SILVER LINING

One more thing regarding Monday’s 5K; it turns out that listening to Matt Tegenkamp talk about being able to grind out the last 800-1000 meters of a 5K and actually doing it, are two very different things. And looking at the results, I’m not the only one running 2 minutes slower than their college PR – you know who you are. Yes, I’m grasping for any silver lining I can find.

In the midst of racing, I managed to cut my mileage down to 54 miles for a 7-day stretch. Now I’m building it back up and preparing to begin adding hard workouts via Daniels. The first workout fits in perfectly with a 30K race this weekend, so I’m planning on running it as Daniels has laid out. I don’t have it memorized, but it’s something like this; 2 mile warm-up, 6 miles at MP, 1 mile Tempo, 6 miles at MP, 1 mile Tempo, 2 mile cool-down. Actually for future workouts, I plan on converting his mileage to a time-based workout since this program is designed for runners much faster than me. However, I’d rather incorporate the help of a race environment, as opposed to trying to complete this workout solo.

Training update: Tuesday I ran 9 miles. I took the day off from work yesterday and managed a great 14 mile trail run. Note: there's nothing like taking the day off and having perfect weather; 65-70 degrees, blue skies and a slight breeze. This morning I ran a mile with the dog before meeting Scott for close to 9 more miles.

Finally, last night I posted this interview with the world’s youngest 50-state/7-continent runner.

Quote of the day;

“I don’t know if I really have any strengths. One might be that I can pretty much train for a few weeks and go out and run close to a 3:00 hour marathon.” – Steve Hibbs

LICKING MY WOUNDS

Racing is a hell of a lot more enjoyable when I can manage my expectations more reasonably. For example, had I told Eric that I was planning on running sub-19 yesterday, rather than 18:10, I would have been fine with my 18:44 result. Well, maybe not “fine” given that it was 52 seconds slower than last year’s race, but you get the idea.

I guess my main problem is that my 18:10 prediction didn’t really have any merit based on my recent training. Now that I’ve looked back at last year’s training, I see months of solid mileage, tempo runs, and intervals. It’s no wonder I didn’t run nearly as fast this year.

Probably what bothers me the most is how I proceeded to run 18:44. Normally, pacing in my strong suit. Instead, I ran like a high school freshman in his first race; 5:42, 6:07, 6:15, :40.

Really, 6:15? Heck, I averaged 6:16 pace for a half marathon last year.

I have a lot of work to do. Luckily Daniels’ marathon program focuses on the last 18 weeks leading up to the race. Right now we’re 19 weeks out from TCM. So I have 1 week to lick my wounds before getting down to business.

Finally, I've always said I should try to finish a season stronger than I started it. I guess I'm in a perfect position to make that happen. If I run any slower than yesterday, I may take up gymnastics or ice skating.

And just so you don’t think every 5K in the Twin Cities in won in 20 minutes, like the results I posted last week, here are the results for men and women.

Quote of the day;

“It’s not gymnastics or ice skating, you know.” – Emil Zatopek, when questioned about his agonized expression while racing

A CLOSER LOOK

After posting about my sore toe yesterday, I thought I’d better take a closer look at it. It’s actually my middle toe not my ring toe. And the toe itself is not sore, but it’s the webbing area before the toe starts. Just thought I’d clarify. Right now I don’t have any plans to do anything about it – you know, being a stubborn runner and all.

Since I decided to scale back my mileage for the next 7 days or so, and since I’ve run 26 days in a row, I decided to take today off. It’s tough not lacing them up when the weather is so nice.

It looks like the Team USA Minnesota group has been busy updating their journals. You can find updates for Carrie Tollefson, Chris Lundstrom, and Antonio Vega.

Finally, about a month ago I mentioned my new Brian Sell look. I also mentioned becoming an uncle. Here’s proof.



Quote of the day;

“My body found a way to remove those limitations. It wasn’t out of some idea I had, or a model. It was by feel – and the need not to lose to guys.” – Dick Fosbury, highjumper and creator of the Fosbury Flop

TIGERS ARE TIGERS

Because Adam likes pictures (and because I don’t have much to say), here’s another look at my 7-day rolling mileage; Running is in blue and Running & Skiing is in magenta.


I ran a very easy 6 miles this morning. I can’t stop telling you how great the weather has been lately; 50 degrees calm and clear today. It’s the type of weather that makes you want to seek out a race on the weekends, even if you don’t have one planned.

