Finding Balance

Ever since I entered college as a freshman, I have placed the majority of my daily efforts into finding balance in all the areas of my life. Balance between work, education, family, friends, sports, travel, finances, etc. Balance between what I want to do and what I need to do, what I enjoy doing and what I'm good at, or even what I could do and what I should do. To this day, it has been an on going battle, and hasn't seemed to get any easier in the past couple years. In fact, recently, I feel like many of my efforts to find the right balance that I'm looking for may actually be creating more imbalance. This of course gives me the feeling that I'm going backward instead of progressing forward, and at times, can be very frustrating. I realize that many of these things take time, and that people often say, in order to take two steps forward, you have to take one step back. The problem is that sometimes I don't know how many steps back I've taken or even which ones are stepping forward, backward, to the side, or nowhere at all.

Those that have read this blog regularly, probably have an idea of the things I am referring to, but those that may have stumbled upon this page more recently can probably relate to this just as easily. I imagine everyone deals with these struggles and I certainly don't claim to be a special case in the matter.

Like many of the people I know that live similar lifestyles to my own, I feel there is never enough time to get this balance right and the fast passing of weeks, months, and years just make it all more difficult. When I made the decision to leave my engineering position over 2 years ago, I had the feeling that I took a step back. However, I quickly took many steps forward in a short amount of time. I found what I thought was a great balance and was reaping the benefits as that fall was my best season of running ever. I was very happy with the decisions I made. Several months later, I took an even larger risk which may have been greedy or selfish on my part, and a risk that I probably pressured myself into taking. I moved to California to pursue my running career even further, convincing myself that there was a lot more out there for me. This plan backfired and I am still trying to make up for the many steps back I took in that short six month period.

It's already been over a year since I returned to Boston, and though I may have corrected several imbalances in that time, I still feel like I am so far from where I want to be in my life. Of course, the hardest part of that statement is I don't know where that end goal lies or what it entails. Because of this, I find myself trying to fulfill all these wants and needs, enjoyments and talents, could's and should's, etc. I find myself too ambitious and taking on more than I can handle.

After taking such a big risk on running in 2008, I was almost forced to pull away from that part of my life and take a good hard look at a professional working career. I came to the realization that I would not be a professional athlete and instead needed to get a job, hold a job, and make ends meet the same as most everyone else in this world. This doesn't mean I have any less desire of pursuing my running dreams and see how far I can go in this sport. I just knew I needed to work harder on the other side of the scale. Because running was and still is such a big part of my life, I felt my best job opportunities would be within the world of running, so I've stayed in that realm of work and continue trying to make a living at it in many ways.

Fortunately, I've kept my promise of always putting my family and friends first in my life and I don't feel like I've ever strayed too far from that passion. I know how lucky I am to have these people in my life and I have no problem putting my personal goals aside for them. Some people have accused me of being too generous in this regard, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I've spent a little more time than I planned talking about this balancing act, and per usual, this post is getting very long. Moving forward with this, I guess I'd like to recap a couple things that have happened in the last several weeks and maybe give you an idea of why this discussion topic came up when it did. This blog has been intended to allow people to see my training and hear my views on my racing and any contributions to the sport of running. Though the life of Jeff Caron may be very oriented toward running, there have been many other experiences along the way. Therefore, The JC Experience has had many other topics as well, which may or may not be enjoyed by the majority of it's readers, but I do what I can with what I have to work with.

As I've alluded to before, I am currently working full time at The Greater Boston Running Company and have been for 6 months now. More recently, I was offered a management position at our Lexington location and accepted the offer. The added responsibility was expected and I feel I've been fulfilling my obligations well, despite my other life pursuits.

Another project/job that I've also alluded to on here and have been working on for a while, is that of my role in the Santa Barbara International Marathon. As many of you saw, we successfully put on our inaugural event on December 6th, and were generally happy with the positive impact it had and how well people responded to it. Behind the scenes, there was a tremendous amount of hard work put into it by many of the key players involved, and initially, we were very nervous about the outcome, afraid it wouldn't meet our expectations. As you can imagine, putting on an inaugural event in a city that's never had something of this magnitude can be quite an undertaking. Despite all the stress and frustration leading into it and despite us not being fully satisfied, it was a great event and had more positive response than I imagined it would. Being the person I am, I probably put more pressure on myself than was warranted to fulfill our expectations. I followed Rusty, June, and Dan's lead and pretty much turned this into a full time job in the weeks leading up to the event. I took pride in the work I did and was happy to be a part of the event. I'd love to discuss this more, but there's just too much. Feel free to check photos, results, and comments from the people involved on our website or our facebook page. As a final note, I have to say that there is an incredible support crew in the extended Santa Barbara Community and they were the ones that will most likely bring me back next year to do it all over again. To name a few, I'd like to thank Tamara Berndt, Elda Rudd, Tim Bomba, Kim Burnell, Brooke Powell, Adrienne Cueto, Rich Smith, Andrea McLarty, Cody Westheimer, and many more!

Photo Coutesy of Rusty Snow

With regards to my running, I haven't put a lot of it on here recently, mostly because of embarrassment. In the last three months I've averaged between 35-40 miles a week. I've talked a good game about being more committed, but I haven't followed through with my plans. This is simply unacceptable. Granted, I have had this ongoing plantar issue I've been dealing with, and I've struggled with energy levels in that time, but it still isn't a good enough excuse. Honestly, I don't know how I've managed to race as "well" as I have this season. I've relied solely on my ability to race, my will to succeed, and pure stubbornness in competition. I've been aggressive in every race I've run this season and I've known at the start of every race that it was going to be painful. If nothing else, I hope that I've forced myself to be tougher in this season. Maybe when I finally to get the proper training under me, I can use that to find a new level that I've not tapped into before.

My experience at the Club National XC Championships in Kentucky last weekend was overall a good one, as I saw many of my old friends and connected with many new friends as well. I tried to take advantage of that rarity and make the most of it. I did race hard, I ran about what I expected for a time, and I believe I added to the success of our team, but I just can't bring myself to say that I am happy with 73rd place. I know I am a better runner than that ...maybe not now, but I know it's in there. I was ok with getting by at the regional level, getting 7th at NEs and 2nd at the T-Day 4 Miler, but on the national level, you can't fake your way through it. These guys were prepared and ready to perform. I was not. It was certainly a wake up call that I had been ignoring all season because of everything else. But now that I have the relief of Santa Barbara behind me and we will soon be entering a new year and a new season, I have to make something happen.

I wouldn't say I've gotten away from the sport as I have been competing right along these past several months, and I've done just enough to be in good shape, but not great shape. However, I've let myself get away from that bubble I was on in 2007, that bubble of elite and sub elite. I know I can get back there with a few months of consistent training, I just need to find a way to make that commitment. Going forward, I have to shift that balance back to my own running and make that my focus again. It is what makes me happy and is a unique part of my life that can reward me like nothing else can. Of course, that reward doesn't come easy, I need to work extremely hard for it!

