Long Distance Training

I have been training solo most of my five year running career. I have had the pleasure of training consistently with a great runner and friend on the island for about one year, but he has since moved. So once again I find myself doing all of my training alone. This is partly by choice, but partly because of the challenge of finding someone who can put in the distance at about my same speed. Most guys who can do the distance, do it a bit quicker than me. I don't want to drag them down, whereas most people who are a bit closer to my pace don't enjoy my choice of running distances or terrains. So I find myself running primarily alone which has great advantages but it is nice to train with someone at least once in a while.

My best friend of 20 years Tim has started running and training for marathons for a few years now. We met at a scout camp in 1992 and both got carsick on the drive home. We both had to hang our heads out opposite windows, and we were nearly inseparable for most of our teenage years. This is awesome because he runs at a very similar pace and at the same distances I do. The problem is that it has been tough to train together because we live 1000 miles (three states and one country) apart.

So I came up with some sort of solution that is currently in the beta testing phase. The idea is that as we both train for running long distances we will occasionally take along a camera and talk to it as though we were training together and the other person was present. We can than edit and post a video each week which will have random thoughts and conversations as well as training conditions and routes summed up from the week. Then after a few of these videos get passed along we can start conversing in response to previous training vlogs from each other and train together via long distance for long distances.

Here are my first two. The first video is a little rudimentary, and has no music, and contains some embarrassing information that may have not been wise to spread on Youtube, but I don't mind. It contains footage of Mount Doug, Mount Tolmie, and Cedar Hill Golf Course. The second only has the long run from this last week in The Gowlland Tod Range on the Timberman Trail because I erased the previous few runs when I formatted the card. I do like the second one a little better particularly because it covers the last run Tim and I ran together when he was visiting last summer and so it has footage both of us can relate to. Choose 720 HD for better quality. Enjoy!!