Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Great way to help out the fine citizens of Joplin, MO after their tragedy. Please sign up for this race if you can. Obviously, with the city in complete shambles, it isn't going to happen but the money is going to a great cause. Bolt is awesome, and an interview with Angela Bizzarri.

Thursday, May 26 - 9 miles: 4 up, 6X100, 4.25 down. Quite possibly the last cool evening for a while, so eager to get this in. Met up with Crystal, ran over the to Edwardsville High School track for scheduled track work. Legs felt like garbage (probably going to feel this way for a while until I get into better shape), but good to run with Crystal and it made it go by much faster. Workout was 6 x (100 meters (20 seconds), 100 meter jog). Once again, had issues measuring out the 100 meters (this shouldn't be that hard), and really struggled to hit the 20 second splits but hit them all. After we finished, finally saw the markings, and we were running probably a good 10 meters too long which made us feel better. Pat joined us for a few miles back, saw so many animals on the trail (deer, rabbits, birds, possibly a snake, etc.) that it made me feel like I was a part of Bambi. Tired, but a solid workout. Splits were: 8 miles (31:24, 34:20); 100 meters (well 110) (20, 20, 19, 19, 20, 18)

Friday, May 27 - 9 miles (8:10 average pace - 39:20, 37:49). Summer time is approaching, so time to try to get used to the earlier runs. Crystal and I are going to attempt to do Monday and Wednesday easy mileage/drills in the a.m. moving forward (basically to save our evenings), so thought this would be a good one to get in just to get out of the way. Met her at 5:30 a.m. on a brisk morning, and did our Home Depot route towards SIUE. Felt ok at best, really sluggish and turnover was awful. Definitely was running on fumes and tired legs. That being said, it got done rather quickly, and dropped a fat negative split coming back.

Going to enjoy a day (and a half!) off and let my weary legs recover a bit. Sunday, Team Sullentrup long run, and Monday easy mileage and drills. Happy Memorial Day weekend to all!

Bye Bye Oprah

Farewell to Oprah - as much as I quite honestly am not broken up like many others, she did promote the marathon through her own efforts which is very commendable. A hell of a run regardless (no pun intended), and much congrats to a legendary career. Ryan Hall comments on runner's amnesia, Sammy Wanjiru's legacy, what ever happened to Daniel Komen? (only sub 8 minute 2 miler), Kenenisa Bekele on the comeback trail, interview with the Pittsburgh Marathon winner rabbit, and a preview of the new Brooks line (PureConnect) coming out later this year.

Tuesday, May 24 - 7 miles: 2 up, reverse ladder (5:50 - 1600, 4:33 - 1200, 2:54 - 800, 1:25 - 400), 3.5 down. Recruited Mike to pace me through some of this workout. Nice evening, a little muggy but very tolerable. Legs were dead from drills, so had some concerns going in that I wasn't going to hit good splits. Didn't want to push it (this being my first real speedwork this summer), but also didn't want to flame out either. Quick 2 mile warmup on the roads before jumping into this workout. Mike paced me through 2:56 at the halfway point of the 1600, and finished 2:54 solo for a 5:50 mile split. Pretty decent considering on tired legs, and quite honestly a tired mental state. Don't know what happened on the 1200 - felt tired, but not bad enough to dip over 6:00 min/mile pace. Went through the 800 in a 2:59-3:00, so figured I should have broken 4:30, but I guess I wasn't paying attention to my watch. Ran a comfortable 800 and 400, never really pushed it but made it through ok in decent splits. Did Megan's speedwork as a cooldown (4x800), then tacked a little more at the end.

Wednesday, May 25 - 4 miles (~8:10 average pace). Reoccurring theme this spring/summer has been awful weather, and last night didn't fail to repeat. Storms, storms, and more storms postponed Crystal and I's early morning attempts, but it eventually cleared out by late evening and gave us a small window to get in some mileage and do drills. Met up with her at the track, did 3 mile warmup on the roads, quick bathroom break at the Y (not smart to have eaten a fried egg with my chicken for dinner (I was craving an egg for some reason), and my stomach rebelled after our warmup, thus the emergency pitstop), then a session of drills. Drills felt good but leg strength has definitely dimished, and lunges never felt any worse. 1 mile cooldown to finish the evening, and I owe 3 more miles at some point during this week to catch me up.