A Little Strength Can Go A Long Way

(Photo courtesy of Krissy Kozlosky)

Monday, October 26: PM - 7 Miles, 47 min
Pedestal and Myrtl Routine
Tuesday, October 27: PM - 6 Miles, 41 min
Wednesday, October 28: 0 Miles
Thursday, October 29: AM - 10 Miles, 64 min
(4 x 4min on/1min off in the middle)
Friday, October 30: 0 Miles
75 min core/strength/balance
Saturday, October 31: AM - WO @ Lincoln, 22 min w/u + c/d
9K Tempo - 30:35 - alt efforts on 1K loops w/ Ryan
3:12, 3:34, 3:15, 3:35, 3:12, 3:36, 3:10, 3:44, 3:11
Sunday, November 1: PM - 7 Miles, 48 min w/ CVC + Teddy

Week Total = 42 Miles, 5 Sessions

Monday, November 2: PM - 8 Miles, 56 min
90 min core: Pedestal, Back, Myrtl Routines x 2
Tuesday, November 3: PM - Hill WO @ Heartbreak, 22 min w/u + 16 min c/d
6 to the top (~540m) + 6 x 1 min up
1:39, 1:40, 1:41, 1:37, 1:37, 1:37
Wednesday, November 4: 0 Miles
45 min core/strength/balance, 2 x Pedestal Routine
Thursday, November 5: PM - 10 Miles, 66 min
Friday, November 6: 0 Miles
Saturday, November 7: PM - 5 Miles, 36 min + Strides
Sunday, November 8: USATF NE XC Championships - Results - Photos
7th Place - 31:38 - 4:47, 9:57, 15:46 (5K), 20:23, 25:20 (8K)
20 min w/u + c/d

Week Total = 47 Miles, 5 Sessions

A few months ago, I was challenged by my two roommates to take part in a push up challenge. 100 push ups in as little time as possible. Karina set the bar pretty high with her 2 minutes and 47 seconds, CVC leveled out the playing field with a DNF after about 15 minutes of trying, and I went 3rd thinking I would be closer to the 2:47 than to the DNF. It had been several months since I'd done a significant number of push ups, but I was not threatened by the task at hand. After all, I am a competitive athlete and maintain a relatively active lifestyle. I got through 50 in about 2 minutes, but soon found out that I had taken on more than I could handle. By 70, I was doing them in 3-5 set increments and by 90, I had lost all feeling from the shoulders down. Needless to say, I didn't match Karina's high standard. Rather, I had to settle for 16 minutes and 10 seconds. I was shocked by the rather pathetic showing and couldn't believe how much of a difference there was in my muscle ability from when I was doing push ups more regularly. After just a few weeks of doing push ups 1-2 times a week, I was able to shave over 10 minutes off that time.

By doing this, I realized how just a little bit of extra strength work could make a big difference over that extended activity. My ability to pump out 30 push ups wasn't much different, but the delayed muscle fatigue over 100 push-ups was a huge difference. This is not surprising, nor is it a new revelation within exercise science, but nontheless, it did make me think more about how much strength I really had. Since I've been dealing with this ongoing Plantar Fasciitis issue, the volume of my training has stayed pretty low, which is obviously not ideal when I'm trying to reach a higher level in racing. I have trouble recovering from hard workouts and races, therefore those recovery runs are shorter and/or happen less frequently. The regular workouts have definitely been beneficial as they've jump started my fitness and have given me moments of feeling pretty fit, which adds confidence when approaching a race. In an effort to maintain that strength and not cause other injuries along the way, I've also been trying my best to incorporate more core work, especially in my hips and glutes. This combined with a few quality workouts are what I believe have given me the ability to delay that fatigue and sustain a reasonable pace over a longer distance.

Going into Mayor's Cup two weeks ago, I had no idea how I would hold up over 5 miles. The plan was to just get out there and make it hurt. I was pretty aggressive in the early stages which may have been a big risk, but I was there to race and I wanted to test my limits. After being satisfied with the way I competed there, I wanted to build off of that little bit of confidence for the New England Championships. Again, the plan was still the same - Be aggressive and hang on as long as you can. I'll admit that I was more excited for New Englands and therefore was a little greedy in the start of this race. I found myself running with the lead pack right away and told myself that since that's where the race was, that's where I needed to be. Again, this was a big risk. At 2 Miles, I was still side by side with the guys that had beaten me by a full minute two weeks ago. I tried to stay as calm as possible and felt like I raced really well through 4+ Miles of that race. By 5 Miles though, my "hang on and gut it out" mentality had turned into pure survival. The leaders were long gone and I was sitting in 5th place still trying to close the gap on 4th that had stayed the same for over a mile. In that last wilderness loop, I felt my strength slip away a bit. It may have only been for a minute or even 30 seconds, but it was enough to allow the guy behind me to catch up. It may have been mostly physical fatigue, but I know there was some mental weakness there as well. I was telling myself the whole race that I was running well and could produce a great result as long as I didn't screw it up. In the last 800 meters, not only did I NOT catch the guy in front of me, I also gave up two spots that I had worked so hard for in the early stages of that race, leaving me unsatisfied as I crossed the line. Despite the initial disappointment and the fact that our team fell to 3rd by just one point, I still considered it a successful day of racing for me. However, if given the opportunity, I would certainly like to go back and race that last mile over again. The time difference of a few seconds means nothing to me, but giving up those few spots made what could have been a great race, just a good race.

I know that with a little more strength, I can produce a much better result out on that battlefield. My training continues to be less than ideal, but I hope to continue building that strength over the next 5 weeks a little bit at a time. I'm optimistic about my abilities to race well at Club Nats and I hope it will catapult me into a much stronger and more successful year of running.

November is here and time continues to fly by. There's so much more to do, but I, we have to stay patient and just do what we can, when we can. Keep moving forward, keep believing, and things will come around. Stay tuned.

Mayor's Cup

(Photo courtesy of Puma Running)

(Photo courtesy of Tom Derderian)

8K Race - 25:39 - 29th Place
4:50, 10:07, 16:04 (5K), 20:40, 25:39

Full 2009 Mayor's Cup XC Results

Photos (Courtesy of Dan Green and NBB)

Race Videos (Courtesy of Flotrack)

NB Boston Women: 2nd Place
5. Jenn Donovan 17:23
16. Laura Kennedy 18:27
19. Erin Dromgoole 18:32
20. Leah Brogan 18:33
22. Kim Partee 18:36
45. Kate Jarocki 19:26
50. Karina Johnson 19:32
53. Nicole Mauro 19:37
57. Anna King 19:51
65. Yvonne Green 20:06
70. Jennifer Hegarty 20:23
71. Sarah Crispin 20:26
79. Amber Gibney 21:01

NB Boston Men: 1st Place
10. Roland Lavallee 24:41
22. Ari Zamir 25:12
29. Jeff Caron 25:39
34. Ryan Carrara 25:49
44. Scott Munro 26:03
51. Erik Nedeau 26:19
64. Tony Orth 26:36
68. Avery Bouchard 26:44
83. Fabian Mejia 27:21
85. Kevin Alliette 27:23
106 Dan Lounsbury 27:57
110. Phil Mainwaring 28:04
124. Chris McCann 28:38

Franklin Park 5K:
11. Tim Kaijala 17:11
45. Steve Stewart 18:30

Running Tough

I know it's been a while since I've put training numbers up here, so I'll post a few for you this time around. But I'm afraid a few is all there is...

Sunday, October 11: AM - Running around the BAA HM Course during and after the race.
Totaled about 75 min (~13 Miles) w/ 4-5 Miles being at 5:30-5:45 pace.
Monday, October 12: PM - 8 Miles, 55 min on the Bentley loop
Tuesday, October 13: AM - Chiro w/ Dr. V.
PM - WO w/ Team @ BC Res - 22 min w/u, 16 min c/d
20 min Tempo (~5:15 pace), 5 minR,
4 x 1min on/ 1 min off, 4 minR
5 min Tempo (~5:00 pace)
(~12 Miles)
Wednesday, October 14: 0 Miles
Thursday, October 15: PM - 10 Miles, 72 min @ Lincoln Woods
Pedestal and Myrtl Routine
Friday, October 16: 0 Miles
Saturday, October 17: AM - Solo WO before work
60 min w/ 6 x 3min on/ 2min off in middle (~10 Miles)
Sunday, October 18: 0 Miles
Monday, October 19: PM - 9 Miles, 60 min @ The Fells
75 min core/strength/balance
Tuesday, October 20: PM - WO w/ Team @ BC Res/HB Hill
14 min w/u, Team Drills, 16 min to the Hill, Hill Sets, 16 min c/d
6 x (90sec, 60sec, 30sec) up w/ ~equal rest down
(~14 Miles)
Wednesday, October 21: 0 Miles
Thursday, October 22: AM - Massage w/ Carly
PM - 7 Miles, 48 min on the Bentley loop

At first glance, it may seem like some decent training, but if you look a little closer, you'll see a bunch of zeros thrown in there, which is never good. Right around the time I last posted, my left plantar was getting really bad and I started taking 2 or 3 days off per week to try to manage it. I've continued doing workouts during that time, but I typically am not able to run the next day after a hard workout, which is the main reason I've been missing 2-3 days a week. Because of this, I've only been averaging about 40-50 miles per week for the past 2 months, which does not bode well for my overall fitness. Despite the mediocre training, I do still plan on racing Mayors Cup with my team this weekend. Why? Because I like to compete and I want to help my team out. Though my training has been less than desired, I know I still have the ability to compete well and run tough, especially in a cross race that looks to have a sloppy forecast. I've been really anxious to start training hard again and get in ridiculous shape, but I just haven't had that privilege yet. It's been extremely frustrating as you can imagine. I don't want to take time off from running completely, so I've been doing everything I can to get this plantar healthy while running as much as it can tolerate, hoping this thing will just run its course and let me move on.

