Land of Enchantment

Another great week has pasted here in New Mexico. I am really enjoying myself in the Land of Enchantment, even though I have not ventured out of Albuquerque since I moved here. Although what I remember of Taos and Santa Fe is pure amazement.  This week, I got some good mileage in running at different places. Kris and I ran at Bullhead park over by the airport/military hospital.  It was a typical park with large grass fields and some good dirt trails for a fartlek workout, which we did. After the workout [2 sets of 5-4-3-2-1 with half rest] we did a cool down with Peter Koech, who was running easy to loosen his calf.  

Another great thing that happened was the Salsa Festival here in Old Town. Great live music, open air and of course salsa dancing.  It was nice to be out and about.

I also started working part-time at a local running shop, so its fun just to mingle with other runners and talk shop. One of the guys that works at our shop is John Bednarski, a great old english chap who ran for UTEP and finished 4th to Pre and Gerry Lindgren at the 1969 ncaa xc championships.  

This blog seems to idolize many runners, but its just the environment here in New Mexico.  It's as if everything is being set up for me and all these great positive people are everywhere. A new one every week.  I have no complaints and only wish others could experience these little moments that make life so fulfilling.      

Running:

mon: easy [8]

tue: am foothills [8]

pm easy [4]

wed: am fartlek [10]

  pm easy [4]

thur: easy [10]

fri: easy [11]

sat: 6 mile cont tempo + warm up/cool down [11]

sun: long run [18]

total: 85

Running with Hendrick Ramaala

A week ago a few of us got to train with 3 time Olympian from South Africa Hendrick Ramaala. A quick bio of him can be found at the bottom of this article. So anyways, we met him on the track talking to our coach Henry Rono about running of course. He was set on running his traditional tune up workout for Beijing of 3 x 2000m on the track at around 70 second quarters. We were ecstatic at the opportunity to pace him for as many quarters as we could. So after a grueling workout we started our cool down and conversation about American distance runners. 

It was great to pick at his brain and observe his outlook on running. He has a "do or die" approach, with so much charism.  The Africans are very positive and approachable.  When listening to him talk, he gives the impression that anything is possible. It was truly a great experience.

The following week, we met with him and his family twice and jumped into another workout. The rewarding part of meeting this remarkable man and his family was the openness and inspiration they gave.  I will definitely be cheering for him to run a successful race at the Olympics. Good Luck Hendrick!    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrick_Ramaala

Moving to New Mexico

This is the first time I have moved out of California. I arrived in New Mexico on the 1st of August and so far I am enjoying myself. I came out here for two reasons: Graduate school and running. I think I will try to keep a running log on this thing.