long time coming

Still running and due to this and nature of work in the last week I've been slacking pretty heavily on my blogging duties (but then so has Mr. Farley...hhhmmm).

Anyway, I've been having solid workouts with the AU guys, got through 8 by 400 at 68 or faster with 200m rest and then 4 by 200's with no problems this week. Thats a big step up from a couple weeks ago when I died in a 400 workout with the quarters at 70.

Work has beeeeeeeeeeeeen hectic all week. Having Wade not around makes you realize how much he really does. It also shows how I'm way more focused on the computer stuff than I am on the floor stuff right now. I think its why Wade and I work pretty well together. He's good at looking at the stuff that I don't particularly want to take care of, and I do the stuff that he would rather not to do. Anyway, lets hope this running thing keeps going well.

recccaaaappppp

So I "raced" on Sunday. I put it in quotes because I never felt like I was racing. Its been awhile since I raced and it just turned into a workout type scenario for me. I just ended up staying comfortable the whole way, never felt like I was pushing it but at the same time couldn't get my legs to turn over. Ended up running 4:33 on the road, which isn't great but I did take a couple positives away from the race. First, I ran 4:33 off 4 weeks of medicore training. Second, I felt really relaxed running and am slowly creeping towards being in shape. Third, I finished in the top 3 in a race, and while the field wasn't packed with tons of elites, there were some very good guys in it and I managed to stay calm off the line.

Maybe I'm starting to do something right...

The majority of my day was spent putting future orders into the inventory system...as much fun as that sounds it did get monotonous at a certain point. I had decided not to run this morning and to get my run in this evening due to the late workout last night.

(Workout was at 8:30 last night and the plan was a fartlek starting with 4 minutes on then 3 then 2 then 1, it went alright. I ended up running about a 66 400m for the last interval and Lewis was there doing another workout so it could have been much worse)

ANYYYway, I just ran out the Custis trail and finished up my run at the W&L track. Coach was working with the Pacers Running Club. Now while these guys weren't "elite"; the group is designed to be a training group for people who are anywhere from looking to just make it through their first marathon, to people who have done a few but just want to get faster, it was great to see Coach putting as much thought into their workouts as he does into the Pacers Elite guys'. I ended up running around the track for a bit to keep warm (got about 8 miles on the day) and got a ride home with Coach and Kathy. The whole real purpose of showing up to the track was to ask Coach if he thought it would be ok if I hopped into this road mile this weekend. I don't think we were really planning on racing anytime soon and I know I'm not anywhere close to real racing shape. But I had a couple reasons for wanting to go out to this race.

1. I haven't been in a race in 4-5 months and I don't want it to be a complete shock when I do eventually start racing again.

2. I want to show the guys on the team and the guys at Pacers that I'm a team player, that I want to race for the team and that I'm all about supporting local races too ( the race is sponsored by Pacers)

3. I do happen to fall into the stereotypical "starving post-grad runner" and the fact that there happens to be a cash prize involved helps.

To my complete surprise I didn't really have to convince Coach about this idea...he just thought I should go do it, treat it like a hard training run and get a little bit of the feeling of a race experience back. I'm going to keep training through it (basically I'm doing a hill workout on Friday and not really backing off my distance on Saturday). I'll get my long run in after the mile and I'll have a pretty solid week. The one minor drawback is I'm not going to be able to go up to the XC nationals that are up in Maryland this weekend. The upside of this is Wade definitely will be able to go. I think its going to be good for him, give him a little boost in his last week before he can start running.

superbowl weekend

had two medicore runs over the weekend. Saturday was an easy 7 and Sunday was a pathetic 13. Sunday was just rough because we went out for one of my buddy's birthdays and I failed to have the motivation to go out and run really hard on Sunday. Hit 60 for the week though so starting to head in the right direction. Probably going to try and do that again this week and then we'll see what Coach has to say.

The Superbowl was definitely very entertaining this year, I was kind of pulling for the Cardinals just because they were the underdog. They gave the Steelers a run for their money in the fourth quarter which really kept it interesting.

Living the dream...this won't be the first time I use that title

So the majority of today was spent checking in Asics socks at the store. Now I don't have anything personally against Asics, a lot of people really like their shoes and they are a staple in any running store. But, their socks create a situation that tests the very limits of one's patient. Receiving them and stocking them is one of the biggest pains in the butt. Granted, Dwyer was kind enough to seperate them out between the stores, but the mind numbing process of checking each individually packaged pair into inventory was left to me.