I have had a few points in workouts, where I've been able to get after it a little bit more and see what there is in the tank, but the majority of my workouts have been on the tail end of my teammates, testing things out just one interval at a time. These limitations have left me hungry for those feelings of extreme muscle fatigue, lactic acid build up, and burning lungs... all things I'll be able to venture into on Sunday. As long as the plantar can hold up, I feel like I'll have an advantage over other guys that are at similar fitness. As some of you have seen in the past, I often have the ability to race well off of mediocre training and arguably run beyond my fitness. Because of my experiences and investments in this sport, I feel my mental toughness is almost always further along than my physical toughness. I am a competitor at heart and I desire nothing less than opportunities to test those competitive abilities. I know I am a ways away from PR shape this weekend so don't expect anything spectacular, but if I can compete well and help out my team, I'll be satisfied.

I recently saw a Flotrack interview with Keith Kelly, who I've long admired as a tremendous athlete in our sport and have always enjoyed talking with at races and events. It was a great interview and I felt I could relate very well to the things he was talking about. Though Keith's accomplishments and setbacks have been on a much higher level than my own, I feel the principles are still similar. Like Keith, my passion for the sport and desire to compete may be the reason for both my successes and my set-backs. But Keith keeps plugging away and he has had some success after those many struggles, just like so many others I know. There is always hope. So I'll keep my chin up and keep plugging away as well. This Sunday will be a bench mark in that process and I'll look forward to seeing how tough I am at this stage in the game.

An Oregon Adventure and Overdue Updates

I would agree with you in saying that this post is long overdue, and for that I apologize. It seems I have gotten into this trend of starting these things with an apology... I need to stop that. I don't have a good excuse other than being busy and being a general slacker. I thought about skipping a recap of the last month and just moving onto training, but then I decided the Oregon trip was too good to skip and I should at least summarize my experiences out there. Also, my training hasn't been that exciting anyway, so I'll do more with that later.

Starting from where I left off a month ago...

At the end of August, I had the opportunity to travel out to Oregon and participate in the famous Hood To Coast Relay. This 197 mile race starts atop Mt. Hood and winds through several back roads and highways of Western Oregon, finishing at the beautiful coast in Seaside. It's broken up into 36 legs which are run by a rotating 12 member team over the course of two days. There are about 1000 teams participating in this event each year and the starts are staggered every 15 minutes throughout day 1 with start times based on your expected finish time to get every team into Seaside by Saturday evening. The first wave started at 6:30 AM and the final waves were off by 6:45 PM.

So how did I stumble across this opportunity? Well, it was all organized and paid for by the Strands team, a new online training log and social running network. In an effort to expand their fan base, they created several contests across the country within specialty running stores and running communities with the incentive that several contest winners could get flown out to Oregon for this great experience. With this incentive in mind and trying to increase our fan base as well, we at the Greater Boston Running Company participated in the contest. As a result, we were awarded a spot on this trip and I was asked to represent our store. Since I've been anxious to get back out to Oregon and I love to travel and meet new people, I eagerly accepted and was on my way. I soon found out that several of my other friends that I've met through similar experiences would be part of this nation wide team as well and the anticipation grew with each passing day.

I must say the Strands crew did an excellent job organizing this for everyone and I was really impressed by how well we were taken care of through it all. I had high expectations for the overall experience and they were able to surpass those expectations with ease.

I got into Oregon pretty late the night before the event so there wasn't much time to recover from jet lag or make any time change adjustments. But then again, it didn't really matter much since I was going to be running at odd times of the night with no sleep anyway. The morning of the event, I wandered over to get some breakfast at the hotel and found half of my team doing the same thing. I quickly picked out Tristan, Robby, and Shannon and did my quickest morning shuffle over to the table to join them as I was introduced to a few more of my team members. I last saw Tristan, Robby, and Shannon in Albuquerque almost a year ago, so it was great to reunite with them before the events got started and get caught up on some lost time.

Once we got all geared up, we got our van assignments and I found out who I'd be sharing those tight quarters with for the next 24 hours. There were 24 runners representing two Strands teams with two vans per team. I was assigned to leg 6 for the Puma Cats so I was on Van 1 with Matt Downin, Matt Hooley, Greg Haskell, Dawn Substad, and Marie Hoffman. The talent pool was split pretty evenly between the two teams (Puma Cats and One Night Strands) but with the time seeding formula that was used, One Night Strands were projected to finish 2 hours ahead of us. Our goal was to keep it much closer. Once we got the vans well stocked with all the cliff bars, trail mix, and peanut butter we could need, Van 1 from each team headed up the mountain to get ready for our start time.

Once we got up to the start line, we had some time to relax, get some pictures, and mingle with the other teams. I soon found the Brooks Beast (elite) team that was loaded with ringers, including some of my other Albuquerque buds, Jeremy Johnson and Jesse Armijo. I also met up with the Brooks Ghost (corporate) team that included my friends from the Eugene Trials, Jesse and Steve. I know it's a small world when it comes to elite running, but I'm always amazed by the amount of acquaintances I bump into at random occasions like this. There were close to 12,000 runners participating in this event and I happened to cross paths with a couple dozen friends that I didn't even know would be out there.

6:30 PM finally rolled around and Marie started us off running down the mountain. Because of the seed time difference, we had a 15 min head start on our other team that started in the final wave with the Brooks Beast and the Bowerman Athletic Club (both favorites for the overall title). By the 3rd leg, they had already made up the stagger. Our 4th and 5th legs opened up a little lead on them before handing off to me and despite all the efforts of their 6th leg (Strands sponsored athlete Josh Glaab), I was able to hold that lead. However, with our team being a little front loaded, that was the last time we had that lead. We kept it within 20 min through the first 18 legs, but they opened it up to over an hour by the time we entered the finish at Seaside.

I went into this event with the plan of running conservatively and keeping the pace at more of an easy tempo effort, seeing as I hadn't done a hard session since Beach to Beacon (Aug 1). Within the first couple miles, I got caught up in the competition and that previous responsible thinking was thrown out the window. It was the middle of the night, I couldn't see a thing, and with the hilly terrain, I had no idea what pace I was running. This carried through the other legs as well and I ended up with these numbers:

Leg 6 (Hard): 7.42 Miles (Tot Elev Loss = 450ft) - 39:32 (5:19 pace)

Leg 18 (Hard): 4.15 Miles (Tot Elev Gain = 250ft) - 23:31 (5:40 pace)

Leg 30 (Moderate): 5.35 Miles (Tot Elev Loss = 500ft) - 28:50 (5:23 pace)

Total = 16.92 Miles - 91:53 (5:25 pace)

My warm ups typically consisted of a 10-15 min jog with Hooley which was done at the exchange zone between our 4th and 5th runners. Then I would do some light stretching/drills/strides at the next exchange before I was handed the baton. The good thing about being the 6th leg was I had plenty of time to cool down (usually 5-10 min) and relax after my leg was over since Van 2 took over duties for the next 3 hours. I felt pretty good overall and though I was running harder than I planned, I felt very controlled on all three legs and recovered well throughout. I estimated that I accumulated about 27-28 Miles of running within a 15 hour period which was pretty substantial considering my mileage the week before was 37. I finished the last leg feeling surprisingly strong and felt like everything was holding up rather well. This was a big confidence boost for me, showing that there were still traces of that hard work I had done in the early spring/summer months. It wasn't until a few hours later that things started tightening up a little. I felt like as long as I kept things in motion, I was fine. After a nice soak in the ocean, a hot shower, and a hefty meal, we headed over to the finish line to await the rest of our team and enjoy the post race celebration.

