Quick Update

Ran a tempo type workout on thursday. I did 2x2 2 miles with 2 minute recovery. Both were just a little under 10:30. I think I could have finished another if it wasnt for the humidity, so I think the workout was a success.
Yesterday I ran a few easy miles and did some drills on the track at Georgetown to work on flexibility.
Ran an easy 8 this morning from the store with some of the guys on the team. It ended up being worth the 7:30 wake up time.
Currently about to get in another easy 4 miles from the place.

Easy/Medium

I did an easy 4 this morning in Williamsburg before I rolled back to Herndon. I followed that up with an easy hour on the W&OD at night. Both runs went well...no stomach problems!
I had a little extra pep in my step for the second run when I looked up the times equivalent to my mile time from the previous weekend. Things are coming along at a pace that I am happy with. I am not sure that I will get into sub 65 pace, but at least I have something to shoot for.

humid as hell

I ran close to 8 miles today at home. I had to come home unexpectedly for a funeral. Today was my first run since the race on Saturday, and I barely even got the run in with the funeral and all. I was glad to get it in because it turned to be a very scenic run. I forgot how nice it was to run back at home.
On the other hand, the humidity was ridiculous. I always forget how humid it is back where I live. I should have know when my elbow started sticking to the door as I neared Yorktown. Even with the humidity, I managed to hit most of the run at a slightly quicker pace as memories of high school flashed back in my head.
I will be back in Herndon tomorrow.

Loudon Street Mile

I decided to hop in a road mile for my this morning in an attempt to get a little money to put towards. It turned out to be a really good experience. The course was a really good point to point, a little up but mostly down. It finished in the middle of the old town mall winchester.
I went out there planning to get into the top 3 because it would have been a nightmare to do all that traveling and come home empty handed. I ended up getting first with a 4:21, which was much better than the sub 4:30 i was shooting for. The race plan didnt really come together until the race started. Once the race started I just ran as fast as my legs could take me and just tried to make it to the next quarter mile marker. There was a little scare on the downhill in the third quarter when 2 guys started to pass me, but I ended up tucking in behind them and just taking off the second I saw the finish line.

Tuesday Long Run

I got my long run out of the way early this week. Time wise, it was my longest run ever! Well it was the longest by about 5 seconds. It was still a bit of distance off of my longest run, which was done on much hillier trail.
The run went well considering the heat index was in the mid to high 80s. I started the run a little after the 7, so as I went a long I had less and less sun to deal with. I had been struggling with long runs in the heat so I was only running 15 minutes out and then heading back to the car to get a gel and some water. This turned out to be a great idea as I never hit the wall like I had been doing on pretty much all of my previous long runs.
The first 30 minutes I was running 6:20-6:25, the second 30 was 6:09-6:12, and then I hit a little over 22 minutes in under 5:50 pace. I finished up with a jog until I hit a 100 minutes. I was happy with how the run turned out. The rest of the week is going to stay fairly easy until I hit up a street mile on saturday a.m.

Hot

I struggled a little today but it could have been much worse. It was around 90 when I ran, but I was fortunate enough to wear a heart rate monitor. I was definitely running slower than 7 minute pace because I was just trying to follow what my heart was trying to tell me. I started out slow and stayed slow even though there were some times when I wanted to pick up the pace. There would always come a time after my I wanted to pick up the pace where I feel like absolute crap...thank you heart rate monitor. On a normal day I would have started out slow, picked it up and would have been destroyed by the heat.
I did manage to get in some drills and some strides in up on the turf. So I had a good day overall. I got in about 8 total and I took it fairly easy.
The whole goal for this week is to take it easy and give my body some time to adapt to the stress it dealt with the past few weeks. After this week I am going to raise the mileage up even more and slowly build into some tempo type work at 5 minute pace.

Tempo Friday

I did an okay tempo yesterday. I ran 33:22 for 6 miles and I was fighting my stomach more than anything. My legs felt ok, but my stomach was on fire. I occasionally have stomach problems, it just takes a little experimenting to get past it.

Saturday off!

Beautiful Day

Ran 8 miles from the store today. I was pretty tired from the past couple of days but I was still able to run around 6:10 pace for much of the run in hurricanes. The effort was pretty easy other than the stomach pain that plagued me for the second half of the run.

The runs title comes from what somebody was saying as I ran by on the key bridge. Im not sure if they were actually saying that to me or if they were just on the phone. After this I did my usual mt vernon trail to the bridge that comes after memorial bridge and headed back to the store going just below the white house.

Tempo Tomorrow!!!

Another Thunderstorm

Its storming for the second straight day. This hasnt happened since I lived on the peninsula. Its kind of nice to be inside with the AC on watching rain and high winds.

I am left with the decision if I should add onto my daily total of 6 with another easy 4 tonight. Right now its looking like I am going to take the night off but we will see what happens.

Medium/Hard 10

The plan for this morning was to get in an easy 4 with Rasheed and then get in 6-8 this afternoon. Shane Young ended up showing up and he was going 10, so I decided I would at least go 8 depending on how I felt.
I ended up feeling ok, so I went and did 10. I didnt wear a watch just because I had planned on going just 4. The first mile was easy and then it kind of picked up from there. After we dropped Rasheed off, we ended up running probably closer to 6 min pace until we turned around at 3 miles. From there we probably come back under 5:45 pace, which felt much easier than it would have if I were just running by myself.
I am hoping to get in an easy 4 this afternoon if all goes well.