On a side note, 8 year old boys are the worst. When I made my Y pitstop, I was unfortunately next to a kid who was taking his talents to South Beach in the stall next to me. His nasty friends proceeded to pound on the door, kick the side of the stall, and heckle him relentlessly until he had finished up. I seriously wanted to stangle each and every one of them. Nasty little critters...

National Running Day is June 1st!

Mark it down on your calendars that National Running Day is June 1st! Not too many articles today, but Paula Radcliffe is back in action this weekend!

Wednesday, May 18 - 7 miles. Ran Creve Couer park with my buddy Ryan during lunch on a pretty warm, sunny day. Hadn't done this route in a while, and was nice to run around the scenic lake as well as have some company since there were a decent amount of people around and about. Hit roughly 4 miles in 33 minutes, felt pretty good. Got in 3 more late at night, very slow.

Thursday, May 19 - 4 miles? I honestly don't remember this day, but I know I didn't get in much.

Friday, May 20 - 0! Scheduled day off. Chicago weekend!!! Ate with Anne at the new Graham Elliot restaurant. Supposed to be fine dining, but more laid back and modernized, and was a pretty trendy place. We did the 5 course tasting menu with wine pairings, and was pretty amazing - these were served more amuse-bouche style, and it was crazy how much flavor you could pack into such a small serving portion! 3 hours of this and wine - heaven.

Saturday, May 21 - 11 miles. Woke up feeling like garbage, stumbled over to the New Balance store to run with the training group. Started with the group, ended up running with Vicki, who was training for the Soldier Field 10 Miler over Memorial Day weekend. Ran a little more aggressively than I was expecting, but pulled through ok (~7 miles in 46:18 I think). Hot morning with the sun, but felt great to get out on Lakeshore. Met up with Anne and Ben shortly
afterwards, got in 4 easy with them. Anne is training for the Chase Corporate Challenge (3.5 mile race), so was good for her to nail this long run. Chill and Grill Festival afterwards, got to sample some great food from the local Chicago restaurants!

Sunday, May 22 - 4 miles. Procrastinated on this one, got out to Lakeshore around 2 p.m. on a hot, hot day. 85 degrees and sunny when I started, I am pretty sure I lost 5 lbs. in sweat. Wouldn't have dared this run at home, but it's Lakeshore and was my last day in Chi, so went ahead and did it. ~33 minutes of suffering, but there were plenty of people outside to feel my pain. 41 miles this week, not bad.

Monday, May 23 - 7 miles. Got out pretty late, and ran on what seemed to be cool at first, but pretty humid. Did 3 out and back on the trail, and 1 Village Circle Loop to hit 7. Felt my body wanting to push, but kept it honest. Hills at the end felt a little eh, but all in all a great run. Drills on the neighborhood street afterwards, sweated away another 5 lbs. or so.

More Wanjiru

This whole tragedy is starting to get weirder and weirder, and Sammy Wanjiru's mom is claiming he got murdered. Hopefully, security cameras in his estate can clear up this debacle, but for now he is still mourned through many around the world including his fellow runner and friend, 2009 Boston Marathon champion Deriba Merga. Toni Reavis did an amazing tribute on him, and here is a wonderful bio on him from 2010.

Kara may be running the World Championships in Daegu (only if she doesn't qualify for the US Team in the 10k), Green Bay marathon runner gets her money, breakfast options for the runner, and diagonals.

Tuesday, May 17 - 8 miles. 2.5 up, 3x(400,300,200,100), 8x100 hard, 2.5 down. Sounds a lot more complicated, but combined a couple of workouts together. Ran up to track on a gorgeous evening for some speedwork. Working with Megan to increase her speed too, so ran with her to get in some additional mileage and work on her turnover - went well and progressing on schedule. Got confused trying to map out the 100 meters (I swear the distance seemed short), so ended up starting on the curve to offset any discrepancies (would rather run longer than shorter). Goal was 20 seconds for 100 meters, to work on turnover. Hit the splits, but worked for it, hopefully because I ran long. Ran back, long stretching session, and passed out like no other. Not the most fun to get back in after 10 p.m., but it has to be done. 100 splits were: 20, 19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 18, 17.

Quick Picture Diary from the last month...

Walking down Boyleston before the race

Chilling in Athlete's Village

Pre-race

Hereford to Boyleston

Possibly the greatest finishing line shot ever

Hail to the Victors!

Madison Lake Front/Bike Trails

I ran this every day for a week!

