9:58!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy weekend in the track and field world! So many things that I couldn't wait until the morning to report! First, let me congratulate Tadese Tolo and Paula Radcliffe for winning the NYC 1/2 Marathon titles this morning! Tolo actually defended his title from last year, and ran 1:01:06 despite cramping a bit towards the end of the race - fortunately, he was by himself so was able to hold on for victory. Ryan Hall finished 3rd in 1:02:35 in his 2nd ever half marathon - great effort for him in his prep for NYC in November. Radcliffe was using this race as prep for next week's Marathon World Championships, and eased up towards the end to run in 1:09:45.

Next, let's get to the major news of the weekend - 100 meter finals in the World Championships in Berlin. Usain Bolt - MY GOD!!!!! I can't even describe this effort, take a look here:



Seriously is there anyone in this world that is more on top of his game than Usain Bolt?!?! Defeating his own record by a tenth of a second (ridiculous amount of time for this short of a race), and hitting times that I never thought would be possible in this lifetime. Congrats to Tyson Gay, who despite injury hit the 3rd fastest time in history with a 9.71. Just an amazing effort for 2 freakishly fast individuals!!!!

This weekend, got in some great running, and am very pleased following a couple inconsistent running weeks. Friday, scheduled running day off, went to Happy Hour with Barrel after another long day of work and called it an early night. Crystal and I got up pretty early (5:15 a.m.) on Saturday morning for our scheduled long run - felt a little tired from the long week, but ok I guess. Weather was muggy, but sort of cool because it was so early. Decided to do our typical long run route - towards Glen Carbon, towards Edwardsville, then back - instead we decided to make the turn towards the university instead which has a slow grade to it. Started out at a leisurely pace, and kind of struggled through the first couple miles. All of a sudden, got into a decent rhythm and just felt really good. Mid miles FLEW by, splits were really consistent, and for the first time in a long time for a long run wasn't really pushing the issue and just focusing on getting a decent amount of time outside actually running. The last few long runs I have done have been great, but really not helping my body learn to burn carbs efficiently. Turned around at 9.5 marker, sun was starting to come out but we were going downhill and had a breeze. Cruised some more, started to feel a little tiredness in the legs but shrugged it off. Every time I looked at my Garmin, I swear half a mile had gone by so was nice that the run felt easy and fast. Hit the final 3.5 miles going back towards home which is uphill, and picked it up. Last mile was tiring, but found out later we had picked up the pace a lot so felt good about it. First really long run was a total success, and nice to have good negative split. Total mileage: 19 miles - splits were: 9:13, 8:37, 8:34, 8:32, 8:31, 8:27, 8:26, 8:27, 8:18, 8:36, 8:10, 8:18, 8:09, 8:12, 8:12, 7:53, 7:44, 7:38, 7:27 (8:18 avg. pace).

Ran some errands after the run, did a little work then headed back home. My buddy Doug was in town for his birthday (Happy Birthday Dougie!!!), so grilled out for lunch and just hung out most of the afternoon. Took a huge nap, ended up going out for a bit later on but got in at a decent hour. Sunday, went over to Jared and Nicki's house for their beautiful daughter Sophie's 3rd birthday party (Happy Birthday Sophie!!!)! Got home around 7, decided to try to get in my pace run. Legs were tired, but felt amazingly ok despite the heavy mileage this week. Weather had been storming all afternoon and was just humid outside, so studied the hour by hour report on weather.com and decided to give it a go. Did an out and back on bike trails headed towards Troy - decided to carefully monitor my body and if I was laboring too much I would just quit the pace work and just go for mileage. First mile, was zooming and going way too fast so felt myself trying to slow down a lot. Got into a good groove and just stuck with it - 2nd mile hit another fast split, and really tried to control myself. I lost the safety net of the trees and was at the mercy of an open field for the next mile and a half, so just tried to sustain pace but felt pretty good. Turned around at 4.5, was still cruising and had no issues. Mile 6, started to get tired but was hitting some amazing splits and wanted to finish consistently so told myself to suck it up and finish it out. Miles 7 and 8, I swear I was flying - was pretty flat on this part of the trail, so got into a great groove. Last mile, realized I was probably going to break 7 minute avg. pace, so kind of had fun with it surging on the hills back and pushing the last quarter. Didn't realize how tired my legs were until my cooldown, but overall felt great considering I had just did 19 yesterday. Total mileage: 9 miles - splits were: 6:57, 6:59, 7:02, 6:57, 7:03, 6:59, 6:55, 6:55, 6:44 (6:57 pace).

So a fantastic week of running - hit 50 miles, didn't deviate once from the schedule (first time I think?!), legs are tired but feel pretty strong. Executed every run perfectly, and worked pretty hard in general. Even more satisfying with working a 65 hour week, and being able to kill all my runs. This upcoming week is going to be pretty hefty mileage-wise, and need to really focus to get through it. Shane is in town this weekend, and going to join us for our first 20 miler, so will be a welcome addition to our little running group!

Doug and I

Sophie and I making goofy faces - well actually, just me :)

Sophie's very cute little sister Lillian and I