Crazyness

As training has been going well, sleep and socializing have been crazy.  From a bachelor party, to running parties, to a wedding... this past week has been very interesting.  I must say it has been fun, but to certain degree it can be a little too much fun.  Its a bit out of the ordinary for our house/friends to be embracing life this much, and I shall take it for what its worth.  The marathon is months away, but I'm sure every hour of debauchery can add up over the course of time to hinder on any performance.  We shall see how things turn out...   

Focused

So the past couple of weeks have been pretty good as far as training goes.  Not too many distractions, and surprisingly I've hit some high mileage weeks without even noticing it.  A few of us did our traditional Epic run over the Sandia's, which we completed in a much faster time than the previous times, and I felt a lot better this time.  Maybe it was due to the fluids I was taking... Either way, it was Epic and exciting.  We will be doing two more "Epic" runs leading up to Twin Cities Marathon in October.  Besides that run and tempo runs, we will be adding some fartleks into the training regimen starting tomorrow!  This I am excited for!  Some speed should help us out just as it did last fall.  

Our team also has another member; Dustin Hicks, who drove out here from North Carolina with his girlfriend to train with us for the marathon trials standard.  The group/team looks promising and all the guys are getting along.  As I titled this blog "Focused", it does seem as if many of the runners are very focused and determined to reach our goals.  There are so many personal and team goals that I have for us, which I know we can accomplish.  Some are broad, like wanting Albuquerque to be an American Distance mecca.  This will take time, support and collaboration, but its worth it.  And some are more personal, of course like hitting the US olympic trials standard.  Whereas others would be to have our team (Dukes Track Club) become a known training group where aspiring runners can train and develop.  Its all in good fun, and I'm excited to see everyone enjoying themselves.  

Once our damn website comes up, I'll have to post it on here.  Also, a congratulations to our temporary roommate, UNM athlete Matt Ashton, who finished 16th at NCAA 10k this past week.  This Brit is a great guy and brings a different aspect of life to us.  His teammate Chris Barnicle also placed well in the 10k, with a 13th place finish.  And of course Lee Emanuel was 3rd in the 1500m final, which was won wire to wire by German Fernandez.  Either way, these UNM guys are putting New Mexico on the map, and I only hope a tiny post-colligate group can add to the allure that Albuquerque offers.      

Again

Another great week of training has passed, and hopefully man more will come.  It was so amazing to be out there training with the guys and gals....  But more importantly the guys.  It can be tempting to push it and start full force, but I shall hold back for the time being.  Besides, my fitness doesn't even allow me to come back at full force, so that's a good thing.  

For the next few weeks I will just be building my mileage back up again for a late summer half marathon and a fall marathon with my team.  It should be fun and exciting.  Our team has grown and a few guys from different parts of the country have contacted us, so that is exciting as well.  If we can have a decent team for Club Cross Country, it should be a blast. 

Back to Running

I got to run for the entire week last week.  And so for things are feeling great!  I should be off to a few more weeks of just building up mileage, and then add in some tempo/threshold runs.  It should be interesting and exciting, but I am still upset that I did not have a track season.  I guess there is always next year...

6 week injury

Injuries are always fun, and I seem to always get one at the end of winter.  I had something pretty bad on my right leg along the perineal tendon.  I guess I rolled my ankle on a fartlek session and kept running through it.  I was not proactive about it, and didn't roll myself out, take rest, ice or anything that could help it out.  Just kept doing track sessions on it and after a few days it was unbearable.  Now, after 3 weeks of attempted cross-training/jogging, I'm now back to just jogging around.  Hopefully this will get better, and hopefully I've learned something about this.

What I do know is, watching the other guys running track sessions is killer!  I just want to be out there pounding away intervals with these guys and racing!  I seem to never have a decent track season, and my track pr's NEED to come down!  Oh well, there's always the roads...... which I am getting sick of, because I always want what I can't have.  In a few months when I'm racing on the roads, I'll be loving it and not thinking about track.