Some updates..

Ran 40miles this week. If you would have asked me as of Wednesday if I would cover anything I would have said NO. So to get 40miles with 30 of it coming over the weekend was a nice recovery. I still missed last Saturday-Wednesday(5days) and then Thursday/Friday runs were just training to move to see if it would make me feel better(which it did).

Foot has been sore for about 2 weeks now even with the 5 complete days off sick and the 2 very laid back days it seemed to get worse. Doesn't hurt when I run yet, but bothers me big time when walking. Hopefully ice and massage will do the trick.

Feel like I lost a week not only with running but with life..lol. I was out of it for those 5-7 days. I seem to feel much better now but still not 100%.

Marian and I had a great picnic today and heading to another cookout tomorrow. I love summer fun and cookout gatherings with lots of people!

SICK!!!! (Training Recap)

Well I have been hit by some type of stomach virus and it has hit me hard. Friday night after a 2ND run at the state meet in the rain I started to fell a pain in my stomach. The next morning at 2am I woke to extreme pain that got worse the entire day along with the feeling of complete weakness. At 9:30 pm with Marian out of town and no strength to move I called my dad to make a trip to Huntington to take me to the Hospital because at this point I was in so much discomfort I thought it was something serious. It takes a lot for me to go to the doctor these days with no insurance so this was one of the most painful and sick feelings I have had in a long time. Long story short we spent the next 5 hours going through blood work and a CAT scan to rule out appendicitis. I was very thankful to find out it was nothing serious and the doctor said that in 80% of stomach cases they don't know what it is. Forward to now and I'm still very very weak, walking in here to check a few Internet things and type this feels like running a marathon. Throat is very sore now as well, but stomach is slowly feeling better. So how many days I will be feeling down and out it still up in the air but I hope for a quick recovery.

Training Recap from the past week:
Mon: AM 70mins/ PM 30mins with strides
Tue: 20min warmup 4mile Tempo 28min cooldwon (11miles total)
Wed: AM 75mins/ PM 30mins
Thu: 20min warmup 2x3miles with 1mile rec. 20min cooldown (13miles total)
Fri: AM 65minutes with strides/PM45minutes @ State Meet
Sat OFF-Sick
Sun OFF-Sick

68miles on 8runs in 5 days. Was a good week until the weekend but stuff happens. I will have to miss the first half of the next week at least but hope to bounce back quickly after that. The 5 days I ran I logged good miles and solid base workouts. 4mile tempo at 5:31 pace(suppose to hit only 5:35). Then the 2x3mile were at 5:31 pace and 5:27 pace which was fine just wanted another tempo like effort. Plan would have been to start cranking things up this week coming week but of course plans will change now. I might just rule out Clarksburg because I'm missing too much time to be fit enough to go there and run like I would like. If I completely decide to make this choice I might just go 4 more weeks of base and keep doing stuff like I have before going more into half marathon and marathon specific training with 15 weeks until Akron at that point.

Marian in EL PASO!!

So Marian left Monday for a week in El Paso, Tx with the Marshall Track team. She gets to use this as a nice early vacation and time to relax/recover from the end of the school year which saw her get another 4.0 in her Graduate Program. I'm very jealous that she gets sunny 80 degree weather and dirt trails all week long, as well as some minor altitude training(4500 ft). She is having so far another good week of training on her come back from Mono. Her base phase is pretty much at it's highest right now of around 70miles a week which is the most miles she has ever done before. Through her 2 years of running in college she maintained around 60miles a week.

Here is a picture of the sweet track setup El Paso has, it isn't the most special track I have ever seen but from my two trips there I have to say it is one of my favorites.

Summer Races

*Was looking at a website today and they had an article on Parkersburg Half Marathon keeping the RRCA National Championship tag so I clicked on it to read was was very nicely surprised by a couple names that were mentioned halfway through the article check it out: http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/505209.html?nav=5063

*More on Parkersburg I should be fit by that time and it will be my 1 very hard race. By that I mean I could run anywhere from 6-8 races now until Akron Marathon but out of those races 2 are little hidden 5k with lots of cash that I will just run as easy as possible at, and the other 5-6 will be races that just fit into my workout for that day. Like Summer Motion July 5th I will go there run 10K Tempo at like 5:10 pace. The one other race I might try to roll out hard is Bun Run 5k, it is a Huntington 5K that gets good numbers of runners but more importantly even though I will be in full marathon training load at that point I want to run one very hard 5k for a big PR hopefully. Bun Run is accurate course with good mile markers and on area that I run quite a bit which goes a long way for running extra fast on.