Here's what the team results looked like:

1. Brooks Beast - 16:55:27

2. BAC Men - 17:06:08

3. Knoxville TC - 17:58:42

15. One Night Strands - 20:30:47

27. Brooks Ghost - 21:23:43

30. Puma Cats - 21:37:01

Despite the load my body had taken and the lack of sleep I had, I remember feeling pretty good that night after the race concluded. The following morning, however, was a different story. I have never been more sore in my life than I was that morning. All the major muscle groups had fairly normal post workout soreness, but the areas that were the worst were all my connective tissues (IT-Bands, Peroneals, Achilles, Plantars, etc.). As all my muscles just shriveled up to repair themselves, these connective tissues began to stretch to their limits. This is what I always expected my first day after a marathon would feel like. I took the next couple days as rest days and totalled about 25 min of VERY slow jogging over those two days.

We all spent Saturday, Sunday, and part of Monday in Seaside as we shared three beach houses that Strands generously rented out for us. Even though 6 stinky people crammed into a van can be a good environment for building friendly relationships, those next two days were where the whole group did the most bonding. We took a trip down the Oregon coast stopping at neat places along the way, passed through some coastal towns, saw some gorgeous views, and ate a lot of great food, while enjoying the nice Oregon weather. Overall, it was a memorable experience for all of us and despite some people having to hobble around a bit more than others, I think everyone took a lot of positives from this trip. Check out the pictures below that help tell the story, as well as the album I've posted on Facebook.

As most of you know, I am loyal to my New Balance team sponsor, but I do have to thank Strands and Puma for doing such a great job with this trip. I did run the event in the Strands uniform, but had my trusty NB 1224's on for the duration of the event, which kept me from breaking under the heavy load. If you haven't done so already, check out the Strands website and see what they are all about. It's a great resource for runners and they put a lot of support into our sport.

I returned to Boston and was back running with minimal soreness on Tuesday. By Thursday, everything was back to normal. Again, I was impressed with my bodies ability to recover quickly. Considering how sore I was on Sunday, I didn't expect to be back to normal just 4 days later (it sometimes takes me longer than that to recover from a track session). I think the combination of distance and pace that I did was enough to get me working hard but not tear me down too much. This may be a sign that I can do some longer workouts in the future as I consider longer races over the next couple years. More on that in future posts.

Since this experience, I've been keeping very busy while also trying to get that training consistency back. It's a busy time of year at the store with marathon season and XC season being in full swing. High School kids and adults in the Boston area are all running around like crazy and need some guidance while doing so. New Balance Boston has started official practices again and both the men and women squads are looking phenomenal right now. It's a good thing we aren't picking the National team right now, because I think I'd have trouble making the top 7. It's been great having such a strong group to work out with and I know it will help push us all through the season and hopefully onto a high finish at the Club National Meet in December. I've been averaging about 50-60 miles a week for the last month, which isn't ideally where I'd like to be, but I've had some flare ups with my left plantar (all past issues were on the right side) and a couple other things. My body has been slowly responding to the added workouts, so the goal is to get into the 70s in October and keep it there for a while if everything is functioning properly. I've been experimenting more with a lighter trainer and Superfeet in response to my lower leg issues, as well as wearing compression socks on most of my hard runs. As I am getting back into better training, I'll start posting more of my training routines here in future posts (hopefully more frequently than I have recently).

Other things keeping me busy are the Santa Barbara International Marathon as we get closer to race time in December, as well as a new project I'm working on with one of my old friends and colleagues. It's something that should be a great opportunity for me to get involved with other things I'm really interested in. More on that at another time.

Lastly, I need to give some shout outs for recent happenings. First of all, my older sister Christine just got engaged this week and I am so happy for her and her fiancee Jon. My good friend and teammate, Mario, while on the mend, has been building himself a new home for his writing, which you should all check out. Just a few weeks after my 200 mile relay, New Balance Boston had one of their own as they tried to defend their title at the Reach the Beach Relay in New Hampshire, finishing 2nd overall. That same weekend, Rebecca Donaghue (also of NBB) finished 2nd at the US 5K Champs in Providence. And finally, former NBB stud and current Zapster, Jessica Minty won her first race in a Zap uniform at the Asheville Thomas Wolfe 8K, while logging 3 digit mileage weeks for the first time in her career.

Well, I guess that's more than enough for this post. I hope to get back to more frequent and less lengthy posts in the future, with more data from the training log. Stay tuned.

Hood to Coast Pictures:

(The picture at the top of this post was taken at Cannon Beach in front of the rock where they filmed the final scenes of The Goonies)

Van Artwork

On the Mountain before the start

The "Bolt"

At the finish line

At our beach house

Trip down the Oregon Coast

A Structure Worth Building

As I've progressed as a runner over the years, I have also developed more and more as a student of the sport and I must say I really enjoy learning new tools to fuel this passion that I have. Of course, when I say I'm a student of the sport, I mean that I study it in my spare time. Contrary to popular belief, I didn't go to school for running. No, I actually received my degree in Civil Engineering... something I pursued in my first year following graduation, but have since set aside to entertain other pursuits. For the better half of my undergraduate studies, my concentration was Structural Design. In all my structural specific courses, there was a common term that was applied in every design situation, which we knew as the Factor of Safety.

The Factor of Safety is a variable that refers to how much over engineering is built into the design of various structures to withstand above average loads. This number varies based on many outside factors including cost, weight, climate, and so on... but the largest determining factors come from the variability of the building materials and the consequences of failure. For example, the elevator in your workplace probably has a Safety Factor of 10 or more. This means that whatever the maximum expected load is, the structure is built to withstand 10 times that load. This is not because there is a high variability in elevator materials, but rather because the consequence of failure (loss of human life) is extreme!

As for building materials, you can expect a lot of variables in material strength. For example, the tensile strength of steel is very high, but steel is also very heavy (~450 lbs/cFt), while the tensile strength of concrete is very low but it's compressive strength is high and it has a relatively low weight (~150 lbs/cFt). Furthermore, the consistency of materials like concrete and wood vary much more than that of steel, which causes it's failure properties to fluctuate, which again would raise the necessary Factor of Safety to account for these less predictable characteristics. This is why you typically see structures built with a combination of materials to accommodate the different forces in which that structure demands, while also meeting the practical demands of costs, weight, and functionality.

In this same school of thought, our bodies are designed in a similarly engineered fashion. We have a heavy bone skull to protect our most valued organ; we have larger bones to support the larger, harder working muscles; we have strong elastic tendons and ligaments to connect all these moving parts; as well as a flexible, fatty flesh to pad our exterior. Much like the many variables of building materials, we also find many variables within our body components. Some of these variables come from predisposed genetic features; giving us different body structures, deformities, diseases, and so on. Other variables come from what we do with our bodies after we're born; the types of food we eat, the amount of exercise we do, the drugs we abuse, the strenuous demands that we put on our bodies, and so on.

As incredible as these miraculous human components are, the average body is not built to withstand over 100,000 miles of intense running. Some people can do it, but it takes more than just a cushioned pair of shoes to do so. Again, like the "born with" material strength of wood and stone, we also have our own "born with" properties that we have to work with. As much as our elementary school teachers would like us to believe, we can't go out and build bridges out of toothpicks or houses out of gingerbread, regardless of how much super glue or icing we use. Similarly, I know I will never be able to run 9.58 in the 100m or 12:37 in the 5000m, regardless of how hard I work at it. I don't want to put limits on myself, but I know enough to realize those tasks are reserved for the "un-human" likes of Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele.

