Weekly Review

*I hit 97miles on 10runs for the week. Very solid week of training, got in about everything I needed too except Hill Burst. Ankles/Upper Hamstrings were a little issue this week probably from a combination of colder weather and new shoes. The workouts for the week were Long Run(2hr5min), Cruise Intervals(Milers), and 9mile Tempo. The cruise interval 4xmile were done with only 1:15-30 rest in between and hit in an average of 4:55. I probably right now could really lay down a good set of hard miler's if needed maybe I have the stength right now with full rest to hit 4:40s if running them hard. The Tempo was done on a very cold morning with snow flurries dropping and on a muddy trail so kept it at a relaxed pace of 5:30average. Defintely a pace I could feel like I could hold all day..well not all day but defintely easily for a Marathon right now. Coming week is drop week so will look to hit around 85miles with some faster paced workouts.

*Only 8 weeks until Naples, Fla Half Marathon...this is the 8 weeks I have targeted has more specific marathon training. Not really much of a change from what I have been doing the last 15 weeks just moving into a few more specific workouts now.

*We had a great Thanksgiving..due to Marian feeling quite worn out we held off on the trip to her moms house and only made the short trip to my parents house thanksgiving day for a nice dinner with the family. Luckily Marian's mom and stepdad David were able to make the trip to Huntington yesterday for a really good time of eating out and watching football with Laruen and her boyfreind Morgan.

*Looking for a Car is starting to get a little tiring. For those that dont know I totaled my SUV about a month ago coming home from work. Insurance came through with quite a bit of money to work with so now it's all about finding something, looking more towards better Gas Mileage then the past where all I cared about was the looks of the car.

*Ok the time has come, I'm cutting off all deserts and sweats until after Naples!

Prayers for Marian

Marian found out the news yesterday that she has had Mono for almost a year. There is also some other things in your neck area that need some more testing this upcoming week so I ask for everyone to keep her in their prayers. She has been feeling sick off and on for the past year with the past 6 or so months some of the things getting scary. It's good to finally get some answears and hopefully a lot of the other things will get ruled out with the upcoming tests.

It's amazing to think what she accomplished last year during her Senior season at Marshall with Mono. It was around xc conference time that she started feeling weak. She was coming off the Furman meet which she finished 2nd place overall and we were thinking she could be as high as 4th at the conference meet(top 3 went on to make nationals). On conference day she was very sick and weak and we figured it to be just a cold but she battled with what we know now was Mono to finish 13th in the conference(top 15 make all conf team). She become the 1st Mu runner to make a CUSA All-Conference team.

What's even more impressive she went on to indoor and outdoor track to break 5 school records and become are first Distance runner to score at the CUSA Meet with her 5th place finish at indoor 5k. Her school records were Indoor Mile(5:07), 3k(10:07), and 5k(17:30). Then outdoor she broke school records for 3k(10:01) and 5k(17:18). She barely missed the 1500 which she ran a (4:39). The 10k would have been the easiest record for her to break she actually did a 4.5 mile tempo 2 weeks before the Conference Outdoor meet at way faster then record pace. But by that time the sickness was controling her body so her quest for a 10k conference crown and record wasn't in the cards by the time conference rolled around.

She easily became the best ever female distance runner ever to come through MU..it looks to be a long time before another runner like her comes through Marshall with range from 800-10k and XC. Coach Small even paid her the best praise when he changed the XC Leadership Award to the Marian Brooks Leadership Award for now on. To add to the great running success she made the CUSA All-Academic Team, this was the team that they only picked 6 runners from the entire conference to receive it, so it was a huge honor.

No doubt once she gets healthy again and get all this sickness out of her body she will surprise people with how much BETTER she even is than from what she already has done. I see her healthy hitting low 16's in the 5k. She will be on that Olympic Trials Marathon line with me in 2012, I have no doubt about that.

I'm so proud of my wife and Love her so much! With thanksgiving coming up in a few days she is what i'm most thankful for, thier is no person in this world more perfect of a fit for me and I love knowing we will be together forever! I Love you Marian!