I’ve been having some weird sensations lately. I mentioned that the right side of my body got sunburned at Boston. Well now my right shoulder itches – especially at night. And it’s more like someone is poking me with needles. Worst of all, scratching it doesn’t make it go away for very long.

I’ve also been having pain in my “ring” toe on my left foot. I can usually crack the knuckles in my toes, but trying to do that sends a sharp pain throughout my toe/foot. It doesn’t seem to bother me running, but I can really feel it just walking if I try to push off really hard. I don’t even know when this started bothering me – maybe before Boston.

Finally, here are some results you don’t see every day – taken from a local 5K. A woman in first overall followed by a 64 year old. And the top-10 included 4 women. Maybe I do need to focus on the shorter events if 5Ks are going to be won in 20+ minutes. Maybe I could win my first race.

CLASS
PLACE PLACE FINISHER TIME PACE

1 1 W20 Elizabeth Johnson, 31*, Woodbury, MN 20:12 6:30
1 1 M60 Norm Purrington, 64, Lake Elmo, MN 20:20 6:33
2 1 M45 Jon Gutierrez, 47, Stillwater, MN 20:42 6:40
2 1 W14 Kaitlyn Wetzstein, 14*, Hudson, WI 20:49 6:42
3 1 W10 Erin Wetzstein, 11*, Hudson, WI 20:52 6:43
3 1 M35 Bribitzer-stull, 35, Minneapolis, MN 20:53 6:43
4 1 M20 Frank Tate, 31, Hastings, MN 21:02 6:46
5 2 M20 Patrick Byrnes, 28, Blaine, MN 21:39 6:58
4 2 W20 Sarah Chapman, 22*, Apple Valley, MN 21:44 7:00

Quote of the day;

“I don’t believe in chewing on athletes. People are out there to do their best. If you growl at them and they’re not tigers, they’ll collapse. Or they’ll try to make like a tiger. But the tigers are tigers. All you have to do is cool them down a little bit so they don’t make some dumb mistake like running the first quarter in fifty-five seconds” – Bill Bowerman

I'LL TAKE IT

I didn’t make it onto the treadmill for another run last night. Amy was gone and Katie was having a hard time falling asleep, so I didn’t want to be in the basement running. Instead, I posted this interview with one of Minnesota’s (and the US’s) up and coming marathon runners.

And since I didn’t double-back last night, I decided to get up earlier this morning and bump my mid-week medium-long run to 13 miles. That puts me at 76 miles for the last 7 days. I was hoping to get to 80 before cutting it back, but that’s all right. I’ll take it. Normally I like to cut back at the end of a week, but with a race on Monday, and having built up pretty aggressively since Boston, I’m going to cut back starting tomorrow.

This graph shows my 7-day rolling mileage since mid-December (pre-skiing). Day 136 is the taper for Boston, then a few days off before ramping back up.


I mentioned that I’ve been listening to some podcasts while running because I’m able to focus on the conversation better than any other time during the day. Some people get fired up listening to certain music, but for me, listening to Matt Tegenkamp talk about knowing racing is going to hurt, sticking his nose in with the Kenyans, grinding out the last 800-1,000 meters of a race, etc. does the trick.

One of the things I like about the podcast is you get a better feel for the runner’s personality and how much they love what they’re doing. With that said, Andrew Carlson is fast becoming one of my favorite runners.

Two of my other favorite runners, Matt Gabrielson and Katie McGregor have updated their journals. It’s nice to see that Matt is having fun with this project. Katie, on the other hand, is focused on the trials.

Quote of the day;

“It has always been apparent to me that speed is not one of my assets. Instead, endurance and determination have kept me competitive over the years.” - Ashley Anklam

SIMPLE QUESTION

Well I’m definitely in a routine. Even though I tried to sleep in an extra 25 minutes today, I was still awake by 4:50. The last 3 days (weeks?) left me a little tired this morning, so I just ran a very easy 6 miles with some strides. I’m going to try and get in another 5-6 mile run tonight to help bump my mileage a little.

The weather remains very nice – although some would consider it cold; 40-45 degrees. I’m not sure what the latest date I’ve ever worn pants while running is, but I’d guess that May 20th is getting pretty close.

Since I don’t have much going on, I’ll post a simple question. Does anyone else find church boring? Lately I’ve been lucky - with the girls in Sunday school and my wife teaching, I’ve been able to get out of going to church. However, once in a while I have to go – like last Sunday. The whole time all I could think about was how bored I was. And I can’t believe I’m the only one sitting there thinking that. Seriously, I could think of about a million things I’d rather do than sit in church. I’m sure this all stems from not going to church as a kid.