Knowing that my body was not designed for all the tasks that I ask of it as a runner, I know I need to supplement my training with more than just ball-busting intervals on the track. I need to increase my material strength in order to withstand the forces that I hope to continue for a while longer. The question is how strong to make it? With so many variables within each athletes body and so many variables with how much stress we put on that body, it would be impossible to predict the exact point of failure for each bone, muscle, and tendon in the body. Therefore, we over engineer and we make each component able to endure more than we expect of it. By doing this, we increase our "Factor of Safety" and reduce the chance for failure (even if we encounter an above average load). Because I have been vulnerable to injury in the past, and the consequences of getting hurt are pretty severe for me, I plan on doing more "over engineering" than I have in the past. With that, I hope to stay healthy longer, get stronger, and ultimately get faster.

I've done various types of supplemental strength training in the past but have never had a structured routine or schedule to stick to. Instead, I've just used the "I'll do it when I can" mentality. I'm trying to change that by creating a routine that works for me and stick with it. The best core strength routines that I've seen to date have been those described by Coach Jay Johnson. He demonstrates some of these in this article with Running Times and I've linked a few of the videos in my training below. However, the more extensive exercises can be found on his DVD set. I have just started to implement these more structured routines over the last couple of weeks. It's something that takes time and I need to make sure I set aside the time to do it. As you can see, my mileage is pretty low right now and it was still tough to get everything in. As I continue to add mileage and intensity, it will be even more important for me to schedule my day around my runs and all the supplemental work that goes with it. All this in addition to some other drills, core work, rehab work, massage, and good nutrition will hopefully add to what I'm trying to accomplish. If I'm gonna do this, I might as well do it to the best of my ability. It won't be easy and I'm sure there will be more difficult choices ahead, but if it gets me close to where I want to be, it will all be worth it. Despite the set backs and aggravation, I continue to believe that this is a structure worth building!

Monday, August 17: PM - 7 Miles, 48 min

Bentley Woods

Extras: Pedestal Routine, Myrtl Routine, Ice Bath (full legs)

Tuesday, August 18: PM - 57 min w/ NBB group

@ Bentley

Extras: Team Drills, Strides on Grass

Wednesday, August 19: Day Off

Thursday, August 20: PM - 7 Miles, 48 min

From the Hingham store

Extras: Ice Bath (lower legs)

Friday, August 21: AM - 8 Miles, 55 min

River (West Side)

Extras: Back Routine

Saturday, August 22: Day Off

Sunday, August 23: PM - 10 Miles, 69 min

River to JFK Bridge

Extras: Pedestal Routine + Push Ups

Week Total = 40 Miles, 5 Sessions

Monday, August 24: PM - 5 Miles, 34 min

Worlds End

Extras: Pedestal Routine + Push Ups, Ice Bath (full legs)

Tuesday, August 25: PM - 59 min w/ NBB group

@ Bentley

Extras: Team Drills, Strides on Track

In other news, I'll be heading out to Oregon tomorrow to take part in the Hood to Coast Relay. I was able to get this all expense paid trip through my connections with work and with Strands. I think it will be a great experience and a good chance to catch up with old friends and expand my connections within the running community.

More when I get back. Stay tuned.

Seasons of Change

This picture was taken earlier this week as I look out over Wood Pond in Jackman, Maine. In a town of 720 people located about 10 miles from the Canadian border, I was perfectly content to sit here with no cell phone reception and no internet access, just watching the sun set over the tree tops and listening to the water ripple as a boat passed by. After 2 months of exhausting work and little satisfaction, I was finally able to stop everything and do absolutely nothing. It was one of the greatest moments I've had in quite some time.

Needless to say, I've been busy in the last two months as I've continued to work at piecing together a lifestyle that will meet all the demands I have personally and also accommodate some of the passions and goals that I have professionally and athletically. While trying to take care of these obligations, I feel like I've had to temporarily put some of my passions on the back burners in order to put out the fires on the front burners. This blog was one of those passions that got pushed aside for a while, and for that, I apologize. Moving forward, I should be able to return to my regular weekly updates and hopefully have some actual training to document in the process. I do enjoy updating this blog and I hope to continue doing so, regardless of how many readers it gets.

In the absence of my posts, we have entered the summer season and in doing so, have left the spring season behind us. Each year, the seasons go by faster and faster and each year I wish I had accomplished more. As we are already well into the summer, I feel like I haven't had a chance to really enjoy enough of it yet, and will again be entering a new season wanting more. In the past year, all of my "running seasons" have more or less been lumped together in one long progression. It's been a bumpy road and at times, it seemed there was no end in sight. Finally, after about 8 months of climbing back up the ladder, I can start to feel a sense of accomplishment. Not in my individual performances, but more so in my ability to balance everything as I've tried to create opportunities for success. I have a lot that I want to accomplish, but without knowing the best path to get me there, I have done my best to keep every path I see as a possibility.

In the last few months, I've juggled two separate jobs (Olive Garden and The Running Company), while also working on side projects with the Santa Barbara International Marathon and the Boston's Run to Remember, along with some additional work for Flotrack. Recently, I transitioned into a full time employee with the Greater Boston Running Company which enabled me to leave my position with the Olive Garden and focus more of my efforts on the areas that I have a stronger interest in.

Acquiring a comfortable living situation and a secure job were two of the biggest accomplishments for me in the past few months. But in addition to that, I have also managed to get myself healthy and into reasonable enough shape to be competitive on the local scene again ...enough to get my picture in New England Runner at least (page 79 in the July/August issue). On top of all that, I managed to squeeze in four weddings, a 70's Runner Party, and a Summerpalooza. While these events added to the already crazy schedule I had this summer, it was important for me to include them in my priorities. These functions helped keep my sanity levels in a healthy range and gave me a chance to keep contact with friends and family that I otherwise might not have seen this summer.

I could do a long write up of each individual event, but this post will be long enough without that. To shorten the word count and keep things somewhat interesting, I'll post some photos for you to help summarize the events. A picture says a thousand words anyway, right?

Cassandra and Nate's Wedding. Long time friends of the family. It was a beautiful ceremony in a small church located in Norwich, Vermont. The reception took place at a beautiful country club in Quechee and even had hot air balloons flying over head!

After having a joint bachelor/bachelorette party in Boston, Gabe and Liz's wedding took place in Winthrop, Maine on the front yard of her parents home. After the ceremony, we had a lobster bake and danced to bluegrass tunes. It was definitely a fun combination!

The 70's Runner Party should be self explanatory, but here's one shot to give you an idea of what the night was like.

Craig and Ashley's Wedding took place in Auburn, Maine. This was also my final of four weddings for the summer. As I sat down to my assigned table, I saw this picture which summed things up pretty well. (For the record, I was invited to all these weddings!)

After a successful run of the Beach to Beacon 10K, it was time for one last party up in Maine. In its fourth year, Summerpalooza was a huge success. Everyone seemed to have a good time and we raised money for some worthy causes in the process.

After all the weddings, races, and parties were over, I felt it was time for a break... a mental break! I ventured a few hours north with Rupprecht to meet the rest of his family in Jackman, Maine. We ate a bunch of food, drank some beers, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was enough to recharge the batteries and get focused on the next stages of my life, whatever those may be.

So where do we go from here? Well, now that I've worked hard to put things in place that will enable me to do what I enjoy, it's time to continue that progression and work hard at that very task that keeps this blog alive - Running. Since, I returned to Boston last fall, the main goals that I've had with respect to running have been to get healthy, stay healthy, make continuous progress, and create the groundwork for whenever I was ready to take it further. In the past, I've referenced these as "process goals" which is exactly what they are. Although the consistency in my training has been lacking, I feel like I have done an ok job at following through with these goals. Now it's time to do something with that groundwork, take my running back to a higher level and start introducing some outcome goals. I will continue to add to the process goals, but use them as a guide to produce results or "outcome goals".