Training Recap(Nov 12-18th)

*Hit 92miles on 10 runs for the week. Start of the week was laid back and easy but things got rolling pretty solid by the end to make a good solid week of training. The week was made up of Easy runs, strides, Hill Burst(6), Tempo (7miles @5:22pace), and Long Run(2hr6min). The tempo was done on friday evening at ritter, pretty much felt like crap on it but to show where my training has came to I still hit slightly faster than planned(planned 5:25..hit 5:22 average). I found the perfect hill for the hill burst close to the park and our appartment. It will be a great hill for longer hill workouts as well.

*Plan is to hit around 95miles this upcoming week with 2 workouts and a long run as the quaility. The tempo of the week will be done at the Beckley Turkey Trot 5miler on thursday and probably Cruise Intervals(Milers) on tuesday.

*Randy Moss and the Pats continue to roll. After the 4 TD's Moss had last night he is only 6 behind the single season record of 22 held by Jerry Rice.

*Went alittle bad with my diet last week enjoyed too much good food like papa johns, ice cream, and even Cold Stone Creamery. Feel much better when eating healthier...moderation of those things is the key!

Yearly Log Update...Looking Forward

*My training log runs Nov-Nov so I just recently filled up another year in the Training Log. I don't have the exact figures in front of me but it was over 3,000 miles for the year which has been about average for me. When you figure in that I missed 12 full weeks of training for foot(7weeks) and groin(5weeks) and then also some other missed days in the mix my avg running was probably around 80miles a week. Of course a lot of my quality training would average 90plus mile weeks.

*Looking to pick back up with workouts tonight. Plan is 7mile Tempo at Ritter now that the trail is dried up from all the rain. Haven't ran hard(other than strides and hill burst) since last saturday's race. Just been logging the miles so far this week.

Focus!!

Time to refocus! Very Happy with the 8K PR but that was far from my Goal Race. It actually being so early into my training has been what i'm so pumped about. I'm excited to run a fast 5k/10k this spring on the Track. I think this will be the year I make HUGE drops of all my PR's if I stay Healthy. Naples Half Marathon is now 10 weeks away so i'm taking this week as a easy mileage week before hitting what I hope to be 9 weeks of very hard training.

*Pictures from Richmond 8K. Top(during last mile) and Bottom(at finish line)

Training Log plus 24:34 8K Race Recap!!

Very good 13th week back into solid training. It was my drop week as well as my 1st time to push the envelope in a race to test my fitness that I felt was really high. I hit 81miles for the week on 10runs. Easy Runs, Cruise Intervals(800s), Hill Burst(6), strides, long run and 8k race(rcap below) made up the weeks training. The cruise intervals were done on Wednesday and I picked up the effort on them a little bit to give the legs some prep for the faster pace to come in the 8k race. This week had no lingering effects of last weeks 3 wkouts that included the sunday half marathon tempo. Look to get miles back up to mid 90s this week while keeping sticking to only 1 major workout(tempo midweek) and probably some 200s on friday to just keep sneaking some speed into my legs. The following week I will jump back into 2 workouts with tuesday cruise intervals bumping up to mile repeats and then doing my tempo at the Beckley 5mile Turkey Trot while in town visiting Marians family.

*As for the Richmond Netelos 8k it went Great. It gave me exactly the feedback I wanted at this point and showed me I'm well on my way to sub 1:06 half in 10 weeks. The whole weekend was a blast with 12,000 runners in Richmond for the Marathon/8k races. There was roughly 6,000plus in the 8k alone. Last year the fastest 8k in the country was ran by a Kenyan at this race so it has the reputation of being a fast race with some of the best showing up to run it.

I was pumped for the race had even took 2 easy days before it to better recover and prepare to run a fast one. Race morning everything went pretty smoothly as my uncle and me hung ut in the Marriot Lobby right by the start line. My warmup of 20minutes felt pretty snappy and my legs felt to have a bounce. I was able to jump into the front of the pack behind the Kenyans elite start about 5minutes before the start which during a 30 degree morning(good for running bad for standing) worked out great. The first mile I ran with John Hinton who is one the top Master 1500/Miler in the country. Close to the Mile marker I asked him his goal and he said only 25:20's which jump started me into picking up my pace. I caught a group of 5 runners at the Mile in 5:03. The next pack was already well up on us at this point and I went straight to the lead of this pack and said to the guys lets go catch that pack. No one would help me lead during that 2nd mile and could feel that the pace wasn't very fast so I took off and left the group right before the 2mile which I hit in 5:02. Even though I was slow at this point I felt like I was jogging and wasteing a great day to test my limits so I picked up the effort to where I felt I was racing. I hit the 3rd and 4th miles(19:50s at 4miles) in 4;55's but still felt like it was a tempo run on ritter park. So there was a short incline to start the 5th mile and I decided I was going all out the last mile to really hit a time I would be happy with. So I just kept pushing and pushing that last mile, I pushed so hard I went through the line at full speed and could have kept going for another 1-2miles at a still fast pace. I hit the last mile in 4:36 to finish 12 overall...something I was very pumped up for being such a huge/fast race. My huge PR time was 24:34!!