Easy 6 and the 2008 Trials

I ran an easy 6 today. I got in 4 strides on the turf at georgetown. Overall, I didnt feel given yesterdays effort.

For some reason I decided that I am going to give the 1500 a go next year. The 1500 in the U.S. is getting pretty ridiculous as of late. If you run a 3:37 now, its just kind of like eh...whatever. I just have trouble with giving up on what I started and last spring before the injury I was ready to roll in the 1500.

My hope is to get my operation around the beginning of November which will give me plenty of time to recover the spring season. Maybe I will later change my mind about the 1500, but for now I have been more excited about life in general than I have been in some time.

Turn the page

I had a good 8k tempo this morning. I ran 26:44, but it was unfortunately not fast enough to make any money at the race. After the race, I realized that this is going to be a rough month financially. The only thing I can really do right now is train and hope the improvements come. My plan is to step it up a little bit mentally so I can be ready to go for my next couple races.

Feeling a little bit better

I managed to get in close to 9 miles today in with 2 runs. I didnt feel spectacular on either of the runs but I at least felt better than yesterdays run.
Ive been looking a lot into nutrition for distance runners and I am starting to think that my recent problem has had to do with not getting enough food. I have been eating a good enough amount of food but apparently i should be getting in 700g of Carbs and 120g of Protein; I cant say for sure that I have been taking in that much.
Looking back whenever I have been running around 70 miles in the past, I always had either the dining hall at school or a dining hall at running camp. Now when I eat breakfast, I will eat cereal and a muffin. Thats not that bad but when I was eating at school I would have cereal, eggs, and other things on top of that.
So the next step for me is to make sure I am crushing at least two meals a day from now on. We will see how this new strategy pans out.

Not Good

Felt absolutely terrible today after running 5 miles the previous day. I only got in 3 something for the day and every step sucked. I guess the only thing I can do now is run easy until I start to feel halfway decent.

Weekly Recommendations

Trying something a little different because I know training can get a bit boring after awhile....

Music - Easy Star All-Stars Dub Side of the Moon... A great remix album in my humbled opinion.

Movie - Half Nelson... Great performance by Ryan Gosling. Basic plot with a small twist that creates a wonderful tension throughout.

Book - J. D. Salinger's Nine Stories.... This collection of stories is the most entertaining fiction that I have ever read. I found an eerie connection to many of the main character's socially accepted, yet extremely dark personalities.

Race - Manzano vs. Lomong vs. Smith vs. Brown vs. Rono (NCAA Mens 1500)... This is going to be a great race. Pifer from Colorado will make sure the race goes at 3:42. Manzano and Lomong are the obvious standouts but Smith from Providence has been tougher than expected all spring and Brown pushed Lomong to the end at regionals. Finally you can never count out the defending champion Rono.

Still Recovering

I hate to say it but I think my body is still trying to catch up after the long run from a week and a half ago. I still managed to get in 90 minutes in today at just under 6:20 pace on the W&OD. Early on in the legs just felt stiff and useless. At one point I just decided to run up-tempo and forget about pace. This was after I did the first 3 miles in just under 21 minutes. I ended up paying for this decision on the way back when my legs started to feel even more stiff and useless than they did early on.
Fortunately I took a gel along with and I took that around 50 minutes. I also stopped at an hour to get some water and I felt somewhat better after that. I know I will be hurting the next couple days because I felt the shredded feeling in my legs when I got back to the car. I am hopefully going to attempt to get close to 70 miles this week.

Easy 8

Ran an extremely easy 8 miles on the W&OD trail without a watch. My stomach has been bothering me recently, so I could only run at an easy pace. Hopefully tomorrow it will be feeling a little better since Im going for 90 minutes.
Fortunately the groin felt back to normal after yesterdays painful experience.

5/4

Got in around 7.75 for the day. Did a few 200s on the track at Georgetown at 5:00 pace. I think the day off was actually bad for the groin because thats the worst is has felt in probably a year when I was doing quick stuff on the track.

Day off

I had to take today off and yesterday easy because my legs were trashed. I kept pondering how could my legs be trashed nearing the end of a 75 mile week when I wanted to max out at 85? I think I finally figured out the answer to that question.
It appears that my troubles began last Sunday when I struggled mightily to finish my long run. I knew it was bad and I had originally planned to take it easy until Wednesday. Well I ended up going hard on Tuesday and that was when things really went awry. I didnt feel too bad Wednesday but I should have known it would have caught up to me later.
All that has lead me to taken today off and completely unsure of what kind of mileage I will hit next week.

A Bit Busted

The goal for the day was to get in a medium 70 minute run. On the way out I was hurting bad from the previous runs this week. I had to convince myself to keep going out and somehow I managed to add on at the end to get close to 70 minutes versus the 60 that I was sure I was going to run.
The pace was pretty slow for much of the run, a little under 7 on the way out and probably around 6:30 on the way back. I am hoping that the pace will help my body to recover with just an easy run for tomorrow. We will see how the rest of the week ends up.