Pacing rizzo through a 20-miler in Central Park

Here's a picture of Rizzo offering water to a doe that was standing in a puddle.

If you happened upon Central Park today, you might have overheard me talking to rizzo. And if you listened closely, you might have heard me say,

"Pussy!"

I can tell, he's about to come over a hump in his young running career when things suddenly get a lot easier. Indeed, since I outweigh him by about 85 lbs, he'll probably be faster than me before I know it. So I had to get my jollies while I can.

"Dude, if you have to walk, at least have the common decency to walk on a uphill."

My motive was to try to keep his net pace under 15:00 per mile, which is about the pace you need to stay ahead of the road-reopenings in the chicago marathon. He finished the 20 mile run at a 15:15 pace.. so he has some work to do.

"Man, all these beautiful women running circles around us, and you're walking with your head down. you're embarrassing me!"

His long runs are done for Chicago, he's going to start tapering now. I'd like him to have a bit more speed, and he has a 4-miler early this week, so I prescribed that he go to a track, jog a mile, then do 10 100-meter sprints with 340-meter rests.. and then a half-mile cooldown. He's 4 weeks out from the big race, so it can't hurt. And he just might end up a little faster for it.

"Wuss!"

As for me, he was going a lot slower than what I was capable of, so it really felt like an easy workout. Not that I didn't have pain in the latter half, but nothing intolerable and generally speaking it's just amazing how easy it's becoming for me to spend that kind of time on my feet routinely. That said, I understand the benefits of going long in my training, so i know I got a ton of benefit today regardless of pace. But my intention today was to help rizzo. I'd really like him to enjoy the experience of the Chicago Marathon, both the training and the race. And yeah, I'll probably call him a wuss in the race, too.

"You want to kick my ass? Good! But you're going to have to catch me first!"

Here's the GPS log: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6818336 20.85 miles, 5 hrs 17 minutes

different subject... sort of..

An ultrarunning friend had an interesting comment for me. She said,

"Really focus on your power walk for these ultras, jack up the incline on the treadmill and crank it! i try to do 4mph. This is the key to ultras."

I hate treadmills but this seemed like a really good idea. I figured I would try it for an hour - and do it easily for 20 minutes, start working hard for the next 20, and have it completely kick my tush for the last 20. Boy was I wrong! 5 minutes in, I thought, 'holy crap this is hard!' I made it through the hour, but not without giving myself a couple of 0%/5.5mph running breaks during the workout.

I'm going to try adding this once a week to my workout routine. Hopefully I improve quickly.. and to the friend with the suggestion - THANKS!!! I can tell this is going to make a huge difference as you said.

PS

Rizzo is going to get back at me. He'll be pacing me through the last 40 miles of the rocky raccoon 100.. when I'll probably be a pathetic mess and he's going to treat me like crap. perfect.