ADELANTE!

Great start to the week with my Track Workout this morning before I head out to Alabama for a couple of days. The workout was 6 x 1000M in sub-3:10 with a 200M jog recovery. This would be do-able. Drove out to KMHS and its wooded track (think Portland) and set out to attack this workout. From the gun, I felt absolutely powerful and great. Truly could have run 8-12 at 3:10 pace, and about 8-10 at 3:07 pace. Kept the recovery brisk, as well. Anyhow, hopefully I can get in most of my mileage this week due to work. We shall see... this might be a blessing in disguise after a surprising 94M week. Decent 3M tempo on Wednesday. With all the driving and early mornings, I've been quite tired. However, I got myself out there and thankfully thought I saw a 5:24 for my opening mile (in reality it was 5:29), so I did not panic and did not pick up the pace and just continued to run strongly. Was able to close very, very well, full of strength, which I have not done in the past, so this was a pos...

Right, I guess I should write something... Well, I seriously have issues with these ultra-long runs. Like I've said in the past, I thought I was a distance runner, but these 2.5-3h long runs give me crazy nerves and nightmares the night before. It's almost as I feel the run has to be perfect, that I have to feel good before I start, or else the run will be extra worse... which is true. Any soreness is amplified over 20+ miles on hilly-@ss trails. These runs are very, very tough and very, very demanding. I am sure they will get much more difficult as it gets hotter and hotter in the greater ATL, but as of right now, just surviving the time on my feet on these tremendous courses is a challenge enough. So, in order to stay healthy between running and working (driving), I have a great team around me, including massage therapist Robin Rogers, and more recently, Chiropractor, Dr. Josh Glass (he works with David Krummenacker). He X-Rayed my hips, found a weakness, and we are working o...

Something I have yet to do... catch a break in terms of health. Was finally healthy and then my foot goes numb and strains my ITB... so, now that I am getting very fit, my knee just aches all the time. However, that did not stop me from knocking out a solid 2.5 hours this morning in and around the Mountain, sporting an ITBS strap on my left leg and a shin sleeve compression on my right leg. Loving it... I have to say, these long runs are quite the challenge. Man, just completing the allotted time is a mission, and I thought I was a long distance runner. Seems I like more of the power, speed running of up to 90' rather than a slow and steady 2h run, but I need to adapt. The more long runs the better. So, I finally got to see Robin Rogers, my muscle therapist. Wow, what a difference. Leg feels much, much better, but it is not completely 100%. Still injured and still bothering me, but I will press on with treatment. I had a disappointing hill workout this morning. It was windy and fr...

Alright, so in Cotton Row, when my left foot decided to just fall asleep and be "dead" for 5 miles, the effort of running through such an issue caused severe straining of my left IT Band and my lateral knee. So, I have been able to train, but after my long run on Saturday and a very, very painful 7-miler on Sunday, I decided to take time off for cautions sake. This has happened in the past and is usually quick to heal. So, we shall see if this is the case or not. Hopefully so... Pratt also lended me an IT Band strap in order to help out. Tomorrow I will attempt my quarter workout at Marietta High. Well, after a long day at work, I headed out to the track at close to 7PM with my family. Warmed up well with an IT Band strap, which my IT was feeling alright, although nowhere near 100%. Opened up, surprisingly, with an easy 67, which for my lack of speed/strength, was both surprising and positive. I then rolled through the workout, not feeling fast at all, but feeling like I was ...

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...

We all have a sickness That cleverly attaches and multiplies No matter how hard we try. Great lyrics from Incubus. Pretty much defines what running is in my life. But the song goes on to explain how we all have someone in our lives that "digs" at us to keep us grounded, and that would be my wife. Great workout this morning. Once again, a complete debacle in terms of locating a vacant track, but finally found one not in use and proceeded to improve upon this workout from last week. Good sensations, just not fast yet. Plus, I was a bit tired from yesterday's 7.5K at 5:35 pace on hills, but all in good time. Big recovery run this morning, as my legs were quite fatigued from yesterday's effort. However, I can truly sense how strong my legs are getting with each healthy week passing. Very nice. Will get ready for tomorrow's medium long run at a nice steady clip... which went very nicely. Pretty much 90' of working my @ss off on the Mountain. By far my best long run...