My desire to run fast has been there all along, but my ability to put in the work necessary to do so has not always been there. As I enter the fall season, this is what I need to work on. I really want to work hard this year and make that commitment to training that I've only touched upon in the past. It's been exactly two years since I started this blog and two years since I made this same pledge to myself. I did well at first with a strong fall season, but that winter, everything started to fall apart. A lot has happened in those two years and I feel like I've come full circle to where I was when I started this thing. But now I have the fortunate gift of hindsight. I've learned a lot in those two years, a lot about the sport and a lot about myself. I may not know any more about what my potential is, but I do know more about what I need to do to achieve it.

Today is the start of my new season; my season of desire, my season of commitment... my season of change!

Where does the time go?

As KG would say... I am a huge slacker!

I apologize for dropping off the face of the earth here. I do plan on getting a post up after Beach to Beacon this weekend which will hopefully catch you up on what's been going on. Honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about in regards to training, so you haven't been missing much there. However, I'll post it anyway.

As much as I'm embarrassed to put these up, here are some brief numbers for the last 6 weeks.
(In the interest of keeping the few readers I have left, I won't bother with the daily details)

6/15 - 6/21: 43 Miles
6/22 - 6/28: 49 Miles
6/29 - 7/5: 58 Miles
7/6 - 7/12: 20 Miles (oops!)
7/13 - 7/19: 42 Miles
7/20 - 7/26: 34 Miles

Thank you for your patience and stay tuned for a real post soon!

Mixed Emotions

Monday, June 8: 8:00 PM - 7 Miles, 47 min
Tuesday, June 9: 6:00 PM - Track WO w/ Roland, Ari, Tony, Mario, & JP
24 min w/u
4 x 800m w/ 2.5 minR - 2:19, 2:19, 2:15, 2:15 (3 minR)
4 x 200m w/ 1 minR - 30.1, 30.8, 30.8, 30.2
25 min c/d
Wednesday, June 10: 9:00 PM - 6 Miles, 41 min
Thursday, June 11: 6:00 PM - 13 Miles, 91 min w/ Lincoln crew
Friday, June 12: 7:00 PM - 30 min easy, drills and strides on the track, 10 min easy
Saturday, June 13: 9:30 AM - 10 min shakeout
7:00 PM - NB Boston Twilight Meet #3 (Flotrack Coverage) (Photos)
20 min w/u
5000m Race - 14:44.20, 5th place (Video)
20 min c/d
Sunday, June 14: 8:00 PM - 10 Miles, 65 min

Week Total = 64 Miles, 7 1/2 Sessions

This week marked the conclusion of the NB Boston Twilight Series with Meet #3. Before I go into details about my own race, I must say that the meet overall was a huge success. We had great races all around with several personal bests and qualifying standards met across the board. To highlight the meet, we had three NB Boston athletes hit automatic qualifying standards for Nationals. Rebecca Donaghue did so in the 1500m while winning the event in a personal best of 4:13.78 and pulling 9 girls across the line under 4:24. Despite that being an automatic qualifier, she will not be contesting that event at Nationals and instead be entering either the 5000m or 10000m events. Next, Dave Juiliano secured his spot at Nationals in the Mens 1500m as he set a new Club Record of 3:43.18 to place second behind Maine Native Ben True in a race that had 10 guys under 3:50. Finally, in the last race of the night, Jenn Donovan was part of a stacked steeple field that would put all six finishers ahead of the US Provisional Standard. Jenn raced to a 20 second season PR, finishing in 10:10.99 to capture that Automatic US Standard as well as a Club Record. There were many other exciting performances at the meet so if you're interested in finding out more, you can read the recap on our team blog, watch the race footage and interviews on Flotrack, browse through photos from the races, or check the results.

Moving onto the Mens 5000m, we had a great turnout with talent from all over the east coast. We had two guys that were looking to break 14:00 and a field size of 25 guys. After last week, I was determined to run a better race here and hopefully be more competitive with some of the guys around me. NBBers Jeff Paterno and Tony Orth were assigned pacing duties for a 14:00 pace, and did a great job doing so. Not too long after the crowded start, those 4 guys had separated themselves from the rest of the field. Behind that gap, were three more NBB guys including Roland Lavallee, Ari Zamir, and myself. I found out early on that I would either need to hang with these guys or start running this race solo. I hesitated at first, but quickly tucked in behind my teammates. We were running slightly faster than my goal pace of 70 seconds per quarter, but I was feeling good, so I was hoping I could hang on for a while. At 1200m, I was at about 3:27 and on pace for low 14:20s. With my confidence not being very high after last week and my realistic judgement kicking in, I started to let the gap open up between myself and my teammates. I can't know for sure what would have happened if I just stayed with Ari, but I wasn't feeling comfortable enough to take that chance and was afraid that I would rig in the last mile... and I didn't want another death march to the finish this week. So like last week, I was all by myself again not even 4 laps into the race even though there were 25 guys in the field. I tried to stay relaxed and settle into 70 second quarters, but after about 2400m, I was starting to run north of that pace and continuing to slow. Even though I came through 3K right where I wanted to be (8:46), I knew I was off the pace and that unless I could pull off a remarkable last 2k, I would miss my goal in this race. I continued to run by myself and continued to let the pace slip a little more each lap. Finally, in the last 400m, I could hear someone starting to reel me in, so I tried my best to hold them off and did so finishing in 14:44 and without passing or getting passed by a single person in the last 11 laps of the race.

After I finished, I was half relieved that I did better than last week, but still had that feeling that I didn't race to my potential. I guess part of the reason was because there was no race around me to race in. It's been about 14 months since my last competitive track 5K and now that I'm finally healthy and in reasonable shape, I was hoping to actually be competitive again. Part of me wished I had just grown a pair and stayed with Ari for longer, but with my inconsistency recently, I just settled for what was more comfortable. I did run a lot better than I did last week, and for that, I am relieved. But I'm certainly not happy with what I did out there. I guess maybe I should be happy with it when I consider the preparation I've done leading up to it. But then again, I'm not happy with my preparation so how could I be happy with the result it produced. I'm probably being a little harsh on myself, but I just know I can do better... with everything!

This was most likely my last track race of the year, which means another year down without a track PR. I'm bummed that I wasn't able to take better advantage of these opportunities, but I am glad that I was actually able to take part in them... unlike last year when I was just watching from the sidelines. In that sense, I do see this race as progress. It may be a very small progression from where I was a couple months ago, but it is progress nonetheless. And that is enough to keep me going. As I said before, I don't have any more track races planned, and the only other race I have on the schedule is the Beach to Beacon 10K on August 1. If I can be more consistent in these next six weeks and work a little harder, I think I could be in pretty good shape for this race and have one last chance of finishing this training cycle with a great performance. I might do a race before then, maybe a 4th of July race, but I'll wait to see what Kevin suggests and take it from there. Either way, I'll be excited to race in Maine again with my friends and teammates in my favorite race of the year, and I look forward to a positive close to the "season". Beyond that, there will be many more races and many more goals as the New Balance Boston Men look to have one of their strongest cross country teams ever to join the already successful Ladies in their high ranks. First, we've got a lot of work to do, so stay tuned for more to come.

Move On and Man Up!

