Sorry Part 2!

Well, I have pretty much lost control on my blogging the last couple months. The new job and heavy work travel has kept things pretty difficult to keep up, but there are no excuses and I just plain suck. Sorry yet again, and need to give a quick update on what has been going on. Really quick, here is a Berlin Marathon recap, words from Meb, and Ryan Hall isn't running Chicago :(

Well the last ?? weeks have been very inconsistent, and I have been battling lack of motivation and some health ailments that have hampered a decent amount of workouts. I ran the Italian Fest 5K last month in 18:23 (still working on a race recap and pictures), and actually won the Inaugural Midwest Wing Festival 5K over in Fairview, although this race was rescheduled (less people) and the level of competition wasn't too high (still working on a race recap and pictures). Followed that up with a 44 mile week which was solid and got in a good long run with Mike and Crystal after taking a month off of long runs!

This week was going pretty good - raced the Lewis and Clark 1/2 Marathon, so kept the levels down. Did an AWESOME tempo run with Crystal on Tuesday - we did a mile warmup, then did a tempo run (splits - 6:35, 6:42, 6:41, 6:36, 6:32, 6:22) which felt amazing easy. Mile down, then I added a couple later on for a solid run. Got in a couple runs in Memphis when I was there for work, but nothing too great. LC 1/2 Recap - got there pretty early, did a 10-15 minute warmup with Crystal and discussed strategy. Lined up with Crystal, Mike (who was also running), and Tim (Crystal's coach) and got off to a good start. Weather was cold, but gorgeous - perfect to be out. Went out in 6:26 feeling good, but shortly after my lungs started to seriously feel like they were failing, and almost had to start walking because I couldn't breathe. My lungs seriously shut down - it was like racing at altitude, but 1000 times worse. Needless to say, my race was over. Mike was awesome and fell back with me, and ran the rest of the race with me to see me to the end. Worst pain I have ever felt, and it was a suffering run. Nothing more to note but was proud to have gutted through it and finished pretty strong. The crazy guy that started singing really loud to himself around mile 11-12 gets credit for me dropping a 6:22 last mile to get as humanly far away from him as possible even though my chest felt like it was about to explode...

Crystal, on the other hand, dropped a massive PR and ran an amazing time of 1:25:53!!! Great splits, very consistent, and she looked strong throughout. 4th overall female, first in her age group. It didn't surprise me at the very least, and she put in the work to get to that time. Indy should be the icing on the cake, and I hope I can help steer her to her goals as her official pacer of the final 13 miles. 3:10 shouldn't be too much of an issue for her at this point...

My goals have changed considerably with this latest setback, and pretty much shutting down any competitive racing notions for the rest of the year, as well as planning to see a doctor to find out what the heck is going on with my body. No plans to run hard at Philly - looking like a 13.1 mile jog at this point, but not necessarily a bad thing :) 2010 has been a very up and down year, but I will reaccess my goals for 2011 and reflect on what has happened over the last 10 months.

This all being said, I do not have any plans to decrease mileage - in fact, with the fall upon us (my favorite running weather), I plan on enjoying a couple months of easy running and minimizing tough workouts to try to get back to 100%. Will try my hardest to be back in full blogging capacity!