Found out yesterday that one of our Customer Service Specialists was struck by a vehicle on her morning run. She was killed instantly. 26 years old. And so, I headed out today with a heavy heart for our company (we are such a tight bunch) for my weekly long run. A long, steady, 90' run to the Illinois Momument through Kennsaw Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful morning, and once again, I have to state that this HVAC material we use in our apparel is revolutionary. In 65+ degrees I ran with my HVAC long sleeve and felt great the entire run. It did not even feel like I had a shirt on, let alone a long sleeve. I worked very well the entire way and only had slight tightness in my right quad and only bonked a little the final 800 meters, but closed quite well over the last 600m after a brief stretch. Anyhow, recovery is the name of the game for this week as I have an expo to work... Simple, easy recovery run this morning before hitting the road to Nashville. Left calf/soleus stil...

This is the hill that my daughter, Madelyn, ran all the way to the top by herself, a climb of several hundred meters. She ran non-stop, uphill and downhill, without falling and without fear. This is her "Red Mountain." To the right is a war-path located on top of the Red Mountain, unbeknownst to many. This award-winning photograph was taken after hours of awaiting the proper filtration of sunlight through nature's canopy of leaves. It is entitled, "Limb Awry."

What a crappy start to my week. Due to a combination of travel, exhaustion, going to the well in a race, food poisoning, you name it, I have had fever, chills, and all other flu-like symptoms since arriving back into Kennesaw. Seems like I got a 24-hour bug, but hopefully that is it and tomorrow will be nice, as I have scheduled a solid 2h-2h15' long run. Also, spoke to my Coach, who was quite pleased with our progression, and is the one that advised me to move my long run back one day to tomorrow (good advice) and so I did, only going 10K+ today as a recovery run. Anyway, we mapped out the next two weeks leading into a hilly Half Marathon in Nashville in which I aim to run 5:30 pace or so. We shall see how much fitness I can gain in two week's time. However, the key is to get over this bug ASAP. So, I'm going to bed early... and I had a night full of sweats. I woke up about five times, all soaked in sweat. But I stayed in bed and did not worry. By morning, I had plenty of ...

Alright, a good start to the week. I love entering training weeks off excellent long runs, and this past long run was a dandy. I sure ran hard and pushed myself well, not too hard, as I am still developing my body to handle the rigors of endurance, but I pushed myself quite well. Monday, I met up with Dave and took him on my Gilbert St. 10K loop and that went well. Tuesday, I met up with Robin to escort me around Atlanta's version of Memorial Park, the Chattahoochee River. It's a 5K loop on dirt/gravel along the river, one of the few flat places to train in the Greater ATL, with 1/4 mile markers as well. After a disastrous attempt to get out there at 8AM (traffic is ridiculous), I started out again at 9AM and was ready to run. We hit the first loop and I was feeling a bit sluggish, but running well. However, I soon realized that I was going to have a bit of difficulty running on this slippery surface. I remembered back to Houston and Memorial Park, and the first couple of times...

Alright, a nice start to my week. After traveling to Birmingham with my sales rep Monday morning, I headed out for a nice recovery run and felt quite good considering how tired I was and the extent of my Sunday long run. However, the fatigue from the quick trip (had to awake at 4AM) caught up with me Tuesday, as I slept in until 10AM! I usually naturally awake at about 7AM, and since I had a Dr.'s appointment with Robin Rogers at 11AM, I postponed my hill workout until Wednesday morning, before I drive down to Jacksonville for an expo. My post-massage run went quite well, as I tried to beat the thunderstorms, and ran fantastically fluid and efficient. Hill workout went great. Woke up to extremely sore and dead-legged for some reason, with quite a bit of ankle pain as I had some uncomfortable sleep due to my shin strains, but otherwise, I was ready to roll. Awoke to cold and rainy weather, and so I wore my HVAC long sleeve, my absolutely favorite piece of apparel, and headed out in ...

Well, I have had a solid start to the week, including an amazingly difficult hill/mountain workout on Tuesday that consisted of 4 x @ 800M up a 12% grade. I was completely wasted after the first one, but was strong enough to run well throughout. Not sure if I am going to gain 10-lbs. in my legs from all this uphill running, but it was sweet. I have also had some good recovery runs on some very nice neighborhood courses and this morning ran a fabulous out-and-back 8M'er on a tremendously challenging trail in the Mountain. For the first time in my life, I am loving my surroundings and am considering settling here. It is absolutely gorgeous. I can actually use all my five senses when I run. I have smelled flowers, trees, dirt, nature scents that I forgot existed. I never considered myself a city-boy until now.. now I realize I have only lived in major cities! Boston, Miami, Houston. All major metropolises. I now live amongst the comfort of nature, the comfort of this Mountain, always ...

