Jon's Jibber-jabber

Author Matt Fitzgerald is well known in the running circle.  He has served as a writer for Triathlete and has written numerous articles and books on the endurance sports world.  I have an interesting relationship with Mr. Fitzgerald's work, loving some and less-than-loving others.  This latest book in his collection, "How Bad Do You Want It?", deals with the mental aspect of the sport.  In particular, this book centers on several key challenges that athletes face and techniques to potentially overcome or avert them.   Fitzgerald has written on this before with Brain Training for Runners and through other articles.  This book, however, has a different feel.  It is not so focused on "brain training" but on talking through concepts of mental issues and using anecdotal examples.   Fitzgerald doesn't limit himself to his familiar genre of running.  Here he draws from other sports such as rowing, cycling, and even winter sports.  There is some focus on brain conne

This past weekend I ran the Gasparilla Distance Classic Half Marathon.  The GDC (or more formally the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic PGDC), consists of four races throughout the weekend.   There is a 15k and a 5k on Saturday followed by the Half Marathon and an 8k on Sunday.  The GDC has attracted some top talent in the past (Bill Rodgers won the 15k back in the days) and these are some of the largest road races in the Tampa Bay Area.  With all of the race options, there are a few challenges that mix up combinations of race distances, including the Ultra challenge that includes all four races.  Start times are staggered so that most participants can complete the early race and make the start of the later race.  This year 32,000 participants took part in the weekend.   I only did the half marathon, although friends of ours did the challenges.  This was a tune up race for 70.3 Florida and my training program had a 2 hour run for this weekend.  So the half marathon fit well into my tr