ADELANTE!

Not good. I was just thinking to myself yesterday that I am about 90% healthly and 50% fit. Probably not a good combination to race excellent talent and a challenging course. Anyhow, I needed the challenge and lined up, very optimistic to run between 32:00 & 33:00 for this challenging 10K course in Huntsville. My main physical concern was my right hip. My main mental concern was my 55 Mile/Week average and knowing that I have not done enough work to "race" a 10K. And so, for one morning, Huntsville, AL, turned into Mombasa, Kenya. There must have been close to 20 Africans lined up for this legendary 10K. With temperatures in the 60's it was warm, but nice. The only major concern would be, not only the competition, but the famous "hill" at 3M that climbs at a walking pace. The CR remained at 29:10 from John Wellerding from back in the 1980's. Olympians the likes of Sean Wade and Dan Browne had unsuccessfully tried to take it down, with Browne coming the c...

And so the training continues. My Coach and I outlined the next month of training and once my family moves here with me, I will be able to lead a more settled life, which will hopefully result in more effective training. This morning I got out for a nice and easy recovery run that went quite well. Tomorrow is an interesting day, as I jump into a local all-comer 3000 meter race before heading off to Gainesville to train a new hire. Should be fun. Below is a neat exercise inspired by Deena Kastor's website. It not only lists her personal bests, but also breaks down those PR's into Average Pace Per Mile. So, for example, Kastor's 1500M PR is a 4:26 Mile, whereas her Marathon is 5:19 per mile, a difference of 53-seconds. Paula Radcliffe does this as well and her 1500M equates to 4:21 Mile pace and her Marathon is at 5:09 pace, a difference of 48-seconds. I, on the other hand, am as quick as 4:14 per mile, but as slow as 5:46 in the Marathon, a staggering difference of 1:32 per ...

Tomorrow I set out for the second longest travel day of my life as I head to Whistler, Canada. I will pretty much be awake for a full 24 hours. I will attempt to get in as much training as possible and still nail a 65M week, but we shall see. Work will come first. Here's some food for thought from Nelly's, "Heart of a Champion": "It's like a big time decision made on how I can twurk it If hard work pays off then easy work is worthless My work habit ain't no habit man, I do it on purpose I push myself to the limit so my talent'll surface" Absolutely tired. I should have postponed my tempo workout today until tomorrow, but I went ahead and ran it. Ran 16:08, but from the first strides, I knew it would be tough as my body is still on Pacific Coast time. Was impressed with my toughness, but, once again, I should have known better. The only thing getting me to run the workout today was that I want to participate in the All-Comer's meet on Tuesday,...

Disaster started with a failed attempt at a long run on Sunday morning. I was just absolutely depleted of energy from the previous day's race. So, I cut the run short to a 40' Recovery and decided to shift my long run to Monday in more accomodating climates. Well, Monday I felt horrible. Travel days are rough for me lately. I just don't either eat enough or get a nasty headache (dehydration, caffeine?) all day. I started out on my run after eating a late lunch, but there was no way I had the desire nor energy to run 1h50' hard on the trails. I turned around and got in 14-minutes. Plus, even worse, my right adductor is acting up again. I felt it first after the track workout last week and opted not to treat it before the race and now it is painful. However, I will attempt to train through this one. So, tomorrow I go long, intense on Friday, and then tempo on Sunday before heading out to Whistler, Canada, for our long-anticipated Sales Meeting... and the long run went wel...