Fast/ Slow

   At some point when I began to plan running long distances I was a little at odds with the fact that what I really wanted to do was run short ones. I didn't want to set out at a slow trot, I wanted to turn on the jets. I didn't want to have to conserve energy, I wanted to burn it all up in seconds. What I wanted to do is run sprints.

What you DON'T see when you're driving around!

   The reality of this, though, is that we see runners out there all the time, almost everywhere we go there is someone pounding the pavement, water bottles, sweatbands and earphones on the go. What we don't see is someone hunched over a starting line, waiting for the crack of the gun. We don't see the explosion, the churning strides and the arms pumping. Twelve seconds after the run, we don't see total exhaustion.
   No, you can't just step out your door and start sprinting. Sprinting doesn't need a sidewalk, it needs a runway. It doesn't need curbs, driveways, leaves, dogs, puddles or snow drifts. All it needs is about a hundred meter stretch of level, unimpeded runway, where a kid on a bike isn't going to pull out in front of you at the last second and there are no potholes or tree branches.
   What it also needs is acceptability. It needs to seem like the norm, as jogging does. You don't even really notice joggers anymore, they're everywhere, they kind of blend in. You certainly don't stop and do a double-take when you see them. Which is what I think might happen if you ran across a sprinter somewhere, going through his or her paces.
   There is a small park just up the street which would be just about the right size to go to and run sprints. I would have gone there by now and done this if I didn't have the suspicion, at the same time, that people might stop and wonder what the heck I was doing. And maybe even, god forbid, watch. So I don't do this, which is not to say that I won't. One of the (few) benefits of getting old is that you really stop caring what people are thinking, so you never know...

   If you are thinking of taking up jogging or distance running and think that you might need to know some of the basics before you begin then you can do what I did--you can take on a clinic at the Running Room, if you so desire. It's pretty easy to do this, just find out when the next clinic is and go and sign up.
   Try and find a sprinting clinic. Ain't easy.
   At one of our Saturday morning Learn-to Run clinics, Kathryn (fearless leader) asked us what our running goals were. She asked us to go through our goals in terms of ranges--short, medium and long. I was a little embarrassed to admit that sprinting was one of them. It seemed to be a little out of place, I guess. Later on, however, Kathryn took me aside and gave me a suggestion as to who I might be able to contact in London if this was a direction I wanted to go in. I may still do this but right at the moment I am concentrating on the 5K distance.

Me someday...?

   I guess that, for the meantime, I will limit my short bursts of speed to the ball hockey floor. I am about five months away from my 60th birthday and I play with 20 and 30 year-olds and a handful of guys in their 40's. None of them really blow by me on any kind of regular basis. I've been playing since the early seventies and I've never even been the slowest guy on the team. I'm not the slowest guy on my team right now. I imagine that when I am the slowest guy I might call it a day finally (or find another team....?)