The Ship Has Not Sailed

The ship has sailed without me.

 The past few weeks have seen a return to more normal training. Less CF Open craziness and more life stuff. Spring weather has arrived & not a moment too soon. Lots of family obligations cutting into the training not to mention spring cleaning and repairs around the house.  With the warm weather, there have been some glorious runs and the schedule looks filled with more time in the sun.


Finally getting some regular & pleasurable weekly runs in that do not require arctic gear- just in time to prep for the Cape Cod Ragnar less than 3 weeks away. Yikes! ( Looks like I'll have a sub marathon distance overall with my longest leg only about 9 miles.)  The training runs have been good- consistently averaging 7:45-50/mile which feels like a moderate training pace- barely breathing heavy. Yesterday, Paul and I were pleasurably chatting while cruising through our 3 mile run along the lake. Compared to my 5k race pace of 7:30/mile 18 months ago- the training runs are nothing short of blistering fast. Even my heart rate is down by 10-15% on average.

Lately-I have been pondering my age. When the face in the mirror stares back w/ a few more crows feet & the hair- if it grows- tinged heavily with grey, it gives one pause. Particularly after spending a few hours playing with a 2 yr old for perspective. For the past 20 years my mental image of myself has been that near invincible creature ready for any challenge yet in recent months my body has begun to reflect back the wear and tear more obviously. The past 18 months of elevated physical training has been a salve to the normal degradations of the ageing process with PR's and proud accomplishments still being set, but alas- there are finite limits. I know this even as a nagging voice keeps chiming -that sometime, in the near future-that physical & mental plateau will arrive and when it does, my ego will not take that lesson easily. The last thing I want to be is that washed up old guy painfully struggling to do the things a 20 yr old does in order to stroke an overactive ego and misplaced mental image of oneself. The ship of my life has not sailed without me, nor has she settled into port permanently. Rather-in the coming years I think I'll be scaling her down to a more manageable size, less ship more dinghy to keep on moving. But till that plateau is reached, I'll keep pushing my body and mind to new heights.

Now that the doors of the gym are open to the warm sun and cool spring air-the workouts have been exhilarating.  Thus, a few new PR's to add to the books. A 49" box jump(increase of more than 5") and a Front Squat of #245(90lbs more than last August) Thank you Matt for the encouragement.