Like Father, Like Son...

I was walking home with my son today from his second day of 1st grade.  He was telling how much he loved the lunch I made for him and how he wants me to make his lunch everyday.

I see a lot of myself in my son.  At his age (and even now) it was never easy for me to just go up to people and make new friends.  I was always the kid that just kind of walked around and wished lunch time would go by a little faster and that recess wasn't so long.  Brandon seems to have inherited my same social skills.  We both aren't what you would call "social butterflies."

I asked Brandon what he did after he finished his amazing lunch that I made for him.  He told me, "Dad, I had such a good time today!! I ran a race!!!"

I asked him who he raced and he told me, "I raced myself.  I ran laps on the grass all recess."

As much as I hope that my son never feels as socially awkward as I tend to, I have to admit... it's cool knowing that he loves running.

As we walked into our little gated community, Brandon looked at me feet and said "I hope those are your fast shoes!!" Then he took off running to the house.

...and I didn't let him win, he beat me all on his own. But, in my own defense... I did run 100 miles just a few days ago. My legs are still tired.

Back On Track

A few weeks ago I started incorporating track sessions once a week into my running workouts.  I have a 5k goal of sub 18mins that I would like to hit this year at a race I plan on running at the end of October.  I’ve been chasing this goal for 2 years now.  Hopefully this will be the year.

I’m currently hitting the track once a week and building my speed base back up.  I’ve been running a lot of ultra marathons in the past few years, and I’ve been so focused on distance that I’ve totally been neglecting my speed work.  All of that is changing now.  I’m running 8x400 meter repeats once a week right now.  In the next 2 weeks I plan on kicking it up to 12x600 meter repeats.

Hitting a sub 18min will be a little tricky.  I have the Headlands 100 mile ultra on September 15th, Dick Collins 50 mile October 13th, and then the 5k on October 20th.

I’m pretty confident about recovering from the Headlands 100 and being able to run a solid 50 mile race a month later at the Dick Collins 50 miler… but running a fast 5k one week after a 50 miler… I’m really hoping I can hold it together and hit a sub 18min 5k.

As much as I enjoy running 50 and 100 mile races, there’s something awesome about running all out as fast as you can for 3.1 miles.