Kickoff

Yesterday was the first day of September, and as far as I’m concerned the first official day of fall training. I wound up putting in 7 miles at around 7 min pace, then heading over to Mowles Spring Park in Salem, VA, to watch the Roanoke College men’s and women’s cross-country teams run in their first meet of the season. It was just a preseason, scrimmage type meet, and both teams dominated the competition (Ferrum College) with perfect scores. The weather was awesome and it was a great evening to watch a meet. Every now and then I get a nostalgic feeling about cross-country season, and yesterday was one of those times. I loved to run cross in college and have enjoyed a few open races since. I had hoped to run on the Roanoke Alumni team at the Roanoke Invitational at the end of this month, but that’s just not gonna happen now.

Anyway, the break we’ve gotten in weather is nice and has me ready to get serious about training. Don’t worry, though. I plan on being patient. I ordered a copy of “Healthy Intelligent Training” yesterday, a book about the Lydiard method of training that was recommended to me by Jason Pyles. It should be here next week, which will give me a couple weeks to read through it before starting my base phase at the beginning of October. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I figure I’ll spend this month getting my legs under me and getting to a point where I can handle some work then start a long, gradual Lydiard-style build that will hopefully lead to some good fitness by the end of the year and headed into next. Hopefully if I stay on everything and also stay smart and don’t skip any steps in the build I’ll be able to stay healthy for a long period of time this go round. If so, maybe I’ll be able to do some great racing in 2010. I’ve got a new, much more positive, outlook on a lot of things and I’m excited about the prospect of getting back in shape. Maybe I’ll be like Ritz after his recent change and bust an amazing PR or two.

PS. The one thing I don’t like about this weather is I can’t run the Charleston Distance Run as planned this weekend and it looks like it’s gonna be the best conditions in years. Oh, well. I hope the guys I know who are running have great races and maybe next year will have good weather too and I can take advantage of it then!