Letsrun Bans
I got banned from Letsrun several times this year. All for a bit of light taunting of the thin-skinned moderator George Malley (aka ‘malmo’). In November it was simply for saying one word: Winstrol.
In the early 2000s Malley admitted to trying the banned steroid, late in is running career although he said he didn’t compete while taking the the drug and that it didn’t help his performance so he stopped.
Thing is George is a known liar and his story line is incredulous. Like Bill Clinton saying he didn’t inhale marijuana while smoking with friends in the 1970s.
My latest ban, for 10 days for saying three names: malmo, greg, deno (latter two are apparently also serving bans). Not that I’d want to associate with either greg or deno, two long-time trolls who post all the time. A 10 day ban for a “low quality post.” Get serious drug cheat George Malley, you should be better than that.
Smirk and eyeroll.
Running and Races
By then very end of the year next week I’ll have put in about 2,800 miles of running and and another 300 km of XC skiing. I really got into the skiing in January and February last year and did my first race in 8 years. That was rough!
I classify races as A, B, and C. A races are major events, which means some specific training and a taper or cutback. I did five of those centering around two marathons. The half was by far my best, at 1:21 and 90.6% age grade. Although this was nearly three months into the new year it was my first real race of 2022. As build-up races I only did a 10K as a fartlek/progression in January (39:45 at altitude) and the 20K ski race in February.
I tried mixing my base training a bit (or a lot) by doing a personalized version of the Norwegian system, double threshold-type workouts twice a week. Did that for six weeks, building from 3X4 minute easy tempo in the morning/6X 1.5 minute hill reps in the afternoon to 6X 5 minutes (getting closer to threshold) and 8X 2 minute at CV effort on the hills. I think that worked and plan to try again in 2023.
Other than that, the marathons were key for 2022. And what can I say, I feel just everything went right training-wise, I just didn’t break through for sub 3. I wasn’t too upset about not making it at Boston with just over 3:00, finishing maybe 80 meters short (actually went long due to tangents and all but that’s Boston), but the 3:01 last month in the wind and rain at Indy was somewhat devastating for several weeks. I’m over it now.
The next most important races were the USATF events, following last year’s epic bronze and team for Club Cross Country. Other than the marathons, these were the main focus for 2022 and I wanted to help our team win the age group Grand Prix championship, scored as the five in the eight race series (going back to the 2021 Club Cross Country championship last December).
It was a year of coulda woulda shoulda for me, but the schedule timing did not help! The first race, USA cross country, in San Diego was only four weeks after Club XC (about two to five week earlier than usual), just after our planned holiday trip and I did not want turn it (both my running and travel plans) so quickly. So I did not go. If I had run that I would have had another good chance at a individual medal and we would have scored enough points for a team win. The next best opportunity the was 5K road championship in February, but similar schedule limits and I had some important work obligations that week.
Missing those two races cost us the team championship, because we could have scored well enough to hold off Shore AC in September. (note it didn’t center around me, as others didn’t show up to some of the races, but had I done five races instead of four for the 2022 season, we’d have won the series). That was a second bitter pill, especially since our team took finishing second in 2022 as a big loss, not winning second. A third bitter pill.
Nevertheless, of the races that I participated on we won at the half in Syracuse, placed 3rd in for the 12K in New Jersey, and nabbed another 1st at home in Boulder, probably the last time we will have the full strength top three with, Mark, and Tim, and me. Individually in those races I was 2nd, 3rd, and 6th (catching a bad cold just before the 5K in Boulder–bad timing there).
I had two other big races of note, bucket listers. Bloomsday 12K in May, and Bix 7 (which I had run once before, more than 40 years ago!) in which I won my age group. Those were fun, and to tell the truth, I’m looking more to those types of races (and maybe going for age group course records) than the USATF events.
Have plans for a few of those in 2023!
rrunnin234 