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May 21, 2005
coolrunning makes me tired
I read the Mainstream Racing and Competitive Wire forums on coolrunning because I keep hoping I'll learn something, but I'm beginning to give up hope. The same people post the same crap over and over, get mad at each other and start fighting, meanwhile none of 'em seem to have improved as runners despite all the hot air.
One guy tries to micromanage the forums (starts topics, exhorts people to respond, chides people for not responding, always has to have the last word). Another guy - apparently the resident laconic guru - responds to most questions (regardless of the question) with descriptions of his bizarro workouts (30 miles straight, 100x200 with 20s recovery, kenyan-style billat progression lactate Lydiards, all uphill on an indoor track), yet he never tells us how all this pain has helped his race times, because apparently he hasn't raced since 1982. There's also a woman who has never run competitively, but she knows a lot of famous people like Billy and Joanie by their first names, and this somehow lends her credibility when she insists that high mileage isn't good for people and that runners have about 8 years to peak and then it's all downhill. gahhhh. I'd like to put 'em all in a dirigible.
Next time, I'll critique letsrun :-)
Posted by joe positive at May 21, 2005 1:03 PM
Comments
I've had the same experience with Cool Running, and I check in with them less and less. I'd once hoped there'd be some decently fast women over 50 like me but the only two candidates are the dreadful lady who can't let up about Bill and Joanie and the very slow, creepily chipper religious woman who moderates--ugh--Boomers and Beyond. I've found the blogs linked here vastly more informative and--even if everyone's way younger than me--really rather inspirational. Keep it up.
Posted by: Lizzie at May 21, 2005 3:11 PM
I totally agree about cool running too. I still have it as a "favorite", but only check in about once a month.
I always wonder if the people that spit out the same retoric over and over have it saved on their computer or have to retype it each time.
Posted by: Zeke at May 26, 2005 8:56 AM
Don't even get me started on letsrun! There are some running gurus currently posting there, however. I know Patti C. and Tom Derderian and Renato Canovo post there. But 80% of the board is misogynistic crap!
Posted by: bridget at June 1, 2005 9:44 AM
Ask Bekele is his big
calves have him tired of
Coolrunning during 60 x 400
workouts at 55 second pace
uphill in sand, or whether
serotonin drops in 70 year
olds during 250 mile weeks.
Posted by: freeurine at June 14, 2005 12:26 PM