I have this entirely mistaken idea that at some point in any workout you tip over from simply maintaining your fitness to building it. A twenty minute run stokes the fire. A forty minute run throws another log on. A two-hour run stacks the woodpile and opens the flue. The problem with this paradigm is... Continue Reading →
I don't even know what the distance is. Maybe ten miles. On most runs, I don't bring food. Outside of summertime, I don't even bring water. But I think probably at that ten mile mark, both become necessary for positive outcomes. And unlike on the bike, where multiple hours of exertion of fairly normal, heavier... Continue Reading →
Relentlessness and consistency are strange cousins. One is high stress and all action. The other is measured and resolute. They mean the same thing, Jekyll and Hyde, addiction and devotion, obsession and love. When I am piling up miles, it can feel like feeding a beast that will never be full. I have goals. Those... Continue Reading →
When I wrote Thoughts on Trail Running Shoes, I did not anticipate going on and on like this. The title seems fairly innocuous, just some thoughts, but it also doesn't hint at four more posts on the same topic, assuming this is actually the last thing I'll say about trail shoes. It isn't. So you... Continue Reading →
Now seems the right time to discuss this, whether Gore-Tex shoes are a worthwhile investment for winter running. My view has been that they are not. The GTX shoes I've owned have been heavy and stiff, and the scenarios in which their waterproofness helps are rare. I run in snow, sure. And your feet can... Continue Reading →
My head was not attached to my body. The legs were churning. The arms were pumping. But the head was not wired into the same circuits, as if it were floating above, an air traffic controller at a sleepy regional airport. Was it a flow state? Everything felt effortless, but I sat there, in my... Continue Reading →
Titles are such poor ways to convey truth. They're the original click-bait. To be clear, before I tell you what we absolutely have to do, let me acknowledge that no one has to do anything. There are no purity tests here, and I reject outright any toughness standards or exclusionary bullshit. Still, you should probably... Continue Reading →
Friday is a weird day, no? It's the end of the work week, but not the end of the running week, at least not for me. On Saturdays we typically run long, which makes Friday, properly, Long Run Eve. Gotta get to be early, so Run Santa can come and leave us our Saturday legs.... Continue Reading →
On October 30th, here in Boston, it snowed 3 or 4 inches, the temperature hovering in the low 30s(F). I went for a run. There's not a lot better than the snowy woods, and if the snow is the right consistency, it's easy, even cushy, to run on. My run did not disappoint. The casual... Continue Reading →
Trail running isn't always poetry written in dirt and stone. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it feels like your legs are made of wood or glass or some beguiling mix of the two. Sometimes your heart heaves on every climb and refuses to settle. Sometimes it hurts. My watch said I was nearly 7 miles in,... Continue Reading →
