What's Next?

Monday, March 16: 10:00 AM - 9 Miles, 60 min
Tuesday, March 17: 4:30 PM - 9 Miles, 61 min
Wednesday, March 18: 2:00 PM - In/Out Tempo WO along the River
20 min w/u, ~4 Miles @ 21:00 (5:30, 5:00, 5:30, 5:00) on effort, 20 min c/d
Thursday, March 19: 6:00 PM - 11 Miles, 80 min w/ CVC and KJ
Friday, March 20: 10:00 AM - 8 Miles, 56 min w/ CVC
Saturday, March 21: 8:30 AM - Interval WO @ BC Res w/ Roland and Dave
22 min w/u, 8 x 3min on/2min off, 20 min c/d, "On" @ 10K -> 8K pace
Sunday, March 22: 8:30 AM - 10 Miles, 71 min
6:00 PM - 4 Miles, 29 min

Week Total = 73 Miles, 8 Sessions

The week started off with a few days of recovery from the trip to Florida and the 15K. I felt decent following the race except my quads were really sore. They had been tight/sore for the last 2-3 weeks, most likely due to increasing volume and intensity. Then throw in a 15K race with a huge hill at the end of it and a bunch of runs on concrete sidewalks and my quads were pretty beat up after the weekend. I ran an in-n-out tempo on Wednesday which was doable but I didn't feel great while doing it. I was supposed to be 10s faster than tempo on the "ins" and 10s slower than tempo on the "outs". Guessing that my tempo is around 5:15ish right now, this meant 5:05 and 5:25. I just ran the workout along the river so I didn't have anything measured out and just ran on effort. To keep things simple, I used 5:30 and 5:00 as benchmarks for the pace change. It was one of the "warmer" days of the week but very windy! The weather hasn't been all that great lately as we've been dipping into the 20's and down to the teens with wind chill. This winter just keeps lingering on and has not helped me get out the door any faster.

I was feeling better by Saturday and had a very promising workout with Roland and Dave. My plan was to hang off the back of those guys and try to stay in control while expecting them to pull away from me on each interval. This was pretty much the case in the first couple sets, but then I found myself staying relatively close to them in the middle of the workout and decided to just sit on their shoulder as much as possible. The intervals were pretty hard efforts for me and I was definitely breathing pretty heavy, but the 2 min rest was more than enough between intervals and I never lost too much ground on those guys until the last one when Roland pulled away at the end. I didn't feel too fatigued from the workout and walked away from it feeling pretty good.

The mileage this week was good as I hit 70 for the first time in 2009. I've definitely been tired this week and the legs always feel like junk at the start of each run, but a lot of my tiredness is from working a lot and I usually feel good by the end of my runs. I'm still seeing my chiropractor every 2-3 weeks for adjustments (hip & back) and ART on the foot, lower peroneals, and ITB. All things I really need. I am also in need of a massage and will have to look into getting one of those in the next week or so. The foot is doing ok. It still bothers me, especially in the mornings and after long days at work. I use the Foot Rubz ball on it every day and do a lot of added flexibility and mobility work on it whenever I can. It isn't painful when I run, but is uncomfortable at times, so I still think about it often and try to be cautiously aware of the strains I put on it.

As I talked about in my last post, I ran a 15K race down in Jacksonville last week and was satisfied with my effort there. It's been a slow buildup to where I am now and I still have a long way to go, but for my first race of 2009, I was content with what I did down there. After the race, I spent the rest of the weekend meeting other elites and catching up with old friends. As each conversation developed, I could almost guarantee that each person would ask some form of the same question. "So what's next for you?" And I'm sure those of you that read this are wondering the same thing. Most people that ask that question expect a race somewhere in the answer... and yes, I do plan on racing at some point this spring. However, I don't know what races they'll be and they probably won't be for a while. So I've been answering the question of "what's next?" with, "a lot of hard training in March and April and once I'm fit enough, I'll find a race somewhere." There are a lot of options to choose from and I have a few in mind that might be possibilities, but it will come down to how quickly my fitness comes along and what Kevin thinks will be best for me this year. To keep things less costly, I'm guessing I'll stay local as much as possible and probably incorporate the Boston High Performance Series into the schedule. If I was further along in my training, it would be awesome to go out to Mt. SAC, UC Berkeley, or Stanford like most elite 5K/10K guys are doing, but if I'm not in sub 14:00/29:00 shape and don't have the extra money to throw around, it doesn't make much sense to go out there this early.

I think I'm on the right track to get back to where I was a year ago and it might not be that far away, but the big challenge for me will be to get past that point. I've been struggling for 3 years now to get past the point of being a 14:30 guy and am eager (almost desperate) for a breakthrough this year. It may take several weeks or months to show signs of surfacing, but I really hope to make some progress in my running career at some point in 2009.

Until I have more definite racing plans, I'll just keep working hard and building on what I've started and if anything big comes up, you'll certainly hear about it. Best of luck to all of you that are starting your seasons now and I hope to be joining you before too long.