The cooler days have arrived

After a hot (but maybe not the hottest) spring and summer in Atlanta, the cool air is finally here. Hopefully this will make running easier.

An unfriendly sort

It used to be that commuter cyclists were so few in number in the city that it was common to talk to one another.

I guess with gas above $4.25 a gallon, things have changed. Even unfriendly people feel like they're forced to ride.

Once again, as I was on N. Highland on my way to work, some cyclist passes me- this time some chick on a road bike in a messenger bag.

She doesn't say anything, as do I, as we're both on the sidewalk at Ponce. When the light turns, she bolts ahead.

I keep pace but follow respectfully. If she turns onto my homecourt -- the Freedom Park PATH -- I will have no choice but to leave her in the dust.

She doesn't -- but damn. It's on. You're tagged as unfriendly and I will have no qualms to pass you on the street.

The weekend warrior

Yesterday, while I was on my way to work, some weekend warrior all decked out in road gear passed me.

What followed was three stoplights of stop and go but i was ahead on the Freedom Park PATH.

Of course, the weekend warrior raced ahead, almost hitting some little kid on the path. He was forced to slow down by a stroller, so at the base of the Highland hill, we were pretty even.

I decided to hunker down and draft off of him for the first part of the two part hill then blew him away on the second part.

It was funny to me because I was just in a T-shirt and shorts, carrying two Diet Cokes and in my hybrid.

I need to buy a rocket soon.

A reason to run

I knew from Armstrong’s memoir, It’s Not About the Bike, that his VO2 max (the gauge by which the human body’s capacity to transport and use oxygen is measured) is superhuman, his ship-sail lungs uncommonly efficient.

But at age 37? A 2,000-mile, 23-day race, much of it uphill? By next July? I asked him, rather ungraciously, if he wasn’t too old to get back into shape that quickly.

He laughed. And he was off and running. "Look at the Olympics. You have a swimmer like Dara Torres. Even in the 50-meter event [freestyle], the 41-year-old mother proved you can do it. The woman who won the marathon [Constantina Tomescu-Dita, of Romania] was 38. Older athletes are performing very well. Ask serious sports physiologists and they’ll tell you age is a wives’ tale. Athletes at 30, 35 mentally get tired. They’ve done their sport for 20, 25 years and they’re like, I’ve had enough. But there’s no evidence to support that when you’re 38 you’re any slower than when you were 32.

"Ultimately, I’m the guy that gets up. I mean, I get up out of bed a little slow. I mean, I’m not going to lie. I mean, my back gets tired quicker than it used to and I get out of bed a little slower than I used to. But when I’m going, when I’m on the bike—I feel just as good as I did before."
-Vanity Fair interview with Lance Armstrong

Some people don't give Lance Armstrong's comeback any credence, just like Brett Favre returning to football this year.

I just think, good for them. Michael Jordan was ridiculed for coming out of retirement but I don't think it hurt his legacy.

So there's nothing to lose but lots to gain.

Day 600

This is a little late but on Friday I passed 600 days in a row of running.

w00t.

Go out hard. Come back hard.

Natalie Coughlin explained her personal racing strategy to me this way, one afternoon a few weeks after returning home from the Worlds: 'Go out hard. Come back hard.'
-"A Feel for the Water," The New Yorker, July 5, 2004

I was trolling the Internets and came across a great story about swimmer Natalie Coughlin in the New Yorker -- from all the way back to 2004, before the Athens Olympics.

It made me want to run more -- two a day practices like the Olympic athletes -- and definitely harder, as I think this way in the 5K and anytime there are hills to be run and competitors to be dropped.

Here in Atlanta I've been fortunate that this summer has been less hot than usual (I don't think we've had a single 100-degree day). At the same time, it feels just as humid at times and coming back completely soaked is the norm.

Coming on 600 days in a row, my enthusiasm hasn't waned. It's now time to drop the hammer for the fall season.

Old Soldiers' Day race (30th anniversary)

ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- Although I didn't want to get up at 5 a.m., I made my way out to the Old Soldiers' Day race up here in the suburbs.

I parked on the Wills Road side, thinking (correctly) that when I wanted to leave Old Milton Parkway would still be blocked off.

I liked how the community center had great (large) restroom facilities.

We started out and I couldn't tell where the starting line was - my fault for not scoping it out earlier.

After Mile 1 there is a nice sizeable hill and I was able to aggressively attack it. I got past my slow start by dropping Mile 2 by about a minute less, attacking a second hill there.

But by Mile 3 I could tell that this rolling course would not be what I would need to qualify for the Peachtree, especially in the heat. So I slowed it up and went out the 5K exit instead of looping around a second time for the 10K.

Of course, the fact that it's a double loop allowed me to do that.

I really liked the race though. It was a good warmup for other 10Ks I'll do later on this year and hopefully when it's a lot cooler. For now I think if I increase my mileage I'll be all set to qualify.