Uncertain Times

While there is a lot of uncertainty in politics, the world, the economy and life in general, the uncertain times I ponder the most is athletics. I have started to consider retiring from running.

When I first started running, I did not understand why some very good runners stopped running. It seems that the competitive juices flow in some people in such a way that they can not accept their inevitable inability to reproduce the results of the past. This is not true for many runners. Bill Rodgers, for example, continues to run apparently quite happily at mere mortal paces. I know because I ran with him in Michigan two years ago.

But at this point in my athletic career, I am not comfortable being an occasional runner or running much slower than I should be able to, just to stay in the race at any price, and even though by all accounts I am a newbie runner with really only 1 year of real training in ever. Currently I am trying to stay in the game through cross training. But I am not sure how the multisport people do it. I find trying to train to swim, bike and run all during the same week extremely difficult. Instead of being hurt in one place from one sport, one is hurt in three places from three sports!

I've been invited to participate in the Tour de Etape in France next year with a group being organized by the owner of Bike Barn. This will be the route of a Tour de France stage in the Alps, 172km ending on the top of Mount Ventoux. The final climb is one of the toughest in professional cycling, with the last 22 kilometers pure climbing, including 4 kilometers of an average grade over 10%. A difficult course. If I am to do it, it will require me to focus on cycling fitness quite seriously, with no time for running. I'll want to lose another 5 to 10 pounds. There is a cutoff time and I will want to meet it. It is by no means certain that I will attempt this monster.

And I still enjoy running the best, when I can do it well and consistently. And the camaraderie of my running friends is also the best by far. I am going to have to think about all this stuff. I have made a commitment to my BARC friends to continue to pull my weight as eBARCer editor and volunteer until summer of 2009. I am looking forward to doing a few short HARRA races in the New Year. I have also committed to my TIR team. But I think I need to tell myself right now that I have no future plans to do any road race longer than 10k ever (so keep my legs 6 miles max Jon). And that includes dropping forever any aspiration to run another marathon or qualify for Boston. What is not a goal and what I do not intend to do will not be something I fret over.

Missed my swim training today due to a work commitment. Tomorrow is a bike day.