Franco Finn, Randall's Marathon,and Build Your Base

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."– Thomas Jefferson

Last night I enjoyed being interviewed by Franco Finn. The interview was about 30 minutes and I had a chance to reflect and respond to some of his questions which were quite appropriate. For those of you that have missed it you can go to this link:   livestream.com/TRadioV                          

Today, Randall and I started early and ran about a 10 mile trail run. After leaving my house, we reached Wildcat Canyon Trail and took that to the Western States Trail at approximately the 13 mile marker. From there we headed towards Brown’s Bar and down to the river trail in the direction of the infamous, steep, ruddy Maine Bar Trail. From there we headed back to my house.

At age 57, Randall is training for his first marathon scheduled for October 13. Up to this point he’s run 22 miles as his longest. We plan on running this weekend to get in another 22 plus or minus miles to get him ready for the marathon. He told me he would like to be able to run the Way too Cool 50 km in March of 2013. He mentioned that he was inspired this past year when he and his wife Diane joined Secretariat and me for the last 5 to 10 miles of the 2012 Way Too Cool .Randall is doing it correctly. He is building his base slowly and as a result he has been relatively free from injury as of late.

I told him that I view my runs as training runs.  This translates into thinking that this current run prepares me for my next and so forth.  Randall started talking about doing a 50 miler. I told him let’s focus on this weekend’s run and not get ahead of himself.  He has plenty of time. First, build your base. I ran across an article regarding Meghan Arbogast in the May, 2011 edition of Trail Runner. Secretariat and I met her at this year’s Jed Smith 50 km run

The article stated that make that Meghan was a road marathoner in her 30s. And at age 42 she began seriously training for ultras. She admitted that at first she didn’t like trail running because of the sections that were so difficult that one had to hike. Now of course she’s hooked on trail running and has the US record for 50 miles.   It’s clear that good things can happen when you have a base and you are relatively free from injury. Ones potential can be unlimited. Randall, I hope you’re listening. Practice, practice, practice or what Thomas Jefferson would say “hard work.”