And so, I press onto my second week of running since my shin splint dilemma. My shins are still pretty weak, which is disappointing, and so I am still running on a treadmill to lessen the impact and stay off the killer downhills in the area. However, this week I will be mixing in some road running with the treadmill in order to ease myself onto running full-time on the roads and/or Mountain. So, today, Thursday, I ventured onto the roads. Actually, last night I headed to my local running store and picked up a shin splint sleeve, and holy cow, does that thing work! It is so freaking tight however, it is virtually impossible to take off once on, and I may have injured myself in the 10-15 minutes it takes to manipulate it off my shin... Anyway, I have discovered an absolutely great 10K loop. It is the absolute most challenging course I have run yet, but it's not the type of course that is too hard and you can't get into a rhythm, this course was just a perfect mixture of climbs, f...

Whew. What's it been, two weeks? Where do I begin? Well, seems like I developed a pretty bad shin splint in my right shin that was weakened by my deer-like approach to training in my new mountainous environment and not working-in enough flat-land training. The stress of the constant up and especially downhills, coupled with my 3-hour drive to Alabama of not using my "cruise-control" stick, caused the injury. This injury stopped me cold. In the meantime, I have been getting treatment from 2:25 Marathoner Robin Rogers of SMIT-Atlanta. Robin has been great. I think the final piece to this puzzle will be ultrasound on the shin itself. However, I did a 2M fartlek this morning on the treadmill with no pain, which was a relief. Other sidenotes: I am in the process of hiring a professional coach. I have researched this individual since I moved into Atlanta and I think we will be a good fit. I am old-school in the regard that I want someone who has "been there, done that...

Try and figure out what has changed in my training. I realized that I am very strong, aerobically, running on this mountain day in and day out, however, all this mountain running has left me lacking what makes a runner special: speed and intensity. So, I have re-focused my training and have decided to not run Boston this year, again. I will foucs on an early season 10K-Half Marathon strength based season not focused on times, but strength, and then transition into my first true track season, post-collegiately. The goal is to become a club national champion in perhaps more than one event, but that will be unveiled at a later date. Until then, here is my beginning training... * My supervisor has been in town since Wednesday, and so my training schedule has been altered and rushed. I am not going to a totally intensity-based system. You should still see my mileage in the 90-110M range or more, depending on the week. The only issue I have not ironed out is my racing schedule. I just don...

This week was dominated by my training symposium out in Bothell, Washington, and my "runs" consisted of 60-minute jaunts with the group, running easily along some local paths. Then I figured if I'd traveled all the way to Seattle, I might as well surprise my girls in Houston, so I drove to Huntsville, AL, for a last-minute fare to Houston. My body is a time-zone wreck. Consider it a recovery week, due to all the travel. Monday, 2-12-2007 8 Miles Recovery in Bothell, WA, in 1:00:00 Tuesday, 2-13-2007 6 Miles Recovery in Bothell, WA, in 45:00 Wednesday, 2-14-2007 Travel Thursday, 2-15-2007 AM: 9 Miles Recovery over Pigeon Crest in 1:00:12 PM: 8 Miles Recovery to Pigeon Sign in 51:14 Friday, 2-16-2007 9 Miles Recovery to Pigeon Crest in 1:00:00 Saturday, 2-17-2007 6 Miles Recovery to Morgan's Point in 45:10 Sunday, 2-18-2007 12 Miles Steady on the Seabrook Trails in 1:17:41 Total 58 Miles

And so, I came up with a wry question to myself the other day on a run (I think it was before my 13M Bordin Fartlek in 30-degree rain): "Are you training for Boston, or are you just saying that you're training for Boston?" Big difference there. And so, I am officially training for Boston. So, after a nice weekend, I kicked off this week with a much-needed 20 Mile long run throughout Kennesaw Mountain National Park. As with most of my debut long runs for marathon prep, I started out way too aggressively, attacking all the uphills and downhills, and just enjoying the run, not realizing that I had over 2-hours of hilly running to do and that my muscles probably didn't have enough fuel stored/trained into them yet. Anyhow, I hit Cheatam Hill at 45-minutes, which was perfect, and then embarked on my first journey to Kolb's Farm, a 6-mile loop to finish off the complete National Park. However, my supposed "loop" proved to be too confusing and I got quite lost...