byLarry Eder
One of my favorite racing shoes ever was the Nike Mariah. It was an early air racing shoe, and if you approach five-minute pace, or better on it, you felt like you were flying. I used it for speed days and road racing, also using it for 2 miles to 5000m on the track. Being creatures of habit, Paul and I would race the same races each season to gauge our improvements. I recall one called the poor Man’s Bay to Breakers, in Foster City. A quick 5.8 to 6 mile, we ran it in 1979 and 1980. Paul ran 30:50 in 1979, within a month of going 30:51 for 10,000m on the track. I was second that year, running 32:40. The next year, Paul was racing somewhere else and I took the lead, not knowing a sub 4 miler was just sitting on me. We hit a track for the last 800m, and I tried to sprint away, and the guy got me, 31:04 to 31:08. It was my best race of year, in my Nike Mariahs, and it felt good to race fast.
Nike Air Mariahs, circa 1980-81, photo courtesy of RunningShoeGuru
Your workout for today:
March 29, 2022, Tuesday: Warm-up, 12 x 300 meters hard, 200-meter jog, the pace is 1500m, 30-minute run, cooldown,
2022 RunBlogRun Spring Middle Distance Daily Track Training (800m-5000m), Week 12, Day 2
Monday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes moderate running, 6 x 100m stride outs, cooldown
Tuesday: Warm-up, 12 x 300 meters hard, 200-meter jog, the pace is 1500m, 30-minute run, cooldown,
Wednesday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes, moderate running, 6 x 100m stride outs, cooldown
Thursday: Warm-up, 20 x 200m, at 3000m pace, 200m jog in between, cooldown
Friday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes moderate running, 6 x100m stride outs, cooldown
Saturday: warm-up, 800m, 1,500m, 3000m, or 5000m, cool down
Sunday: 70-75 minutes moderate pace, on trails
