pretty hot friday, but a good run and day at the range

read until 1:30 am this morning and knew there was no way i was getting up at 6a, to go run and also knew that a day off wouldn't hurt. but i am a sucker for being inspired and after reading more of "the perfect mile" by neal bascomb, i just couldn't take the day off. is that what landy would have done or bannister or santee? me neither. so after a few glasses of water i put on my "banditos" and headed out. at 12 stone 3 pounds i may be just a tad heavy for the banditos, but i do love running in them and i only put them on when i want to go faster than i usual go. and i headed south to king edward park and ran the loop around the park down to the end and then back to osney road.

did you ever try to fool yourself while all of the time you knew that was what you were doing? so at osney i turned to the made up track. if i wanted to run hard why not here? and if i only ran 50's and 100's it wouldn't beat me up too much. really rationalizing now, but i felt ok after yesterday's long and somewhat hard day out and while i might not coach a runner this way, i was more sure of myself in determining how much and when to stop.

so i ran 4 x 50 and then 4 x 100 and did, naturally, 4 sets. and after a few relaxed ones at the start i ran them hard paying attention to every muscle and tendon i could feel. even used the right leg and did my breathing routine. i like one breath every 2 times the left foot hits the ground. has worked well for many years and keeps me from stitching. also helps hold my form. i guess everyone has their own style or doesn't bother to think about it.

and though i could not expect to be really fresh after yesterday's 14 miles and hard striders, i stayed in control and ran hard, especially trying to run the last 50 yards faster. was a really good workout and with a long, easy warmdown i was able to get 9 miles in for the day.

a little later i ate breakfast/lunch and watched videos of golf swings. i still think i know what i was doing wrong, but yesterday was so bad i was just too pathetic for words. did some mirror work and off i went. about 75 degrees now. felt really warm. hit 150 balls after doing some "y" and "l" drills. also worked on the shot that js had shown us two years ago before the scotland trip. it always seems to help me not use my hands during the takeaway.

and i hit really well today. 2 shanks and i could feel the difference in those two swings. but the rest of the balls were hit really well down to the five iron which was up and down. wasn't worried about that as i had not hit a 5iron in months and knew i just needed to get the timing down a bit. chipped for almost an hour and headed home. not sure when i will get to hit again and will be curious to see if i can hang onto this takeaway. i do feel like i know what i was doing before and time will tell. will be curious to see if it works with the longer clubs. 9 and 7 irons were pretty decent today and the 6 was ok. the wedges were really good and no shanks there like the 2 dozen i hit yesterday. but that was hours ago and that swing is gone.

did the burrito thing for dinner. the new place is always crowded now as the food is good and reasonably priced- two things usually hard to find in oxford. a nice three mile walk also up and back to town. do some laundry, blog a little, finish the book and get some rest. hot as heck in the house as most of the windows don't open and there are no screens of course. hope the little fans i bought work well enough. will catch up on the 72 emails i got the past two days over the weekend. off to Cambridge next week for several days and looking forward to that. will throw away the winter clothes i was not planning on bringing home this weekend also.

keep that calendar moving along. btw--if you are a runner you would probbaly love bascomb's book. i even cried when bannister broke the record and i knew he would of course. now to read the last chapters about the empire games.