On Thursday I shuffled past 1 thousand miles of running for the year. I'm pretty sure that makes 41 years in a row. Since I didn't keep a log until I was 30 I can't officially confirm it but I was a fairly consistent runner through college and immediately after college. Considering I missed 4 months of running because of various injuries I feel pretty good about it.
What's distressing about this comeback from the last round of injuries has been the less than stunning return of leg speed. I've endured four major surgeries over the last 8 years and had to struggle to find my legs, but these last 2 months have been really difficult. I simply don't feel like pushing myself to anything remotely approaching 9 minute pace. I did one tempo run in the last three weeks where I average close to 9 minute pace. I know I can run fast but I simply don't feel like it. I better snap out of it because I signed up for a half marathon next month.
As to the music I spent the week looking at the various lists from NPR, Rolling Stone and other publications, naming the top albums of the year. Rolling Stone really surprised me. I actually own 4 of their top albums for 2012. The shocker is that Neil Young's "Pyschedelic Pill" came in at #10. As I blogged earlier, the album has three great tunes, but the bulk of it is just self-indulgent jamming. Bob Dylan's "Tempest" came in at #2 which made me think that Rolling Stone really isn't catering to what advertisers consider the "key demographics," or the 18 to 49 crowd.
As for the memories, the Czarina and I sat watching the live stream from the Footlocker High School Cross Country Championships this afternoon. It made me sad when I realized that I only knew about 4 or 5 of the 80 runners competing in the boys and girls race. The loss of Dyestat has really left me out of the loop when it comes to high school distance running. It's a giant hole that other Internet running websites simply don't seem to be able to fill. It makes me wish I had the resources and wherewith all to fill the void left by Dyestat's demise.
John, It's remarkable that you are able to maintain high, steady mileage, year after year. In my programme, I haven't attempted to keep precise track of distance, however, I do know exactly how many days I ran in 2012 : 154 (42%). Given I perform a lot of short runs in the evening - just to say I did it - I'm going to hasard an average distance of 7 km per outing. That would give me 1078 (wow, broke a thousand) kilomètres or about 673 miles for the year. Looks like I should set a more ambitious goal using your mark as a standard ! Kind regards, Mason
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