I had a great run, but not because of speed...

John Barclay came over to go for a long run with me. Last year John and I ran a lot of long runs together in preparation for the Louisville Ironman. On our long runs we talked all the way through, it makes the time go faster and you really get to know each other. For example, one guy I met from the United States regularly runs with a woman in preparation for marathons. His wife actually asked him if he was having an affair. He told her, in a way, yes. On those runs the two of them talk more than he and his wife talk and in a way were having an emotional affair. I was shocked that he would answer his wife this way and was also impressed with his honesty.

John and I were able to catch up on each others lives, although John reads my blog everyday and knows basically what I'm up to, but wanted clarification on a few things, especially my cutting back on my expenses. He also wanted to tell me that I must have a big ego to twitter all the time. That's fair. I told him I twitter for a few reasons: (a) I want to learn more about it and how it creates networks, (b) it lets him know what I'm doing and why my blog may not be up yet, instead of him sending me emails at 10 pm wondering when the blog will be posted, and (c) it lets my mom know what's happening. I also told him it is really cool to follow other people, my favorite is following Lance Armstrong. I was telling John about a blog I'm following of Johan Stemmet in South Africa and his address is  www.tri-stemmet.blogspot.com. He's also as egotistical as me because he's also on Twitter (Fun jab at John). I like reading his twitter, it's like being there and it's neat to see there is other crazy people out their like myself putting in lots of mileage.

John and I did just under 2 hours of running. It was one of my slower runs, but one of the best in a long time because it was with John. It brought good memories. It's kinda like time travel to last years training. John felt badly that he may be slowing me up, but I told him I didn't mind going slower as my heart rate was still in the zone and I was still getting a good workout. Even going slower I still had to walk some of the hills. Plus, I don't know if I could even go faster if I wanted to, my legs were getting some lactic build up and for some reason I just didn't have it today. Next week John has a 30 km race, it's full, so I might have to crash it if the weather is nice and I don't party the night before. Yes, I'm 43 years old going on 12.

Long Run - 1:56 / 13.14 miles / 8:49 pace

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