Boston Commons

R.I.P. Sammy Wanjiru

Speechless and shocked at the news of Sammy Wanjiru. I knew that he was having domestic problems, but this has jumped to an entirely different level. Wanjiru was one of the greatest marathon runners ever, and I had the privilege of watching him (on t.v. and in person) run two of the greatest marathons ever (2008 Beijing, 2010 Chicago). Sammy had one of the most aggressive running styles ever, and never hesitated to push the pace and throw in some monster surges. He was only 24, and the world has lost one of the greatest racers ever to live, and I am deeply saddened for the loss of one of my favorite runners. May your running in God's Kingdom be swift, and I hope that you have fun dropping some of your patent surges in your training runs/races in Heaven. I am pretty sure no one can catch you. R.I.P. Sammy Wanjiru

Ryan Hall to run BolderBoulder, Paula Radcliffe to run Chi this fall?!, Geb wins in Manchester.

So after a nice, long hiatus, I return. Not much running has been done, and I have slowly undone a lot of work this year. But I have enjoyed this extended honeymoon, and have set my sights on my "comeback" to regain some speed, but most importantly have as much fun as I can while doing so. Hall's performance in Boston this year really hit home, and I am working to improve my craft as well as enjoy running as much as I can, while reaping in the benefits :) The most important thing at this point is weight - I am 15-20 lbs. heavier than I was last year, and it doesn't feel good and has not helped my running. I am working to fix that immediately.

April 11-17: 16 miles. Eek. Boston Marathon week, ran very light during the week at home, but got in very little during the weekend. Shane and I had a fun run around downtown Boston, hitting up the Boston Commons area which is pretty much a very dummed down versoin of Central Park in NYC. Very scenic though, and fun people watching in general.

April 18-24: 40 miles??? Monday - had a small 26.2 mile jog from Hopkinton to Boston, 2 small runs over the weekend when I got back. Legs were beatdown a bit from the hills, don't remember the hills being that bad but I was in better shape last year too.

April 25-May 1: 24 miles. A run here and there, nothing special. Legs still very heavy. Headed to Madison, WI for a week for work. Gorgeous trails, will post pics. Day 1 in Madison - ran around the city trying to find the trails around the lake, ran up and down many hills and tired myself before eventually finding what I wanted. Got to talk to Ken during my run on the phone - congrats on his great performance in the Illinois 1/2 marathon!!! (1:26:06, I think?)

May 2-8: 36 miles. Made it a point to run everyday during my stay in Madison. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised about the infrastructure of the city, and how gorgeous it was. The lakefront trail reminded me of a poor man's version of Chicago's lakefront, but a quieter, smaller scale. Regardless, gorgeous, and fun to see so many people out. Beautiful city skyline and going over a bridge when the UW Crew Team was practicing was super cool. Very inspiring to think of the many miles that Chris Solinsky was logging in out there, so made the most of it. 50 degree weather felt amazing. Legs felt a little better, so that was a big positive.

May 9-15: 28 miles. Eek. Rain, and oppressive heat killed motivation. Did my first track work on Tuesday or Wed. Paced Megan through some 400's, then hit 4X400 of my own to gauge my level of fitness. In a nutshell, not great, and I was huffing and puffing like a fat, old man. Splits were ok, but felt very difficult. (1:24, 1:23, 1:23, 1:15 (let it fly, not a good idea as my legs were shot)). Sunday - long run with Team Sullentrup. 10 miles on the trail on a dreary afternoon. Did GC loop on the trail, was muddy and nasty, and they are doing some work on it so the top layer on portions of the trail were literally just packed mud. Felt ok going out, but we definitely picked it up coming home. Crystal spotted a guy about a quarter mile up when we were within 4 miles of home, and we steadily gained ground until it suddenly became an impromptu Indian Run. One minute on, rotate. Ugh - hit 6:30 for the mile which did not feel very good, blazed past the guy (early brunch for Crystal) before ending that bad idea. Legs felt like garbage. 1:18:36 overall (41:06, 37:30 were the 5 mile splits)

May 16 - 7 miles, drills afterwards. 4 miles after work on an absolutely beautiful evening, 3 miles and drills after dinner. Legs felt tired from the Sunday workout, and drills felt rough. Cheated and only did the first half, but wanted to save a little for tonight's track work. A little at a time, need to be patient...

Tonight, mileage and track work. Weather is gorgeous all week, and need to take full advantage of it with this momentary cooler front in place. Off to Chi this weekend, very excited to get up there to my 2nd home. Already set up a run with the New Balance training group by my sister's place, and will be spending some quality time on Lakeshore!