Week 43: No dawdling

Mon 3/18 4 miles, including 2 miles barefoot

Tue 3/19 7 miles at Croft

from Dairy Ridge: New Edition to Lake Johnson connector to Palmetto

Wed 3/20 3 miles

Thu 3/21 2 miles

Fri 3/22 4 miles

Sat 3/23 5 miles at Croft.

from Dairy Ridge: Palmetto out and back

Sun 3/24 15 miles at Croft. Rainy and cold and all alone(except for Bristol), I hit some of my favorite trails for one of my favorite runs.

As I climbed a particularly tough hill, maybe the hardest climb at Croft, I was reminded of a kid I had on the cross country team I coached. This kid was, to say the least, laid back, kind of hard to get a read on. During a workout he was just making his way through, and I told him to stop dawdling. After explaining to him what “dawdling” is, it became my usual admonition to him to gain some focus and start running. 

The next race I told him to go out with our lead girl for the first mile, thinking that that may push him, too. At the mile marker he was about 30 seconds behind her, and just jogging along. As he past I leaned in and said, “Don’t dawdle.” He immediately picked up his intensity and came in about 2 minutes ahead of the girl. Now that’s coaching.

I was dawdling up that hill for sure, taking short steps and just not pushing. As I realized that, with one more steep pitch in the climb, and about an hour left in the run, I too picked up the intensity and the intention. Not every run should be comfortable, and these shorter runs are the best place for me to practice some faster leg turnover. I finished out the run hard, a little uncomfortable, but feeling like a runner.

Total: 40 miles in seven runs