just a runner, reading, and a reader, running.
“Diane, 7:30 am, February twenty-fourth. Entering town of Twin Peaks. Five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line. Never seen so many trees in my life.”- Dale Cooper (Kyle Maclachlan), Twin Peaks This is the first line from Detective Dale Cooper in the 1990 pilot episode of Twin Peaks… Continue reading Learning from Cooper.
I’m sure there are some benefits to running in the morning, but I just do it because I have always done it; in the first stage of my running life at the weekends; and now in my second. I’ve heard some things about how morning running improves the way your body metabolises fat for energy… Continue reading Have I ever seen a sheep sleeping?
How can we run faster? How can we run farther? How can we run farther, faster? These are the questions that runners of all calibres ask themselves, have asked themselves, and will ask themselves forever more. Throughout history there have been visionaries, athletes and coaches alike, who propose answers with evidence to these eternal queries.… Continue reading Running to the Edge, and Stories in Running.
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, or how fast you go, sometimes running hurts. Since Christmas my focus has been on the long run. Yes, the long run as in thinking long term about my running, but mostly I mean the long run as in the longest run in my week. So far I’ve… Continue reading The Slog
I like Strava. Like all social media, our relationship with it always has the potential to turn sour. Constantly comparing yourself to someone's online presence is inherently unhealthy because you don’t have the full picture. Right now, I just find it quite fun. It also does a decent job of tracking my training, but like… Continue reading Pen and Paper
I have completed the Adharanand Finn Trilogy. First I read his latest (and greatest?), The Rise of the Ultrarunners, then his first book, Running with the Kenyans, and now his middle child: the deep immersion and investigation into the fascinating world of Japanese running culture, The Way of the Runner. I am a big fan… Continue reading The Way of the Runner, and the Long Game.
It hasn’t been the most eventful week of training that I’ve ever undertaken in my life, but I’m perfectly happy with that. As I have reiterated in previous blogs, my current focus is on building aerobic fitness, and eliminating some of the lower leg niggles that I have been carrying for a while now, so… Continue reading The Wind Giveth, the Wind Taketh
I’d always heard that one of the key components of marathon training was the 2 hour long run, and I always figured that at some point I would start doing 2 hour runs regardless of whether I was training for a marathon or not. Running is endurance, as soon as you come off the sprint… Continue reading And Suddenly, my Longest Run.
It's safe to assume that we won't be racing before April, I think. The end of the pandemic might finally be tangible, with the vaccine providing a slowly unfurling solution to this crisis, but we aren’t there yet. From a runners perspective this makes things very simple: no races, no track, no group runs, so… Continue reading Back to Base
Last year, during January, I took on a complete dry spell from alcohol and went fully vegetarian. This year I am doing no such thing. I just have no desire to test myself in that way, and I think this lack of desire comes, in part, from the unseen effects that increasing my training throughout… Continue reading Priorities
