I was finishing my 10-mile running this weekend on a glorious winter day in Boulder when I spotted Tim Luchinske running the other way. He was easy to spot as he was running fast.
You know the pros always make it look so easy. Come to learn by reading Tim's Blog that he is on the edge of injury.
I would have never guessed by watching him run. He looks so smooth and fluid while running with an easy and effortless stride.
Anyway, Tim turned around caught up to me and slowed down (slowed down A LOT FYI) to run with me for a few minutes. I was pretty proud of myself as I was just finishing mile ten until Tim said that he was out for a easy 24-mile training run.
BTW: Whatever happened to the rule of not exceeding 18 or 19 miles on any given run? Anything beyond that "magic" distance is supposed to breakdown your muscles doing more damage than good.
I guess that really depends on you level of fitness. For me today anything beyond that "magic" 5-mile mark felt like it was certainly doing more harm than good.
Watching Tim lope next to me reminded me of this crazy sports celebrity encounter I had a few years ago in the fitness center of an NCL cruise ship sailing around the Islands of Hawaii.
I was running on the treadmill and feeling and looking fit and trim. I swear I was the only person under 250 pounds in the fitness center that evening. Most of the vacationers were peeking into the room with two fruity boat drinks in each hand.
So I'm running at my usual pace of about a 6 or a 7 on the treadmill scale. That's somewhere between a 9:30 and 10 minute mile pace. OK, so I was jogging on the treadmill if truth be told.
When this young bald guy with the legs of a Cheetah jumps on the tread mill next to me. He starts at 7 on the treadmill and goes to 8, and 9, and 10, and 11, and 12. I've only seen two people ever maintain a 12 on the treadmill and both were professional triathletes. And believe me that both were working very hard to not get blasted of the back of the treadmill.
This kid was not even breathing hard!
Now most home treadmills only go to 12. That is a sprinting speed beyond 99 percent of all of us. Please don't try to prove me wrong on your home treadmill as I cannot be help responsible for the splatter mark on your wall. However the professional health club treadmill go faster.
So I nearly spattered myself when the young Cheetah of a runner pushed the treadmill to 13, and then, 14 and than maxed it out at 15.
Just so we are clear about how fast he was running, a 15 on a treadmill is well below a 4 minute mile pace. I was totally flabbergasted. He was not only running at the top speed of the Pro treadmill, but he made it look easy.
The really weird thing about the entire experience is that nobody else in the fitness center even lifted an eyebrow. Here was this guy running and maintaining a world record pace, on a treadmill, on a cruises ship, and I was the only person who even noticed.
Just as quickly as he started he stopped, and brought the treadmill speed down to a more reasonable 10 for an easy cool down.
Just before he left my wife walked in and immediately took notice. As he headed out the door she said to me, "Do you know who that is?"
"No," I replied. She, after all, is the one in the family with subscription to every magazine with the word running in it sold in America.
"That was Alan Webb," she said with a bit of indignation in her voice.
"Soooooo" I replied with a bit of confusion in my voice.
"Sooooo, he's the American record holder for the mile," she added, and almost dope slapped me. "He broke the 4-minute mile barrier when he was just in High School."
"That would explain the 15," I said, and stopped my treadmill.
"You know if I were to double the speed of my treadmill I still couldn't....never mind," I added. "Let's go get a fruity boat drink with a huge pineapple and a bigger umbrella."
I wonder if Tim likes fruity boat drinks? I should have asked him, but he was well into his 24-mile run as I finished up my 10-mile jog.