Please Note: Iron G in 2015 is now a whirlyball blog

OK, I’m not joining the professional whirlyball circuit yet. But who knows where this life will take me!

We played for work last week, and while we were all initially skeptical, I think we walked away pretty big fans. If you’re not familiar, think lacrosse mixed with basketball in bumper cars. It looks something like this:



For the past couple weeks, though, life has taken me farther down the new-homeowner path than the marathon-in-September way. Two weeks in a row I’ve ditched my high-mileage days for yard work. Granted, I have fewer weeds and a pretty cleaned-out front yard as a result of it… but I’m thinking neither of those things will get me through miles 13-26 at Akron.

Last week was a step ahead, albeit a small one, from the previous week: 7 + 6 + 5 = 18 miles. The saddest part is that Sunday’s run was supposed to be 16. But, hey, I have boxwoods and a hydrangea.

Over my six miles with Salty, I learned a bit about racing from a girl who knows her stuff. I quipped to her, as I have quipped many times here, that my speed work and tempo runs tend to be faster than my race paces. WTF, right?

But I’m getting a sense that I, umm, don’t really race when I’m… off to the races. At least not as much as I should. It’s not that I don’t try when I race, but I can’t say I feel really taxed at any point except the last 100 yards of any race when I’m trying to book.

It’s as if my [personal] financial conservatism has flooded my racing philosophy—I’m always saving up for something. And it figures the one place where I’m conservative would infect the rest of me…

Perhaps I just need to stop overthinking.

I was lost in my thoughts this morning, though, when I cruised Euclid around 6 a.m. Not only were the streets pretty quiet (there were a good number of runners and cyclist, nevertheless), it was perfectly chilly for a mid-June morning. What a pleasant break from the heat!

It was an easy 5-miler around 9:30/mile, which really is one of the better ways to start the day. I’m often torn about what kind of shape I’m in because I ran the first four miles around 9:30/mile, ticked at least a minute off the last mile and like I could have kept going and going. Then, of course, there are those other days when I can’t run down the street at a noticeable clip.

While today was a little bumpy on the homefront, I still felt pretty well energized all day. I was (this) close to running tomorrow’s workout after work today, but I opted for a walk with Neo instead. The evening weather was just as pleasant and autumnal as the morning. And that’s really something you should share.