Natalie's Track Season

BRAGGING ALERT! Allow me to give some props to my oldest daughter.

Natalie's first 7th grade track meet was earlier tonight. She ran the 1600 and the 800. She DESTROYED her previous mile PR by 36 seconds, running a 6:45. She then ran the 800 and, while struggling a bit due to asthma and lack of stamina, still ran an 8-second PR, with a 3:15. Since she didn't run during the off season, I'm sure she'll start building strength and endurance and will get used to doubling in meets. She used her inhaler before the mile, but didn't use it again before the 800, so that may help next time, too. Either way, she ran a great meet and we're proud of her. She didn't think she'd break 7 minutes in the mile this early in the season. She blew it away, so who knows what she'll do by the end of the season.

As you can tell, I'm happy to run vicariously through my daughter! Go Natalie! She'll be kicking my rear soon.

5K, Part Deux

I added an entry to my "upcoming races" gadget on the right side of the page. Yes, I started "running" again a couple of weeks ago. The quotes are to emphasize that my current two runs per week, from the perspective of any serious runner, are quite laughable. What may draw even more chuckles is the fact that those two runs both involve speed work. Who the heck needs base training?!

Have I officially gone mad? Likely. Since it's become apparent that any halfway decent volume significantly affects my bum heel (and the associated scar tissue in my Achilles tendon), I thought I'd see how running fast (relatively speaking) will affect it, while the mileage and frequency are low. So far, so good.

Does this mean I'm back on my 5K PR Quest? Nah, not really. I'd like to not embarrass myself, but I have no desire to put pressure on myself with this small amount of training. Since my 'Where I'm At' post from a few weeks ago, I've come to realize that I enjoy small, local road races too much to completely give them up, fast times or not.

So, come May 19th, I'll toe the line in Arlington, WA to run a 5k on some short speed work and very little mileage. This should be fun.

And I promise not to gripe if I lose to a 60-year old lady.

No offense, 60-year old ladies...

Trail Running Article in Northwest Runner

As promised a couple of weeks ago, here's the article I wrote for Northwest Runner Magazine (click on pages to enlarge):

Cartoons

As you may know, I'm a freelance illustrator. For quite awhile now, I've thought about publishing a sports-related—or, more specifically—a running-related single-panel cartoon (did I include enough dashes in that sentence?)

There’s a possibility that a regional running magazine may start carrying the cartoons, but nothing official has been discussed at this point.

I thought I'd post a few here, just for kicks. Enjoy.