Quote of the day;

“There is only so much the spirit can do to get you through oxygen debt.” – Kenny Moore

DON'T RUSH IT

I’ve mentioned how much I enjoy running on trails before, but Saturday’s group trail run was rather frustrating. The leader of our group ventured onto the bike trails and then stayed on them even though there was ample opportunity to switch over to the running trails.

Although we only had to get out of the way of 6 bikers – that’s 6 bikers too many. You just don’t run on the mountain bike trails. There are enough good running trails at Lebanon Hills to accommodate runners. And the running trails are better because you can run 2-3 abreast instead of single file. Single tracks may be great for biking, but they don’t work for group runs. Besides not being able to have a conversation, when the guy in front of you keeps farting, there’s no where to go – believe me, I found this out Saturday.

I ended up running 13 miles, which gave me 72 miles for the week. I’ve always said that it takes me about 3 weeks of easy running, either post-marathon or post-end of season break, to get back to feeling good. That seems to be the case again. After taking 5 days off after Boston, I’ve run weeks of 57, 66, and 72. I’m going to try and keep building for another 2-3 days and get around 80 miles for a 7-day stretch. Then I’ll back off a little and run a 5K on Memorial Day.

Yesterday I headed back to the trails for another 13 mile run – or as my Garmin said 11.9 miles. That’s right – what I normally call 13 miles – based on time and effort – Garmin calculated to be over a mile shorter.

Now I realize trail running is slower than road running, but I don’t believe I was running 8:45 pace. I sure as hell wasn’t running 8:45 effort. After a controlled first mile into the wind in 8:10, I hit the trails and was greeted by splits 30-40 seconds slower – even though my effort didn’t change.

Rather than change the way in which I log miles, I wrote down 13.

This morning took a break from the trails and ran a moderate 10 miles on the Hyland Park bike paths.

Quote of the day;

“His basic lesson, both in throwing and in life was don’t rush it. Pace yourself. Take it slow in the beginning. In training, don’t go too hard or fast for your body. Do what you can, and don’t expect to get there all in one day.” – Shot putter Neal Steinhauer, on Bill Bowerman

CHAOTIC

My company is in the process of moving to a new building over the weekend and things are quite chaotic around here, so I’ll keep this short.

Here in Minnesota we like to bitch about the weather A LOT. Well, we should also praise it when it doesn’t get any better. So far May has been pretty freaking nice and the last 3 days have been spectacular; 40-50 degrees and calm and clear in the mornings and 60-70 in the afternoons – and no bugs (yet).

Kind of surprised by how quickly I was able to get back into the habit of 10 miles per day training. I managed 10 miles this morning with 6 strides thrown in during the second half of the run.

Finally, I’ll close with an interview I did with Emily Brown for USATF Minnesota. If you’re not familiar with Emily, she graduated from the U of M last year, joined Team USA Minnesota and has been tearing up the road, track, and cross-country circuit ever since.

Quote of the day;

“I am enjoying the ride for now but I constantly remind myself not to get too caught up in it because it could all crash down at any race. I know I am in great shape right now and mentally I am racing much better than I have in the past but I don’t want to be in my best shape right now. To be honest, I would like to have a mediocre race at some point so that I know I still have some work to do to peak at the Trials and again in Beijing.” - Emily Brown

CALLOUSED

I think Jim touched on what makes marathons so alluring in his comment yesterday. A lot of it has to do with all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds them. Other shorter events just don’t have those same feelings surrounding them as a Boston, Grandma’s, TCM, Chicago, etc. Maybe it’s alright to give up something on the speed-side of the equation to gain something on the experience-side of the equation.

After 3 years of blogging I still haven’t really figured out how to handle comments. Do you reply with another comment, reply on their blog, send an email, etc.? I’ve always been one to reply with another comment, that way people can see the string on responses if they’d like. Heck, I don’t even know if people read other people’s comments.

