My name is David (Dylan to some). I am a runner.

It started yesterday. I waited too long to go run and it was in the 80s with blazing sun. My mental state was good. I wanted to run around the lake for five miles.  I made it three before I slowed to a minute walk. That was repeated several times before I made it home. Even Tiffany busted me on the road, catching me in one of those walks. She let me know at a birthday party last night for a good friend of many, who turned 70.

This morning I had a reasonable seven hours of sleep behind me. My voice was hoarse, perhaps from World Cup cheering yesterday. I had an egg and English muffin sandwich breakfast with two large glasses of water. Maybe the lousy English soccer affected my muffin.

My goal was 10 miles. I arrived at Park Avenue early even. The assembled runners kibitzed for five minutes or so and then we started running.

I took it easy for the most part but in the third mile I had to slow and walk. My legs were dead again. Off and on, I kept trying to reboot but failed. Chris stuck with me and gave me encouragement but I was burned out. I veered off the route, bid him good day, and meandered back to Park Avenue on my own. Mostly walking too. 4.7 miles in 1:06. Ouch.

I drove home, showered and slipped back into bed. At noon I woke up feeling like I could do some more of that. The boys were stirring though so I got up too. No mojo. I’m going to bed early tonight. We start four day 10-hour work weeks this week for the summer. I need more stamina and running time.

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The latest Runners World arrived and it has the RW Challenge for 2010 in it. I adopted the training plan they ran last year for my two races since: Hartford and Gasparilla. Each race was a PR so I like the plan. They haven’t changed it so they must still believe in it too.

They laid out the Challenge this year with pages on target times of 3:00 to 5:00 hours in 30 minute increments. 4:30 is my target and they identified factors based on time at different distances which convince me I can break 4:30. Now I just have to train smart. The woman they featured in the write-up is “older” like me and they said as how old people should adjust their training plan so to take a rest day after every run and make the actual runs meaningful in that serious intervals-hills-long run way.  I can dig that.

10 Miles.Today was my first run of 10 miles or more since the Gasparilla in February. It was hot, humid and air-still out there this morning with temps in the mid-70s. I started out slow and backed off, as Jack or Bob would say.  I had an achy back from yard work yesterday but it eased up after a couple of miles. Nevertheless, I was tired from a poor week of sleeping. It wasn’t until I downed a Shot Blok after four miles that I felt strong enough to raise the pace.

I ran with Chris for four miles with Jari eavesdropping behind us a few yards. We covered a fair number of topics, few of which I can remember, but it was good visiting. From the water stop I ran with Jurgen for a mile and learned that the condensation drip on my AC handler could mean it’s icing/freezing up. Oh joy. I am ready to turn on the heat and defrost that sucker before I face the prospect of  replacing it.

The last five miles turned into a run five minutes/walk one ordeal. So long as I can build on it next week, I can live with that.

U-S-A! U-S-A! It’s that time again. While running this morning I thought of olden days when we’d take a condo in Cocoa Beach for a week in June. The Dowdy 4th floor unit on the ocean to be exact. One year we spent more time inside watching World Cup matches from wherever the games were.  I am very much looking forward to the next six weeks starting with USA v. England Saturday afternoon.

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The last two weeks have been marathon training light. 15-20 mile weeks with increasingly longer long runs. It feels right. The next three weeks will be 20-25 milers.

Last Sunday the Orlando Runners Club met up as they always do at Welbourne and Park Ave. in downtown Winter Park. Jack was there to warm us up with his humor. Others were Seth, Ed, Chris, Dave, Cheryl, Todd and several I forget (a week later). Cheryl and I ran together much of the way. I put in eight.

Weekday runs coincided with Winter Park Dawgs and ORC “events.” We ran from Tolla’s for three miles then ate Italian and drank beer. We ran from the Mellow Mushroom for another three or five and downed pizza and beer. It’s all about the company and the beer. I fit in another pair of five-milers along with the party runs.