Monday, June 1: 0 Miles
Tuesday, June 2: 6:00 PM - Track WO w/ Ari, Mario, Tony, & JP
24 min w/u
4 x 600m w/ 2 minR - 1:43, 1:42, 1:40, 1:41 (3.5 minR)
4 x 200m w/ 1 minR - 30.8, 30.5, 30.5, 29.8
24 min c/d
Wednesday, June 3: 5:30 PM - 5 Miles, 40 min w/ NB Corp Group (National Running Day)
8:30 PM - 6 Miles, 45 min w/ CVC
Thursday, June 4: 0 Miles
Friday, June 5: 9:30 AM - 6 Miles, 40 min w/ strides on grass after
Saturday, June 6: 11:00 AM - 20 min shakeout
7:30 PM - NB Boston Twilight Meet #2 (Flotrack Coverage)
20 min w/u
3K Race - 8:40.50 (Video)
21 min c/d
Sunday, June 7: 9:00 AM - 13 Miles, 87 min

Week Total = 51 Miles, 6 + 1/2 Sessions

As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of disappointment with how this week ended for me. Things were going just fine at the beginning of the week. After Saturday's and Tuesday's workouts, I was feeling pretty confident that I'd be ready for a solid 3K this weekend. I put all this attention on myself while trying to build up these meets and get everyone excited, motivated, and inspired to come out and race with us and be a part of something special. On Wednesday, I was mentally prepared to run a fast 3K and actually compete in this race. However, between my run on Wednesday and my race on Saturday, I sabotaged all that preparation and ruined my race before it even started. For those of you that know me well enough to read between the lines on this weekly ramble, you know that I've been trying to balance quite a few things in my life, and on occasion, have note done very well with that balance. I've gotten by most of the time, and up until this point, I've been able to align the good days when it mattered. Saturday, however, was not a good day. I knew it when I woke up that morning and I knew it when I stepped on the line that night. As a result of a couple bad days leading up to it, I was both mentally and physically drained and could not find the excitement, motivation, or inspiration that I had been preaching just a few days earlier.

I started the race with dead legs and was just hoping that I could tough it out a get through it ok. I used every mental trick I know to get around the fact that I felt like crap. It was a big field and I knew that the majority of that field would be (or should be) behind me, so the goal was to not get stuck behind those people. I also knew there were guys in there that would most likely be ready to run away from me at a pace that I couldn't handle. So I got out quick in the first 50 meters, picked a spot around 7-8th place and settled in. The positioning seemed fine, but I could tell the pace was slow. Since I was just trying to maintain whatever competitive edge I had, I didn't want to worry about the pace and just wanted to focus on keeping contact. Shortly after that, coming through the 400 in about 70, the front quickly adjusted the pace downward to make up for the slow start. Of course, I wanted to go with them, but the guys immediately in front of me and to my outside did not speed up. I started to frantically look for a way out of this box as I watched the leaders open up a significant gap. It seemed like forever, but I got out about 200m later. Because of the rate those guys picked up the pace, that was enough time to open up a good 20m on me. I really wanted to be able to latch onto someone and disassociate from the heaviness of my legs for as long as possible. But now, not even two laps in, I was laboring to try and regain contact. I tried to chip away at the space between us as I ran a 65 for the next quarter and still didn't make up much ground. I was probably running the same pace as they were, but just could not close that gap. I hit the mile in about 4:31 and was still about the same distance behind them. Going through at 4:31 really wasn't a bad thing, but the fact that I was already running by myself for 3 laps and was already struggling to hang onto that pace was a very bad thing. I felt like I wasn't even part of a race, which is why the remaining laps went so badly. I just started feeling sorry for myself and counted the laps until it was over. At the time, I didn't feel like I had given up, because I felt like I was working really hard and my legs just weren't responding. I continued to run by myself until some guy finally reeled me in and passed me in the last 200m.

Within about 2 steps after crossing the finish line, I started to feel the anger build. I could not believe what just happened. How could someone that puts so much emphasis on this sport do so poorly in a race like this? How could I ever consider myself an elite athlete if I can't perform on race day? How could I run 7 seconds slower than I ran in practice 3 weeks ago? It was such a bad feeling and I did not know how to react to it. There was a really great meet going on around me and I didn't allow myself to enjoy it because I was so consumed by this anger and disappointment. I had just been given a perfectly good opportunity to run fast and I threw it away.

Looking forward, I have another opportunity just around the corner, so I need to figure things out quick and make sure this weeks incident doesn't happen again. I know my training hasn't been stellar leading up to this track series and has probably been the most inconsistent in years, so I know I can't be expecting any earth-shattering performances. But I do know that I've been working pretty hard and would like to assure myself that I'm in better shape than I was as a sophomore in college some six years ago. I'm running the 5K next week and for all I know, it could be my last track race of the year. I would like to think that I'm better suited for a 5K right now and would like to be able to put together a race that reveals the fitness that I've shown glimpses of in workouts over the last month or so.

I know there were probably some people that had high hopes for me this past weekend and I apologize for not following through with those expectations. I had a bad race on Saturday and I have to take ownership for that. My teammates are out there getting it done, my coach has done everything he can do. I have the support and tools in place, so now I just need to man up and fulfill my end of the bargain.

Into June and into the Twilight

Monday, May 25: 4:00 PM - 8 Miles, 52 min
Tuesday, May 26: 6:00 PM - Track WO w/ Mario, JP, & Tony
25 min w/u
8 x 400m w/ 1 minR - 71.4, 68.1, 66.3, 67.9, 66.4, 64.3, 63.2, 62.8 (Avg = 66.3)
28 min c/d
Wednesday, May 27: 0 Miles
Thursday, May 28: 6:00 PM - 12 Miles, 88 min w/ Lincoln crew
Friday, May 29: 7:00 PM - 10 Miles 72 min
Saturday, May 30: 9:00 AM - Track WO w/ Ari & Tony
26 min w/u
1600m w/ 3.5 minR - 4:37
2 x 800m w/ 2.5 minR - 2:14, 2:14
4 x 400m w/ 1.5 minR - 65, 64, 65, 63
26 min c/d
Sunday, May 31: 8:00 PM - 10 Miles, 64 min

Week Total = 60 Miles, 6 Sessions

June has arrived and I can't believe how we got here so fast. Most collegiates are now finished with their track seasons, and I am just getting started. I don't know if there will be much of a season to speak of since I really only have two races planned right now. However, depending on how those races go, I may start looking around for some others. Those two races I'm speaking of are a 3K and a 5K at the last two NB Boston Twilight meets. As many of you know, I've been trying to promote these meets quite a bit in recent weeks. Why? Well, first of all, because it is my team that is hosting them and I want to help make us look good and make our hard work become a success. Secondly, since I'll be competing in them myself, I want to get as much competition as I can to help provide an opportunity to run fast. Lastly, I fully support the sport and I think this has potential to be one of the better track series in the country. And if utilized by the people we're targeting, it could really help the sport and help raise the bar for the Boston area, as well as for athletes across the country.

For me, this will be just my third race of 2009 and my first track race since May of 2008. Even though it's been a crowded and bumpy road leading up to this point, I feel like I've made some good progress in my fitness. When I consider a combination of my toughness at the James Joyce Ramble, my composure in the 3K Time Trial, and the ease of my recent workouts, I feel confident that I can stick my nose in these races and actually be competitive. I don't have anything to hide as far as my goals and racing strategies. I've already stated publicly that I want to be sub 8:25 and sub 14:35 in these races, which I think are very reasonable goals, but really, I just want to race hard, be competitive, and finish the race feeling satisfied... feeling like I took some risks, feeling like I raced with confidence, and walk away feeling like I ran as close to my fitness level as I could. I think there will be some good performances all around and quality entertainment for anyone in attendance. So again, come out and run with us, or just come out and support the races and have a beer with us afterward. Either way, we'd enjoy your company so we hope to see you there.