Anyway, sometimes comments come well after the original posting. Since Jeremy had some good thoughts on whether or not recreational runners care about the pros, I thought I’d just repost it here;

I feel like there are two avenues through which the recreational/fitness runner/jogger might care about the pros:

1 - A sense of living vicariously through them. I think that's the hope many have when they look at the thousands-deep marathon and see a latent fanbase. These people know how tough one 5:00 mile is, let alone 26 of them. Shouldn't these folks be thinking, "Wow, it's so cool what Ryan Hall is doing... I wish I could do that and I'll live vicariously through him..."? This is where I think Runnerville does most of its harping -- very few in those thousands-deep marathons know he exists. Will they care? Hard to say until some first effectively markets him and makes them aware.

2 - A sense of relatability, which may or may not be a word. I cannot relate to what Ken Griffey Jr does because I have never tried to hit a 95-mph fastball in front of 50,000 people. But EVERYONE who runs any sort of race experiences the same nerves, the same self-doubt, the same aches, the same pre-dawn Grind-It-Out-runs on 25-degree winter mornings. I would think that this common ground would make the sport of running appealing to runners because they "get it."

Finally, I’m now officially a Garmin user, so I have to be careful about all the bad things I say about Garmin wearers – less I want to refer to myself. First, a question for all the Garmin owners; the first time you strapped it on, did you go out for a “normal” run? My guess is no. You strap that thing on and then sprint out the door trying to prove to that device just how fast you are.

All right, maybe you don’t “sprint” but my guess is that you run a little faster than “normal.” At least I thought I was going quicker than normal. In the end, I ran 11 miles and it took about 2 minutes longer than I would have thought based on my pre-Garmin method of determining mileage. I haven’t figured out if that’s good or bad yet.

Quote of the day;

“We had toughened each other measurably. Calloused is the word, physically and mentally calloused.” – Bill Dellinger referring to training with his brother one day

ALLURE

I’ve been thinking about the allure of the marathon lately. You know, why it seems like we’re always planning our training around this one or that one. I can’t remember the last time I trained, specifically, for a season of shorter races. Or maybe I should skip a spring marathon and focus on shorter races earlier in the year before gearing up for a fall marathon. I’m not positive, but it seems like always training for a spring and fall marathon can take away some of the speed and enjoyment that can come from mixing things up at shorter distances.

Maybe having a soft marathon PR, relative to my other PRs, makes me want to continue pursuing them.

And I was listening to a Runnerville podcast the other day and they were speculating about when Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan would move to the marathon. They were talking as if it were required that they move up to the event. Why is that? Can’t they focus on shorter events without having to run the marathon? Granted they’d probably be better off, financially, due to the higher appearance fees surrounding marathons. But who’s to say they wouldn’t be better off in other ways, by not running a marathon?

I came “this close” to going back to bed this morning. But then I figured I wouldn’t be able to run tonight and a zero in the logbook would make this a cutback week. I’d rather get in one more week of higher mileage before cutting back. So I laced them up and got in a nice 11 mile trail run.

A local TV station had this survey on their website yesterday;

What’s a bigger deal?

Indy 500
190 votes – 17.4%

Kentucky Derby
275 votes – 25.3%

Daytona 500
546 votes – 50.1%

Boston Marathon
78 votes – 7.2%

Quick update on the Runner’s Cookbook, I don’t remember seeing it when I ordered, but now you can view the Table of Contents. It’s nice to see that the Minnesota runners are well represented. You can guarantee that I’ll be checking Grandma D’s Goulash.

Quote of the day;

“Assuming the cookbook does print properly at some point, I'll consider this project my biggest accomplishment of my life thus far. I have never taken on such a big project.” – Alison Wade

RUNNER'S COOKBOOK FOR SALE

Every once in awhile I come across a simple idea that makes me think, “Why didn’t I think of that.” The most recent case being a book entitled The Runner's Cookbook: Winning Recipes from Some of the World's Best Athletes. It was compiled by Alison Wade who also came up with EliteRunning.com. And although she doesn’t blog as much as she used to, Alison is one of the main reasons I ever started this blog. Anyway, you can order a copy of the cookbook HERE for $14.95 and in the process you’ll be contributing to the Ryan Shay Memorial Fund and the Jenny Crain "Make It Happen" Fund. Just be careful not to pay $8.11 for shipping – instead, use the $3.41 option and your total will be $18.36.

I’ve been super busy at work, so I’ll have to keep this short with just a training update. Saturday’s group run ended up being 14 miles. Afterwards everyone agreed that the pace was quicker than normal. That run gave me 66 miles for the week as I continue to build my base back up.

Sunday and Monday were both trail runs, 11 miles and 10 miles, respectively. Today I took it easy for 6 miles.

