I am an athlete, a runner

Lately I have been running more than usual and entering a series of races in small towns around Champaign Urbana. Each one is a 5K and the idea is that the old guy who has the lowest overall time gets an all area award.

So it has been helping me to affirm that in every sense I am an athlete. The book I follow affirms over and over that the main picture of my life is the life of an athlete. I want to write more about this later, but it is just one among a host of big realities that I have begun understanding a bit since retiring from 30 years in ministry. Why I didn’t really get it then I am not sure. But it is starting to make sense.

I like this quote from one of my favorite runners:

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.
Steve Prefontaine

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/steve_prefontaine.html#USl4uFE73o2seuqb.99

So any way to get ready for a 5K, here is a good routine:

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	CT or Rest	3 x 400 IW	2 m run	30 min tempo	Rest	5 m run	30 min EZ
2	CT or Rest	4 x 400 IW	2 m run	30 min tempo	Rest	5 m run	35 min EZ
3	CT or Rest	4 x 400 IW	3 m run	30 min tempo	Rest	6 m run	35 min EZ
4	CT or Rest	5 x 400 IW	3 m run	35 min tempo	Rest	6 m run	40 min EZ
5	CT or Rest	5 x 400 IW	3 m run	35 min tempo	Rest	7 m run	35 min EZ
6	CT or Rest	6 x 400 IW	3 m run	40 min tempo	Rest	6 m run	40 min EZ
7	CT or Rest	6 x 400 IW	3 m run	40 min tempo	Rest	7 m run	45 min EZ
8	CT or Rest	3 m run	30 min tempo run	2 m run	Rest	Rest	5K Race!