This week was my second at fifty miles since my son was born. I came by it slowly.
I spent a lot of this week taking it easy and recovering from my self-immolation at the Mercer County Half last week. Hills were not an option. A Saturday afternoon nap, meanwhile, was very much on the menu.
I needed that nap because, despite all the writing I have done about how important sleep is to balancing my life as a runner and dad, I am not going to bed on time! This is stupid and entirely my fault, but I have had help from the low-dose dopamine machine that is my phone. I’ve probably been scrolling more miles than I’ve been running lately.
I finally deleted Instagram this week because Reels are designed to waste my time with adorable babies and animals, jokes that only occasionally rise above LQTM, and the constant churn of parental anxiety and political angst. I did not ask for any of this. I followed maybe a dozen accounts, all of them running-related, but the Algorithm does not care. I thought I could be stronger than the Algorithm this time, after deleting apps a couple times before, but it turns out I can’t.
The only app I can be trusted with, it seems, is Twitter, which for all its faults really does respect your feed by only including accounts you follow. I used to wish Threads could replace it, but it has the same Meta-scented, algorithmic stench as Instagram and a terrible community to boot. This makes sense, as most of its users found their way in through Facebook and Instagram, and neither of those places is exactly known for the written word. Anyone worth following on Threads is doing better work on Twitter; I think Brian Rock is the only exception to this. Alison Wade, of the Fast Women newsletter, was another, but she seems to have moved fully to Substack. It’s a hard time to want to read about running!
Elsewhere on the broken social media scene, Bluesky is doing a better job of recapturing the feeling of prelapsarian Twitter, but that’s cold comfort without much of a running or track presence. If Alex Predhome isn’t doing numbers there, it’s too quiet. I might delete this app too.
This has all been a long way of saying that social media is a blight on our collective intelligence and will, especially and specifically mine, and also I’m firing up The DNF on Twitter. Finally, we can answer the question of how everybody broke 2 on the 4×8 if the total time was 8:04—I was a 2:04 guy in high school.
Let’s recap this week’s training so I can call this a proper blog!
Sunday: I ran the Mercer County Half Marathon in 86:31, and I already wrote about it.
Monday: Off. I wanted to run, but felt like crap and the day got away from me. Running in the morning is essential because most of the day after my son wakes up is work and chores.
Tuesday: 7 easy.
Wednesday: 7 easy.
Thursday: 8 miles easy with a random 4 x 200 thrown in at the track: 36, 35, 34, 33. I had to pivot after my planned hill workout felt impossible; somehow running very fast on a flat surface was much easier than running somewhat fast on an incline. I’ll take what I can get!
Friday: 7 easy. Choked on a bug and threw up, but was otherwise fine.
Saturday: 3 miles at tempo pace (6:00 average). Had gas left in the tank and opened up the last 200 meters. This felt surprisingly good given Thursday, and the week as a whole.
This Week: 51 miles. I had originally planned for less, but after my half marathon blowup I tried to get more volume at every opportunity. I know I have a lot of work to do before I’m ready to build towards another BQ attempt. Still, I feel good about hitting 50 again and I know I can do even more once I get my habits sorted out.
Baby: My son is doing great! He got over his cold from the beach and is busy babbling, attempting to crawl (he’s accomplished “scooching” so far), trying new foods, and being adorable. Teething is still a wildcard from day to day, and we might be seeing the early signs of separation anxiety that ought to hit between 8 and 12 months, but we continue to figure things out as we go.
I didn’t end up writing about it this week, but it’s worth noting that registration for the 2026 Boston Marathon is now open. Thanks to the diligent work of internet prognosticator Brian Rock, I’m not as jazzed this year knowing my 2:52 from Rehoboth is practically limping into the portal. Still, I will throw my hat in the ring before registration closes on Friday. What would this blog be if I didn’t?
Don’t answer that.
theDNF 
Leave a comment