June 14th Clarksburg 10K (probably wont be anywhere near ready but Marian is racing it so I might jump in for a hard effort)
July 5th Summer Motion 10K (my favorite race so we use it as my tempo like normal)
July12th Crazy 8k, Kingport, TN (?) (Marian and I got a comp entry to run Crazy 8's night race which we haven't ruled out, if so would take out the workout the day. The field at Crazy 8k is awesome...LOADED so would be worth checking out fitness with a race effort if we go)
July 26th Bun Run 5k
Aug 16th Parkersburg Half
Aug 30th CDR 15 Miler (Marathon-Paced Run)
Sep 29th Akron Marathon

*Had 30minute Phone conversion with hiring committee at Elon University today, hopefully it was my 2ND step in getting a in person interview in the next couple weeks.

Training Recap 5/5-5/11

Mon: 70mins
Tue: AM 70min with 4xPrivate Drive Hill(4:38,4:44,4:50,4:56) PM 30min
Wed: 55min
Thur: OFF (unplanned-calf/shin)
Fri: OFF(unplanned-calf/shin)
Sat: 70min
Sun: 1hr45min

6runs in 5 days for 57miles. Goal was around 85miles for the week, but cut Wednesday run short and took off Thur/Fri. During my Hill workout(see below) I felt some tightness during the long downhill jog back to the start of the last repeat. Finished off the workout and cool down with no more tightness or pain. Went out for my 2nd run later that day to some tightness but nothing bad, then Wednesday I ran without pain but leg was tight. Made the smart choice to take 2 days off now instead of 2 months later. Still a little tight but the slight pain that was being felt seems to be gone.

Private Drive Hill Workout is a long hill that starts at the tennis courts at Ritter Park and goes up branching off into a private drive road. The entire hill is a climb the whole way. The toughest part is the first 300m from tennis court to the private drive road but the entire thing is hard running. In the past I have done 3 repeats when I do this workout with a best of 4:50 up it. On this day I went 4x Private Drive with 3 of them faster than my previous best single time up the hill. I never kill this workout too hard and wasn't this time, but was feeling like I was getting up the hill easily. Due to the calf will probably stay off hills this week.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL MOMS ESPECIALLY MINE!!!

Training Recap 4/28-5/4

Monday: 70min
Tuesday: 70min
Wednesday: AM63min/PM30min
Thursday: 85min
Friday: 12mile run with 2x2mile in middle as just pickups
Saturday: "10th Day Planned OFF"
Sunday: AM30min/20minup 5k run(1st place, $400) 25min down

*8runs in 6 days for 70miles. Solid 6th week back into base building. Just keeping everything very easy still, want to establish a strong base to carry me hopefully 21 more weeks to Akron. This week would have been 80s for the mileage without the Planned offday, so miles are starting to get back up there. Hopefully in 2-4 weeks will be in that 90-100 comfort zone that I have before eventually getting 100-115 for most of the summer. The friday fartlek 2milers were ran very easy at 5:30pace planned, went alittle faster on each one.

*Saturday went to Mullins, WV for the Dogwood 5k only becasue I figured it was easy money, I was right Marian and I came out with $400 dollars and a great start to what is a 4 race series with each race having good money and the series champs getting bonus money. Will work the other 3 in as just easy days. Ran 16:28 in this one..or should I say jogged. I ran on Larry Taylors shoulder for the first 2.5 miles, sort of felt like a jerk becasue he knew I was just keeping it as easy as possible to get money. Was going to wait until the last 100m and then surge in but just didn't think that was a good idea. So i surge one hard time for about a minute then jogged it in. Plan was to do this to whoever lead, if it was 15:30 pace I would set and kick, if I could have got by running 20minute pace and kicking it I would have. But came out with enough information that I can run sub 15:30 today..not bad form for 16weeks off and now just 6 weeks of slow running. Hopefully things pick up quite well this summer and I find one 5k in my Marathon training to lay it on the line and go after that 14:40 that I want bad.

*Marian ran strong, she just lacks workouts. We have brought her back from Mono really slow and done mainly just miles with some fartleks. Now it is time to move into some Tempo and Cruise Interval work for her to get her ready for Clarksburg 10K.

*Good time after the race with Marian's mom and stepdad. Awesome meal at Rio Grande in Beckley then a nice visit with her grandma. Very fun day.