20-year-old PR goes: first Snow Jog of the year

Here's a diary entry I never thought I'd make:

Sunday: easy trail run in snow, 18.5 miles in 3:27:16.

This turned into a bit of an epic, but the cool thing is that I broke my long-run PR: I haven't run more than 18 miles for at least 20 years, maybe 25.

It was a tough run, much tougher than I thought it was going to be when I left the house well-rested and well-fed after sitting out two days of continuous snow. Beguiled by the sun and blue sky, and the diamond sparkle of the fresh powder, I just kept ticking off the miles at a very easy pace made even slower by the soft crunchy stuff underfoot. I didn't take any of the opportunities to cut the thing short. I should have done. By the time I was committed to the long loop, I realised I was starting to lose daylight.

The sun dipped behind the foothills on a long stretch leading me past the Bolder Reservoir. By mile 13 the temperature had dropped due to the lack of sun AND the proximity of the water and bits started to freeze. The water in the op of my bottle froze. My feet started to turn blocky. I couldn't feel my fin gers and my face -- well I was thinking Scott of the Antarctic by the point and wondering what frostbite on the nose really felt like.

By now the Snow Jog had become a sort of survival-on-the-pack-ice snowshoe shuffle. Without the snow shoes. I was sending telepathic (telepathetic?) calls for help to Abby, hoping she would "pick up" and meet me at the entrance to the Res, saving me an additional four miles home. No luck there.

The only thing that got me back was that once past the Res and the deeper back into "civilisation" I got, the warmer it got. So I didn't jump in the Yellow Cab waiting at the lights with 2 to go. No, I told myself, you call yourself an endurance athlete... so ENDURE damn it.

I noticed that when I paused to cross a couple of main roads I was swaying on my feet. Not good. But I made it. I shambled through the front door to Abby's relief. She'd picked up the trans mission but hadn't known where to find me. I have strict orders to carry a cell phone in future. Well, I did say I'd be 2 and half hours, not 3 and a half.

Since I got in I've done little except eat. My Garmin tells me I burned near enough 2500 calories; probably on the low side as the Garmin can't tell what the temperature was. I had a couple of Cliff bar jelly bite things en route, but of course this would be the day I decided to experiment by taking a bottle of oxygenated water rather than my normal sugar-protein Accelerade mix. Isn';t it odd that in one run we can burn off more calories than some people eat in their three meals a day?

Now, I smugly pleased with myself. A new record; never mind the time.

I guess this is winter then. It'll be Snow Jogging for me from now on.

'Faster! It's only pain'

One of the great quotes of all time.

I found it on Wikipedia, while looking up some info about the great Herb Elliott.

The context is: "Elliott credited his visionary and iconoclastic coach, Percy Cerutty, with inspiration to train harder and more naturally than anyone of his era. Cerutty was known to avoid the track, talk about role models outside athletics (like DaVinci and Jesus), and bring his athletes to the unspoiled seaside beauty of Portsea training camp south of Melbourne, where Elliott would sprint up sand dunes until he dropped. 'Faster,' said Cerutty, 'It's only pain.' "

* Source: Wikipedia

Henry dips under 20:00, is challenged by Shaheed

Former triple world record holder Henry Rono ran 19:20 for third in the M50 age group in the Jingle Bell 5k on a fast, flat course in Cincinnati, Ohio.

On his letsrun.com thread he said that when he saw a photograph of the race he thought he looked more like a heavyweight boxer than a Kenyan distance runner!

As a result, the story of his epic comeback has instead become a weight-loss discussion. Henry is currently 179lb -- down from 210lb at the start of the year, and has a target (racing) weight of 150lb. His weight "problem" has led some posters to question whether he is really serious about attacking the world mile record.

A typical comment is along the lines of "how can he be running two hours a day and have only lost 30lb? Is he eating like a horse, or is he not doing the training he says he is?"

Henry sounds as sincere -- and as frustrated with his weight -- as ever. And he remains focused on his record attempt. In a new twist, Masters mile world record holder Nolan Shaheed, the jazz trumpeter with a unique training routine, has challenged Henry to a showdown.

Shaheed's respect for Rono is on record -- among other places in a recent interview with Dan Empfield for the triathlon site Slowtwitch.

In a new post to Henry, Shaheed says: "I am glad to hear that you are endeavoring to set the record in the mile. As you know it's my endeavor too. It would be great for us to go for the record in the same race at the same meet at the same time. Maybe there is a race promoter out there who would be interested."