Not There Yet

Monday, February 23: 0 Miles (worked all day, very tired after)
Tuesday, February 24: 6:30 PM - Track WO w/ Mario, JP, and Phil
22 min w/u, 4 x 1000/600 @ 74/72 pace w/ 2minR, 3minR between sets, 22 min c/d
3:06/1:47, 3:05/1:46, 3:03/1:48, 2:55/1:43
Wednesday, February 25: 1:30 PM - 7 Miles, 49 min
Thursday, February 26: 12:30 PM - 0 Miles (not planned)
Friday, February 27: 7:30 AM - 9 Miles, 63 min w/ Rupp
Saturday, February 28: 8:00 AM - WO with Rupp outside @ Bentley
22 min w/u, 6 x 4min @ Tempo w/ 1minR, 21 min c/d
(middle two intervals on the track - 1200's @ 3:56, 3:53)
Sunday, March 1: 12:30 PM - 9 Miles, 60 min

Week Total = 47 Miles, 5 Sessions

Another week gone by with very mediocre training. I am still trying to get settled into a routine and find a daily balance between training, work, and everything in between. The house is coming along now that our third roommate, Chris has finally moved in. It's looking a bit more lived in and feeling a bit more like "home". However, I have still been very busy and just haven't had a good week of training yet. I was ok with running 40-50 miles a week a month ago because I was just getting back into things, but I should not be below 60 right now. There is no excuse for it and taking two days off in a week is simply unacceptable. I get really frustrated with myself because I know I have the drive to be doing more, and I know I NEED to be doing more if I want to have any type of success this spring. I'm having some okay workouts on the track and I find myself pushing through those well, but the in between days are where I am lacking and that is where I need to make some big improvements. I am working really hard, but I am doing it inconsistently and not taking good enough care of myself along the way. If I don't get more serious about the little things, I have a feeling I'm gonna be paying for it down the road.

I plan on doing a lot better with this over the next few weeks. I feel like things should start calming down in my everyday life and I can hopefully rid myself of the many stresses I've been putting on myself. I hope to eventually be able to work a little less than I am right now and get into a regular schedule so I can better plan my training around it. Right now, I'm just picking up as many shifts as I can and sometimes have sacrificed a quality run because of it. I'm tired all the time and just don't seem to have enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. Also, the weather has not been cooperative. I AM SO SICK OF WINTER!! We just got dumped on with more snow this week and the last few runs have not been pleasant. I feel like better weather will help a lot with getting me back into a rhythm and back to the mileage I should be at. But enough ranting, let's move onto something else.

I will finally let the JC Experience readers know about my plans for my first race of 2009. I agreed to do this one a few weeks back, but was holding off on telling people for various reasons. Now that it is less than two weeks away, I guess I can tell people about it. So on March 14th, I'll be participating in the Gate River 15K in Jacksonville, FL and the plan is to race it. This race is also acting as the US 15K Road Championships and will have very strong individual and team competition. I'm sure you're thinking the same thing I was a month ago... it's too early for me to be in a competitive race, let alone a national championships. And you're probably right. The training I've been doing does not indicate a fast 15K and I will likely be training the majority of this elite field. Despite all that, I will be there just the same and compete to the best of my ability. I know I can be tough in competition and I may surprise myself. It may also be a big kick in the ass. Either way, I plan on using it as motivation to propel me into the spring season and will hopefully gather some information about where my fitness is and what I need to do to achieve my goals for this spring.

So I agreed to do this race for several reasons. 1.) My teammates needed a 3rd guy for the team competition, 2.) It's a good strength workout for this stage in my training, 3.) Jacksonville is warmer than Boston, 4.) Two of my best friends, Liz and DJ live in Jacksonville, and finally 5.) I need to remember what it's like to be competitive again before I enter the spring season, so what better race to pick than a national championships where I'll likely be racing the top guys my events for this coming track season.

In other news, it was a big weekend in the Track world as Boston played host to the USA Indoor Championships. I attended the races on Saturday and agreed to do a few interviews while I was there. Not my best work, but I did what I could. More importantly, the people I was there to watch did very well. Specifically, my teammates Rebecca Donaghue and Jenn Donovan placed 5th and 12th in the Womens 3K with big PRs of 9:01 and 9:15, respectively. I am really pumped about these performances because I know how hard these girls have worked and they deserve every acknowledgement they get.

After a long day on Saturday, I was up before 6am Sunday morning to meet up with old friend Ryan Fenton, now of FloTrack. We met up with Ryan Hall and got some footage of him running the last 20 Miles of the Boston course, similar to what we did with Kara Goucher a few weeks ago. It was a neat experience and I was happy to help out, but I was certainly exhausted after everything on Saturday, followed by 4 hours in the car on Sunday, followed by a run in the snow, followed by 7 hours at work. I definitely take on too much and this is probably a big part of why my training has been suffering. But how often to you get the chance to hang out with Ryan Hall?

I plan on having some better training updates for you in the next few weeks so stay tuned.