The one good thing that came out of this was I was looking forward to the run tonight just to do something active. I started out nice and easy, and felt really good considering I had a workout the previous day. I did a little over 7 looping out towards the Capitol and back, picking it up on the way back. Got rehab tomorrow morning for the hip with Dr. Beck, so hopefully he'll keep working his magic and my lower abs will keep feeling better.

After I got back from my run I noticed I had a package waiting at the apartment. I was curious because I wasn't expecting any kind of package. I open it up and low and behold, its an Acumen Heart Rate monitor. Evidently in the podunk 5k (the race in which Chris became the Race Packet Series Champion and solidified his World Class Silly status) I had won my age group. Now while there are a lot of people out there who would absolutely thrilled to have won their age group, and rightly so, it was kind of a whatever moment for me. It wasn't because I don't like to win, but it was more because I didn't have to push myself to do it, and I wasn't pushed by anyone else to do it either. I guess thats why I keep running, I want to compete against people who might be "better" or faster than me. No one thought I would run in college after high school but I pulled that off and ended up running faster than the guy from my high school who went to UCLA. But I've still got a long way to go...just going to stick to Coach's plan and see where it takes me.

Icy Workout

Managed to pull off going up to AU to workout today...had no idea what I was going to be doing so that added to the fun. Anyway, got a ride up there with Dwyer and Sweet Lew. Met Slicko, Dumm, Baresi and surprise show up of the day, Frank. We started the warm up and were running with three of Coach's women including: Julie Culley and Lindsay Gallo. Both of them went to the US Olympic Trials this last year so they're sort of big deals. So we do our three mile warm up, toss some spikes on (due to the ice on one of the turns we ended up needing spikes and only could do 300 repeats).

Before the workout, Coach lines us up and then splits us into two groups. Dwyer, Frank, Slicko, and Lewis in one group, and then Barresi, Julie, Lindsay, and myself were in the second group. Back in the day I probably would've bitched about running with girls and had a huge ego about it. But I've totally bought into Coach at this point and whatever he does, he's doing it for a reason. Workout was 8 by 300 split into two sets of four with 100m recovery. The idea was to do one easy, two medium and then one hard.

I started in the back of the pack, Julie lead the first one, then Lindsay, then Barresi and I took the lead on the last one of the set. On my first lead I took it pretty easy, hit a 52-53, was more worried about being the jackass for blasting out a fast one than I was about being a little slow. Second set when pretty smoothly too, everything was between 54-50 until the last one. I checked with everyone before I took the last one that it was supposed to be a little harder than the rest of the set. I opened up my stride a little bit more on the last one but kept it under control and ran one of my smoother 45's. I think it might have caught Julie off guard a little bit but Lindsay seemed pretty happy that the last one had gotten down below 50.

It wasn't a workout to write home about, but it does give me the feeling that I'm getting fitter. Did about 6 miles a little uptempo afterwards to get about 10 on the day. Solid day...going to see if Coach will let me do some road mile soon.

In regards to whats up with Chris...honestly didn't see or hear much from him today, but I'm going to check up on, you guessed it, his computer tonight.

Like a Fish Out Of Water !

Hi All,
Last week I found out I'm on the bench for a few weeks due to a Stress Fracture in my foot. So its back to the Cross-Training that I love to do just as much as any distance running. Miles is our currency and how you count a workout, a day, a week. So its tough when you have to write down a big fat 0. Even with going to the pool and jumping on the bike for 90mins-120mins a day its like give someone a 100 Pesos to go on a piss up in the states. My point being you don't get drunk (unless you drink Miller-lite) just as we think your not getting any fitter.

Back to the pool, I went to the Washington&Lee pool . I slept in this morning and after the John Deere text from Chris I decided to wait to 12pm to go.I'm sure he went and tried to run. Turned out in my favor as the pool was closed anyway this morning. I'm the worse swimmer in there and in the slowass lane were there are two nice old ladies as I'm getting out one goes to me "You are such a fast swimmer"
Was she watching the same game as me ??????????????????

Anyway Keep on Keeping on !

-Wade