Jon's Jibber-jabber

I picked up Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20 Running because my wife had begun to delve into Fitzgerald's nutrition books.  The 80/20 running philosophy has been quoted by a number of coaches I know and has appeared in many places now in the literature. Over the course of my career, I have dabbled in several different methods and am never one to dismiss or support something without giving it a shot.  I began to read the book with an open mind as I typically try to do with all advice books.  This book is really no different than the plethora of already available running training books such as Hal Higdon, the Hansons, Jeff Galloway, and others who have developed "magic formulas" to help runners get better (or more precisely, faster).  Fitzgerald sets out from the beginning to prove to readers that the 80/20 method is the optimal method for improvement.  Period.  Science shows it and Fitzgerald will lead you to the promised land.  Where have I heard this be...

As I've said in earlier posts, I am retired from the ultra distance triathlon (also known as Ironman, full or 140.6).  Retiring truly means that I have no foreseeable plans to do another one in my lifetime.  This is not to say that it won't happen.  How many sports stars, actors, or others have "come out of retirement" to pick something up again?   But here I am not talking about retiring but instead focus on taking sabbaticals.  Athletes take off-seasons when racing is slow.  This is especially true of triathletes, where in most of the country, water temperatures are too cold to swim during the winter.  In Florida, there is not a true off season as south Florida remains warm year-round but summer is often this state's off-season with temperatures routinely in the high 90s.  It just gets too hot to really train or race.   This year, I decided not to take an off-season but to take a sabbatical.  I use that term to mean that for triathlon ...