Today the ORC group was heavily male. Chris, Dave, Billy, Bruce from England (a returning guest runner from 2008), a couple of other forgotten name guys and one woman.  Jack was in Vermont for the Covered Bridge Half Marathon with winter resident Bob.

Back in WP, I started first and led the pack for about 100 yards after which time Chris caught me and stuck with me and everybody else surged on ahead.  Chris and I debated the causes of our slowness. Ignoring age, I concluded that the crowd that runs with us (after all these years) is not the same. New people have made it younger – a good thing – and faster.  In the end we do what we can do.

Chris turned home after the four mile water stop. I addressed my dead legs by eating a shot blok and drinking some Gatorade in a cooler (the “performance” potion). That had a decidedly positive effect over the last six miles. I hadn’t run the round-the-lake route in three months. How bad is that? I made it better than some nightmare runs I can remember from past years. Ten minute miles, it turned out.

Movie review: Last night turned into date night with Mrs. T. I offered a movie, she asked which one and within minutes we were on our way to see Sex and the City 2. The movie was total escapism. Women dressed up, travelling abroad, flying ultra first class, meeting old boyfriends, shopping (shoes), personal drivers and butlers, hot men (and women), relationship analysis, happy ending, etc. The theatre was full of women and it was definitely buzzing. I got as much out of their reaction to scenes as I was being amused by the movie and great one-liners. A good date night flick.

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I aim to keep my pattern of two marathons a year. For Fall 2010 I have selected the Amica Marathon in Newport, Rhode Island, on October 17. Last year’s weather was so horrid (a week after my glorious Hartford Marathon effort) that I expect perfect conditions this year. Logical, right? There were cold, torrential rains and wind according to my noble dedicated never-say-quit teacher friend, April Anne, who endured it in 2009.

The Newport course runs the coast practically every step of the route with the undulating challenge of hills long, short, steep and less so the entire way. There are some trackback sections where I can see the fasties and the slowers. I liked that in Hartford. I plan to stay with dear ol’ Dad and sister Anne, then day trip it up to the race start by 8 a.m. on Sunday morning. Meeting up with my northern summer pals would make the trip even better.

Training officially starts June 29 but I will start ramping up from my lethargy over the next six weeks. I finally have some purpose again. Until now, I’ve been wallowing uselessly. On Donner and Vixen!

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It is officially shirtless running weather in Florida. When the lows don’t go below 70 it isn’t hard to imagine how hot it’ll be after five or six miles. I took it off this morning for what turned out to be a tag teamof companions.  I ran with Chris to start, with traces of Dave and Billy. After the four minute water stop Chris headed home and I stuck with Cheryl, Jack. Liz and Rose. After five miles I was alone and turned in to WIndsong to run the final two miles alone. The heat reminded me of running Atlantic Avenue in Misquamicut, RI, in August. Marathon training. 

Several have asked what I’m training for. I think #10 will be Newport RI in late October. After last year’s torrential cold rain race I am betting the weather will be ideal this year. Crossing fingers.

After the run I went down to Palmano’s for an egg and bacon sandwich on Italian bread with an Americano coffee. Chris and his delightful bride Cindy came by too and we talked and read the paper. I like Palmano’s better than Starbuck’s for the breakfast and better than Briar Patch for the coffee. I’ll never go to Briar Patch again anyway because they mismanaged and abused the employment of both my sons.

From breakfast I headed to Playalinda Beach for five hours of glorious sun and hot beach time. The south wind kept it cool and the water was refreshing. At Lot 12 it was practically deserted which suited me fine.

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Last Sunday we bid farewell to Bob over the course of a six mile run. Now he’s off to Vermont.  It was in the nick of time for him because the humidity and heat have arrived and probably won’t wane until his return in October. 

Nevertheless, I met up with a handful of runners Monday night for the Mellow Mushroom evening run, pie and beer. I surprised myself by cranking up my pace and pushing it for almost five miles. It was reminiscent of some early March morning cool running and racing, as in 45F and a 10K distance. It was mid-70s and sweaty. I relaxed and cruised along meditating on my breathing.