Maine, Friends, and a Wedding

Monday, May 18: 0 Miles
Tuesday, May 19: 1:00 PM - Track WO @ Bentley
24 min w/u
6 x 800m w/ 2.5 minR - 2:19, 2:17, 2:18, 2:18, 2:18, 2:17
24 min c/d
Wednesday, May 20: 7:30 PM - 9 Miles, 60 min
Thursday, May 21: 6:00 PM - 13.5 Miles, 93 min @ Lincoln
Friday, May 22: 0 Miles
Saturday, May 23: 0 Miles
Sunday, May 24: 11:00 AM - 15 Miles, 100 min
w/ random pick ups in the middle and last 30 min @ 5:40-6:00 pace

Week Total = 49 Miles, 4 Sessions

Not a great week for numbers. I started the week feeling exhausted from a long weekend leading up to it and still had to cram a bunch of work in before heading up to Maine at the end of the week. I could feel it catching up with me on Monday, and by Tuesday, I was already starting to get sick. I did the workout on on my own because of work that night and just did not feel good out there. I was supposed to hit 2:16s for the 8's, and since I averaged that for a 3K just 3 days earlier, it shouldn't have been a problem. I hit the first 400 in 70 and knew it was gonna be rough. I still tried to get the desired effort in, but didn't hit a single 2:16. I was fluctuating with how I felt over the next few days and kept thinking that I was getting over this illness, but it just kept lingering on. Since I had a big weekend planned, I didn't want to push it too much, so I took Friday off, got some stuff done around the house, and drove up to Maine.

The reason I was heading north was to take part in my best friends' wedding. Liz and DJ have been two of my closest friends since high school and after 11 years together, they finally got married in Boothbay Harbor over the weekend. I had the honor of being a groomsman in the wedding, and along with the rest of the wedding party, we had a pretty full weekend planned up there. The Boothbay Region is really beautiful and we had a nice little spot out on Spruce Point where all the festivities were held. We all stayed in cabin-like rooms and everything was right outside our door, including the wedding ceremony that overlooked the water. It was great to have all three days of the weekend dedicated to this as opposed to just being up there for one day. In addition to the rehearsals and other preparations, we had a lot of great meals with the family and friends, and even took a boat tour around the islands. With everything going on and with still feeling a little under the weather, I ended up taking Saturday off as well. I didn't want to take another zero and I felt pretty guilty about it at first, but this weekend wasn't about me, it was about Liz and DJ.

The wedding itself was Sunday afternoon, which gave me an opportunity to get a long run in that morning while all the girls were getting their hair done and doing their makeup. I was feeling better and ran all along the coastline, which ended up being a rather hilly, but enjoyable run. Since it was an out and back route, I was gambling with how I would feel on the way back. I was feeling decent after the turn around so I threw in some surges here and there to try to get the legs going a little more. And since everything seemed to be functioning properly, I started leaning on the pace more and more on the way back with the last few miles being pretty quick. I don't know how far or how fast I was actually going, but I finished feeling like I got a pretty good workload in. It felt good to get that in after missing two days prior, and I was able to get rid of that guilty feeling and just enjoy myself the rest of the day.

Everything else on this weekend went perfectly. The weather was ideal, the location was gorgeous, and the crew that we had up there was unbeatable. This weekend was a perfect getaway for me and even though there were some long days and late nights thrown in there, I feel like it certainly helped to re-charge the batteries. It seems like whenever I've needed it, I've had something like this to get me going again and get me past the craziness of my everyday grind. It was such a great weekend with such amazing people, and I just didn't want to leave it all. I need to find a way to see these people more often and make sure I don't forget how great it is to be around them.

DJ's father had a great segment in his speech which went something like this:

"Enjoy this moment now, but don't wait for an occasion to show your love for each other. Let it wash the dishes with you every night after dinner ...let it find the keys with you every morning before you rush off to work. Let it kiss you before you go to bed and let it still be there for you when you wake up".

This was directed to two people that have a very deep love for each other, but it's a concept that can be applied to love and friendship across the board. I have a lot of amazing people in my life and I want to be able to share more of these great experiences with them. We shouldn't need an occasion to bring us together, we just need to work a little harder at making it happen. Let your friends know how important they are to you and do it often. With that, no great friendship should ever slip away.

Testing 1...2...3K

Monday, May 11: 2:30 PM - 9.5 Miles, 66 min w/ Mario
11:00 AM - Chiro w/ Dr. V
Tuesday, May 12: 6:00 PM - Track WO w/ Mario, Ari, & Tony
25 min w/u
3 x 1600m w/ 2.5 minR - 4:57, 4:56, 4:51
(4 minR)
6 x 300m w/ 60 secR - 47.3, 48.2, 48.0, 47.6, 47.8, 46.8
25 min c/d
Wednesday, May 13: 0 Miles
Thursday, May 14: 5:30 PM - 10.5 Miles, 77 min w/ Brett
9:00 AM - Massage w/ Carly
Friday, May 15: 8:30 AM - 38 min w/ strides on the track after (in spikes)
Saturday, May 16: 9:00 AM - Time Trial @ Bentley
25 min w/u, 3000M - 8:33.6, 12 min c/d
68, 2:16 (68), 3:24 (68), 4:32 (68), 5:40 (68), 6:47 (67), 7:58 (71), 8:33 (35)
Sunday, May 17: 8:00 PM - 13.5 Miles, 91 min

Week Total = 59 Miles, 6 Sessions

This week started off pretty well as I tested out a new run in Framingham with Mario and then had a solid workout on Tuesday. The mile repeats felt easy and wasn't a problem to crank down the third one a bit. The 300s felt a little quick for me, but it's probably good to work on that speed a little. After missing my Wednesday run due to work, I had a nice run at Lincoln on Thursday. I was a little late getting there to meet Schmeck and Matt so they took off without me. Being frustrated about getting stuck in traffic and missing the opportunity to run with someone made me start the run pretty quick. I caught up with Brett Ely about 30 min in and ran easy with her for the rest of the run.

Over the last couple weeks, Kevin and I have been discussing the idea of doing a time trial on the track since I didn't have any races planned between James Joyce and the Twilight meets. The idea being to hopefully give me an idea of where my fitness is and also prepare me for the feeling of running all out on the track again. Kevin decided on 3000m for the distance and figured this week was good timing (3 weeks after JJ and 3 weeks before NBB Twilight). Since this was a race simulation, I busted out the spikes, as opposed to the flats that I normally wear in workouts. The last time I wore my track spikes was at Hayward Field over a year ago, so I pulled them from the closet a day early and did a few strides in them to shake off the dust.

I wasn't feeling great in the days leading up to Saturdays effort and was feeling pretty run down that morning when I woke up. I was getting nervous about the possibility of blowing up in the middle of this 3k and destroying the little confidence that I had left over from the 10K. After a couple hours of focus, I was able to mentally prepare myself for running hard and running close to my current fitness level, regardless of how I felt.

I really had no idea what my 3K fitness was leading up to this, but based on the strength work I've been doing and the ease of running 70-72 pace in workouts, I figured I should definitely be sub 8:40. I was also hoping that I could handle it just based off memory. So the plan was to shoot for 68s (8:30 pace) and adjust if necessary. My training partners of Ari, Tony, and JP were doing their own workout, but Tony was kind enough to lead me through the first 800m and get me on pace. I feel I did a pretty good job at staying right there and keeping it in control as I passed through 1600 in 4:32 feeling pretty good. I don't recall when I last ran a 4:32 on the track, so I was happy the legs weren't screaming at me. I think that actually made me a little greedy as I started leaning on the pace shortly after that, running 2:15 for the next 800. At 2K, I really thought I was gonna break 8:30, but with about 600m to go, it started to unravel. By the time I got to 300m to go, both the wheels had fallen off and there was no chance of having a fast finish. I was happy with the 8:33, but definitely knew that I could have run sub 8:30 in a race situation.

I now have 3 weeks until I run a real 3K at the 2nd NBB Twilight meet and if training goes as planned between now and then, I think something in the 8:22-8:25 won't be impossible. Immediately following that, I'm planning on a 5K at the 3rd NBB Twilight meet, and might even be eyeing a PR in that race. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but there should be enough able bodies in the race to do it, so I'm hoping I can take advantage of the opportunity and actually run a good race. We're still a month away from that and I still have a lot of work to do before then, so if I can get some more consistency in my training, maybe I can make something happen. Thus far, my workouts have been decent, but the volume throughout the week just isn't where it needs to be. Somehow, I need to find a way to improve that without getting sick or hurt. I'm hoping the nice weather and help of my teammates will be enough to get me there.