Quote of the day;

“Where’s the fire?” – Terry Stewart after Saturday’s group run

SOMETHING NEW

I was able to make it downtown last night to watch the TC-1 mile race. I know people want to run fast, but if you were complaining about last night’s weather – more specifically, the wind – then you’re never going to be happy with race conditions. It sure seemed like ideal conditions to me. Anyway, it was fun watching all the different waves. It made me realize that the majority of the people I know in the local running community are old – fast, but old - and fast women. Seriously, when the 30-39 year old age group went by, I didn’t recognize a soul.

Results from the event can be found HERE. You may notice that the winner was a 17-year-old Kenyan. I’m sure his high school classmates are thrilled with his victory and the $4,000 he pocketed.

I have to admit that I’ve been feeling pretty good lately. During this morning’s easy 7 mile run with strides, I tried something new. Rather than listen to music on my iPod, I downloaded the latest Toni and Matt podcast. I admit the previous times I listened to their podcast, it was during lunch, while trying to blog at the same time. That makes it really hard to catch everything they have to say. I really enjoyed being able to listen to them during my run instead. I’m sure it helped that this was a great episode. I highly recommend checking it out if you have any interest in how to improve the sport’s TV coverage, financial support, and just generate overall interest among the general public.

Quote of the day;

“Everything is finally adding up. I’ve always been a high-mileage trainer and I upped my mileage even more this year. My summer training was more intense than ever before; I was up to 92 miles a week. My highest before was around 75. I took some risks with mileage, but have remained injury free, so I thought, “Why not?” I’ve been working out hard more often. All of these little adjustments have really paid off!” – Lisa Koll, on what she attributes her recent success to, which includes lowering the American collegiate 10,000m record to 32:11.13

HINDSIGHT

Another beautiful morning, another great trail run. Today Scott joined me for at least 8 miles – throw in a mile with the dog and I had 9 for the day. We ran for 60 minutes and on the way back I was able to check our pace (7:05) thanks to some markings I painted last year. If only I had my Garmin, I’d know exactly how far and how fast we ran. Looks like I’ll have to wait another week for it to arrive.

In the last 7 days I’ve run 63 miles. No, that’s not a ton, but it is most I’ve had in 16 weeks. 16 WEEKS!!! During the heart of marathon training, my mileage dropped like a rock. Yes, I know there was skiing in there…but really, it’s no surprise that I ran 3:12 at Boston.

I talked with Scott a little bit about my post from yesterday. He reiterated that I’m basically a running geek – and no, he’s not the first to say so. By comparison, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by how little others follow the professionals.

I do wonder though, is it lack of marketing the sport correctly that leads to the low enthusiasm or is it low enthusiasm that leads to poor marketing? Probably a combination. I know I used to watch any and every track meet that was shown on TV. Now I’ll be channel surfing and pass right by the TV coverage because it’s too boring and I probably already know the results. Maybe I’ve even seen the race on the internet by that time.

One thing I am struggling with myself, is sorting through all the online information out there. It’s great that there are so many sites covering our sport, but I only have so much time. I have to figure out how to sort through them and pull out the “good stuff”.

I found this fun poll on the Accidental Runner’s blog, who found it on runnersworld.com.

What would you trade, to be able to run a sub-3-hour marathon?

MY SENSE OF SMELL FOR ONE YEAR
2%

24 HOURS OF MY LIFESPAN.
8%

TELEVISION PRIVILEGES FOR ONE MONTH.
50%

ANY HUMAN CONTACT FOR ONE WEEK.
9%

ALL OF THE ABOVE.
21%

NONE OF THE ABOVE -- I ALREADY CAN RUN SUB-3!
9%

Quote of the day;

"I love racing against somebody else and proving myself stronger than him, making him suffer." – Derek Clayton

BOTTLE IT

Wow, mention the word “Garmin” and suddenly I’m the most popular blogger around. I wonder what would happen if I started throwing words like “Heart Rate Monitor” around. Responses would probably crash the blogger server. Seriously, thanks for the feedback. I did end up ordering the 205. I’m sure it’ll help my running tremendously and that I’ll be setting PRs left and right pretty soon because of it.

I managed to run 10 miles each of the last two mornings. Yesterday morning we had perfect weather; 50 degrees and calm. Bottle it! I was joined by Nathan for about 6 miles on the trails. This morning I decided to give my wet/muddy shoes a break and just run on the roads. Plus I figure, based on my achy legs at Boston, I need to run on the pavement once in awhile.

