from running due to an injury. When he told me the main premise of the book, I was more than intrigued since it supposedly confirms when I’ve been preaching to many of my running friends for quite some time. Since then, the book’s been making the rounds on many running blogs and podcasts (including Brandon’s Marathon who will be interviewing Mr. McDougall himself on his next podcast!) and has created quite a stir in the running community. Although I was familiar with his arguments for natural running and have found myself advocating many of his basic principles in arguments and discussions on the “most ideal way to run” with my friends, I felt it was important that I read the book to become familiar with his story, his theories and his path to discovery which was differs from my own. I am currently about ¾ done with the book and will post a full report on the story from a medical perspective once my reading assignment is complete.

On the running front, my first week “back on the grid” as my marathon-training buddies have come to call it, has been a bit tumultuous. After averaging only about 30 miles per week for base training the past four weeks, I packed some heavy miles on the roads this week. I have a nice 13 miler with my running group bright and early tomorrow morning and assuming it gets done would put me at 47 miles. For me this is the good part since last year at this time, I was at the peak of training for the San Francisco Marathon and still “only” completed 46 miles for the week. The bad part? My average pace this week was slower than any training week I did leading up to Boston. (I’d call my current state of running slower than molasses…) Yes, I know that was part of the program – “Run longer miles; run slower miles” – but it’s still quite a shock to the old confidence, you know? Alright, hope you all are in the midst of a good weekend. Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow night to report my actual training numbers for the week…if I’m not too embarrassed to tabulate them.