K.I.S.S. On A Sunday Morning

Taking a stroll through the park in front of our house the other evening; Suzanne, the "Rude Dog" (also known by his former racing name "Majic Rubin," his adoptive name "Rubin," and the diminutive "Roo Dog") and I were discussing potential topics for this space.

I considered talking about the importance of family, but that's one I've touched on a more-frequent basis as my father became more frail.  Diet was pretty much out of the question; I like beer, I tend to eat most any food substance that fails to pre-emptively sink its teeth into me.  And Nancy Clark, R.D. is so much more skilled than I at writing about good stuff.

Shoes?  Haven't done that topic in a while.  Books?  The latest stuff I've read I've talked about. There's a book I've thought about reading (which I'm not certain whether to purchase in paper or electronic form), Haruki Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" kind of has me thinking...I ran with a different running partner the other Sunday.  Drop my average pace 45 seconds per mile and I'm a chatterbox...it wasn't a happy morning for her.  We got to talking about a few varied topics, which I left more or less to her to bring up...can't say my old pastor's dictum "don't answer un-asked questions" wasn't remembered.

"What is the longest run I need to do?"  Run as long as you can get away with, at a pace which is comfortable for you.  Not easy, but comfortable.  The maximum distance ideally should be no more than one-fourth of the week's total distance, or longer than 2 hours, 30 minutes in duration. Yes, we read that Mo Farah runs 27-milers, but he's got a few things in his favor: genetics, physiotherapists, and people who pay him to run...not necessarily in that order.

"But I'm doing a ten-mile 'mud run.'"  Sounds like the kind of event where sustained running is NOT going to happen.  In fact, unless you're at the front of the wave with the intent to make like a special operations trainee, I'd be comfortable with runs in the five-to-six mile range.  Seven at the most.  And most likely the finish time is a secondary thing; participation without major injury seems to me to be the primary.

"I was thinking about a pair of those 'finger shoes.'"  For the kind of terrain, or the lack of, footwear that's minimalist (less shoe to me equals less space for mud, water and debris) would be acceptable.  It's probably the only time I'd even think of taking the "skele-toes" I save for weight machine workouts at the gym on anything which resembles a run.  In my humble opinion, too many folks look to the newest 150-dollar offering from the legion of shoe manufacturers (call them legion, for they are many...) to make them "better runners."

K.I.S.S.  Varied run training, flexibility and strength work are less expensive, both in the immediate and in the long-term, and more-effective than the latest gadget at the local running emporium.