Lo and behold I found a chance to run again on Thursday morning. I may set a weekly mileage record (for March and April) after tomorrow’s ORC Sunday run.

Happy birthday Mom (RIP).

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I took a run through my favorite hunting grounds – Baldwin Park – last week. Loose change on my mind, as always, when I take that route.  About a mile in to the run I saw something on the ground and it was reflecting the morning sun brightly. I slowed to size it up and immediately stopped in my tracks. I picked up a gold banded ring with small diamonds all the way around. It had been run over a time or three, I suspect, since it was missing a number of stones.

Because this discovery occurred right after I sent the U.S. Treasury far more money than I wanted, I am pleased.

I am still enjoying the pleasure of that feeling, without resolution to (a) whether the loser of the ring ran an ad in the paper, (b) posted a lost notice at some Baldwin Park retailer, or (c) if in fact it’s real. I haven’t done anything with it yet except imagine all kinds of scenarios as to how it got on the road. Can you say “angry jilted fiance?”

I ran six slow miles last Sunday with Cheryl and Bob. Bob is a week away from heading to Maine for the summer and the Covered Bridge Half Marathon too. Jack’s joining him for that one in June.

We also ran with a mom and her daughter who were out for the first time. The daughter is a sophomore track runner in high school out east of town.  They ran mostly with Jack so we had to advise them that he took them on the “age adjusted” shortcut course. Dave and Jurgen came up on us with a mile to go and finished with us over the last stretch.

Since last Sunday I had several good intentions to run but didn’t. I am going to try and count seeing Tiffany S. at Fiddlers on Thursday night as a “run” because I asked her to tell me her story of running Boston last Monday. My other excuse is I am riveted to the blog and Facebook page of Runner Susan as she does her best imitation of Erin Brockovich down in Texas. You won’t believe the story. Go read it.

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I did run four miles on Friday but that’s about it.

Today I was out at the university to emcee the second annual attempt to set a world record for most participants in a bicycle parade. The site was excellent. So was the weather. The participants were about 1,900 short of the record.

The record is around 2,000. Hey. it was fun and the Guinness tasted great afterwards.

The parade has certain requirements, like no big gaps, which we did not satisfy, given the number of eager college students to go fast and the elementary age kids on short bikes and short pedal wheels.

The course is just 2.2 miles and for some it was a flash. For the little kids it was a journey.

Besides the bike parade I did some productive yard work this weekend. The homestead actually looks pretty good for a change. I can remember doing more of this in years passed and can’t understand why I ended up paying kids to do it. Maybe when it gets hot I’ll remember.

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I used all my free time during spring break to run ……… once, on Wednesday, for five miles. And today I really pushed it by running a whole mile more than last Sunday – seven miles (not counting the cheating shortcut I took with Jack).

[Warning - you had to be there] This morning’s effort started with an open-faced Liz sandwich scratch with Dave. Then we posed with the Secretary of da fence, Jack. And in honor of Christine’s last run of the season, she took a group picture of those in attendance: Jack, Chris, Dave, Liz, Bob, Jurgen and two others. She vowed to end her running season with today’s last run, because she expects the humidity to dampen her running mood. She’ll be jumping in the pool from now until late September.

I ran spells with Jack, Christine and Bob or combinations thereof. I had to make a pit stop along the way due to a wholly non-nutritional and system-upsetting dinner last night. I caught up by taking shortcuts with Jack who has a senior citizen’s license to take shortcuts.

So my week total of 12 miles bodes well to exceed my March total of 30 miles. Such low expectations. On the other hand, my Dead Runner Society spreadsheet reminds me I am 83 miles behind on the year’s goal. I guess I’ll have to set some goals soon, right after my seasonal allergies let up.

At least I signed up to man a water stop later this month with the Orlando Runners Club .

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