I spent most of this run thinking about the state of our sport and how it’s marketed. I know I’ve ripped on Runnerville because it seems like they harp on this subject during each and every one of their podcasts. But you know what, they have a point. Recreational running is on the rise, competitive running in the U.S. has made tremendous progress in just the last 4-5 years, it’s an Olympic year, etc. Yet our professional runners still fight over a few grand here and there.

It seems like now is the time to strike and improve this aspect of our sport. However, I’m not really sure if people even care. I know the general public doesn’t care – well maybe a little once every four years when the Olympics roll around. But I’m talking about runners not caring. It seems like most people are happy with the participatory aspect of running – more specifically, their participation and how they can get better. The fact that there are professional runners – yes, these people make their living by running – doing the same activity that they know and love doesn’t concern them. A case in point would be 8 comments regarding Garmin and 0 regarding the Stanford meet, including Shalane Flanagan beating Deena Kastor’s 10,000m American Record by 15 seconds.

Any thoughts or comments on this? Do you follow what the professionals are doing? Do you check out sites like Letsrun, Runnerville, The Final Sprint, or Elite Running?

Anyway, there’s an article in there somewhere that I plan on writing soon.


Finally, check out this mostly accurate press release for the Medtronic TC 1 Mile that I helped write. And I just saw that Letsrun had this posted on their homepage. Note that Carrie Tollefson is planning on racing, so if you’re local, be sure to head to downtown Minneapolis tomorrow Night (May 8th) and watch the action live. If you do, you'll be able to see studs like those pictured above compete.

Quote of the day;

"We could not be more pleased with the level of competition for this year's mile. The fields include two Olympians, a three-time NCAA Champion, an age group world record holder and nine men who have broken the four-minute barrier. We have a couple of athletes in both fields who like to push the pace, so we expect a fast race on the 8th." - Brian Mastel

BIG DEAL

Building back up is almost as boring as tapering – not a whole lot to write about.

Saturday I ended up running 12 miles – giving me 57 miles for the week. Not bad for my first full week back. Now I just have to build on that.

Yesterday and today were both easy 8 mile trail runs.

So I’m thinking about picking up the Garmin 205 or 305. Not that I need one, but REI has them at $125 and $165, which makes them seem worth it. Maybe if I wait long enough, they’ll be sold out and I won’t have to worry about it. I just hate to buy one and then not have it work on the types of trails I mainly run on.

I am curious why people wear their Garmin during a race. And if a course is certified, why do people complain when their Garmin is a tenth of a mile off? I ran a 10K once that turned out to be closer to 7 miles – maybe that’s why people wear them during races. Anyway, I asked 3 different Garmin wearing runners how long the 10K was and I got 3 very different answers.

I knew the Stanford meet last night was a big deal, but seriously, check out the RESULTS to see all the great runners that were there. Or just check out letsrun.com’s recap. And be sure to check out the women’s 5K VIDEO where Team USA Minnesota’s Emily Brown PR’d by a minute to notch the win and meet the Olympic ‘B’ standard (she already has achieved the Olympic ‘A’ standard for the steeplechase).

Of course, before we get too excited here in Minnesota, we have to keep in mind that Shalane Flanagan just ran a faster pace for 10K, than Brown did for 5K. Check out the last 800 meters of her American Record (and Kim Smith’s New Zealand Record) HERE.

Quote of the day;

“Men, today we die a little.” – Emil Zatopek

A GOOD DAY

Yesterday was a good day. I was finally able to re-join my college friend/teammate, Scott, for a run. Scott and I had been meeting once a week for a run before work. Then his back flared up and he wasn’t running. Little did we know that’d last at least two years. Luckily he was able to cross-train a lot and maintain some solid fitness. We met yesterday and ran for an hour. Hopefully we can get back into the routine of meeting once a week.

This morning I ran a very easy 6 miles and threw in 4 strides. I’m definitely feeling pretty good and find myself way more motivated for TCM than I was for Boston - even with 22 weeks to go. I already find myself doing more core workouts and cutting out some of the garbage from my diet.

Fridays always seem like a great time to provide links to interesting site. While I wasn’t looking, I missed some articles and interviews with Carrie Tollefson, Dennis Barker, and Michelle Lilienthal (prior to running in the trials). Finally, Emily Brown has updated her journal.

Quote of the day;

“In track races, you are against one another. In the marathon, it’s the event, the distance, you have to beat.” – Ian Thompson