Workout 1. 10 miles in 74 minutes. Workout 2. 7 miles in 52 minutes. 17 miles in doubles. --------------------------------- I'm already thinking about my October marathon. I want to run a 2:29 there. I have to approach the training with some sense of logic, but the more I run and after reading the Blaine quote below, the more I realize that I need to apply more illogic than logic to achieve this. I won't get all mystic on you and will instead call these illogical things, "caveman shit." I'm starting a list of caveman shit that I will attempt to do--Blaine in the bubble-style--as I try to run a 2:29 in about 6 months. It will be a supplement to the Magna Carta. I don't know if I can do any of this, but it looks good in my cave under the flickering light of my grudge-loving campfire. Yes, you could call these Karnievel stunts, but the results are just me trying to run a relatively crappy 2:29 instead of me making big bucks and posing with North Face(TM) gear on. I consider the list more akin to Cassidy's magical workout in Parker's classic. Caveman Shit, by me: - 26.2 miles, or a marathon distance a day (in doubles mostly) for 7 days = around 184 miles for the week - 51 x 800 @ 2:51 per with 1:30 rest between each rep. (peace out, Brad Hudson) - 100 hill repeats at 1:00 per repeat - 20 Mount Misery circuits - 35 mile single run - 3 x double mountain loops - 22 mile progression run ended with 4 Mount Misery hill circuits - Fast for 24 hrs, run 26 miles in the next 24 hours (only water and coffee). More to come as I think of them during my runs. ------------------------------- I am about to embark on one hell of a writing marathon--yes, a 2:29-type writing marathon. Accordingly, I need to dedicate my time to running and writing non-publically, so this blog may go very quiet from time to time. I'll try to post my workouts at an absolute minimum. But the 3 page sacramental rites about Barney Fife 5ks ain't gonna happen. ----------------------- I've been following David Blaine's magic trick to some degree. I have no opinion on the matter other than I like the quote that he mentioned has been with him his whole life. It's from Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and worth posting here to a group of runners with goals: "When you throw a stone into the water, it finds the quickest way to the bottom of the water. It is the same when Siddhartha has an aim, a goal. Siddhartha does nothing; he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he goes through the affairs of the world like a stone through the water, without bestirring himself; he is drawn and lets himself fall. He is drawn by his goal, for he does not allow anything to enter his mind which opposes his goal…Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goal, if he can think, wait and fast.” - -------------------------------- I have come across a letter today that was written by a man who's dying of cancer. I don't know the man directly and only spoke to him once, before his world blew up. Stumbling upon this latest letter about tubes, treatments, nervous doctors, and crying family have caused me to pause and reflect. It's sadly tragic how the world--at this very instant--is so different for everyone. This man is dying in a bed at a hospital that is across the street from a mall where a woman contemplates in the mirror which blouse goes better with her new hairdo. Down one more block, somewhere upstairs, you've got a kid playing a video game and a deadbeat dad behind closed doors getting his daily fix of heroin. Downstairs, a family is heading to Bible study as they cross the street in front of the man who's heading in to get the results of his biopsy at that same hospital where that one man is dying. We all need to read letters like this from time-to-time. It should make us thankful for where we are today and what we have, for being able to even run, regardless of pace, and for catching sight of the cardinal in the pine tree.