*Happy with the result. Things have been clicking the last 2 years with improvement but this last 13 weeks things are just really going well. I think getting into a training program that is perfect for me and the lost of some major weight have been big keys!

*BTW my uncle that I was coaching to his debut Marathon at Richmond blasted through are goal and ran 2:56 at the age of 46!! Congrats David...I was more pumped for him then myself the whole rest of the day. We had a great weekend.

*8k Race Results http://www.usraceworks.com/marathon/default.aspx?searchType=R&selectedRank=25&selectedEvent=8k

Long Course Email

*Wanted to share this email that Tom Dannals sent me after the Marshall Marathon weekend. I had earlier sent him an email thanking him for my comp-entry and putting on such a great event also sne him congrats on his qualifing for Boston: Thanks Jason; it’s comments like yours that keep us going. I haven’t certified the half-marathon yet, but it runs about 100 yards too long (FYI) so that makes your time even more outstanding (and I know you didn’t even push it). As for Boston, I qualified by a mere 18 seconds! But who cares, I’m going again – last time for me running there was 1984.
tom

Training Recap/Marshall University Half Marathon

Really good week of training. After last week just logging miles and taking a travel day off I jumped back into things this week with 92miles on 11 runs and put in 3 workouts. The workouts were 4mile Tempo @ 5:15pace on tuesday, Cruise Intervals(800s) on thursday, and ran the Marshall University Half Marathon as a long run/long tempo effort on Sunday(more on this below). Rest of the runs were normal easy runs and strides and took out hill burst for one week but will add them back in this coming week. Also this coming week i'm travelling with my uncle to the Richmond Marathon where he will run his debut thon at the age of 46. I put him on a training plan 20 weeks ago shooting for the goal to just finish, training has went so well for him that now thoughts of sub 3:10 are on his mind! I will be running as well in the 5 mile race they have as a part of the weekend races, it is a huge 8k actually one of the largest and fastest in the country last year. I will need to run very fast to keep thise Kenyans in sight(lol)

*Marshall University Marathon, Huntington WV. I called up the race director to see if I could get comp entry into the race to use it as a long tempo workout. Tom who has always been really good to me was more than glad to help me out. So I ran this race as a long tempo and long run, I logged 3miles of warmup and 3miles of cooldown to give me close to 20miles of running.

The event was really nice, very well organized. The Marshall XC team was working the intersections the first 3miles which was cool and the crowd support was crazy especially at the 3mile/9mile marks. So many "Go Jason's" on that course it was very much appreciated. Not many times you can go do a workout and have people cheering you on like that.

Anyways the workout went great. Was alone(how I like it) just cruising through my tempo the entire time. My plan was keeping it at 5:20pace(ultimate Marathon goal pace) and it went by so easily. I ended up hitting 1:09.28 which is a 5:18 pace. My fitness is a lot better than I thought. Especially with the long stuff, it's just want my body is made to run the best at. My spilts were all solid with alittle pickup the last 5k. I hit 5miles in 26:26 and 10miles in 52:54!! I then ran the last 5k in roughly 5:11-12pace to finish strong. Defintely jacked up with the run!

**I wasn't hitting my splits on the last 5k just knew what the total time was for what I thought was 3.1. I knew I was picking the pace up so when I figured out I was 5:11-12 miles I was happy but felt like I was running a lot harder. Well Tom alerted me later that the half course is actually 13.2, they do this so that they can use the same finish line for all the races without confusion. But makes more sense now, so I probably was running 5:03-5:05 pace the last 5k and total time would have been closer breaking 1:09. Not a bad day for 10miles at Tempo effort before starting to run hard!

*Here is race story(mainly on the Marathon winner) and a Pic fromt he start.
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x116104081