I've always been an 8/15 guy....

So it has been awhile since I last blogged. My apologies. Here is a quick recap of my indoor season:

1. Ran a 3k at Mines in which I was going to go after the fieldhouse record. Got on pace, and after about 2k, died a horrible death. Was running like 5 minute pace the last few laps. Ran 8:45 and got second. Still, a good experience to learn from.

2. Next, we went to New Mexico, and I paced the DMR the first night with Art, Greg and Dahlberg. Split a 3:01 and it felt pretty good. Still, not having worked on speed much, it was a little too fast to feel compfortable. Ran the mile the next day and Braun, McNiff and Bogatay put the hurt on me the last 300 meters. Still, ran a 4:09.23, which I was decently pleased with.

3. Ran the 3k at Grand Valley. Started out too aggressively (2:06 through 800) and ended up paying for it. Struggled from about 1500 to 2600 to stay on pace. Ultimately ran 8:04.85, which isn't great. But I've been putting in the most miles I ever had and we don't have a track up here, so I have to be realistic.

I guess that's about it. Some decent races and a great block of training to build off of going into the outdoor season.

Now it is off to Jacksonville with a solid BRC crew. I am so excited! The joke I have been making is that I have always been an 8/15 guy. However, that used to mean 800/1500. Now I guess it means 800/15,000. It's funnier in person. Or maybe not. Anyhow, I hope everyone is training really well and here is to many great races this Spring!

Paul

Here we go!

Last couple of weeks training is complete back to normal. Which is a great thing! Last week I ran 120 miles with 2 solid workouts. 3 x 6min, 1 mile with 2 min rest- miles were 5.01, 4.53, 4.51. my 6 min on i started on the track and did a road loop and finished on the track. my 6 min. were right on pace and my last mile was a little slower then I would have like to finished up. My fitness is really starting to come around which is good for Gate River 15k next week. My other workout last week was a 10 mile progression starting at 6 min pace and dropping to 5.10 pace. It was a little icy out, but i was able to drop it down pretty good. So I hit 6.00, 5.57, 5.47, 5.48, 5.34, 5.40, 5.23, 5.18, 5.21, 4.59. I didn't quite want to drop that last mile so fast, however I was hurting and i wanted to hit under 5.10 pretty bad so I pushed it pretty hard.

Last week was a great week of training going into Gate River 15k and this week has been pretty good as well. tuesday- 10x 3min on, 1min. off which was pretty good and yesterday I did a 4 mile threshold- 5.04, 4.56, 5.12, 5.56. there was a 10 mph wind for the first 3 miles. I will also hit 120 miles this week as well.

In other news! March madness and major league baseball starts soon! my picks are Kansas Jayhawks win national championship!(that's an easy pick) and the Royals have a winning season and make it to the playoffs! thoughts, concerns...

YUUUUUUUUP!

"This life is the sweetest life I've ever know"
Hope all is well for everyone! Thanks again everyone who follows me and the Boulder Running Company Team!
All is well on this side of town. Last time I blogged I was getting ready to compete and USA Indoor Champs.
Well, it's been a week since that happened. Let me tell you, race was whack! Went out super,super,super,super,super SLOW! During this point I was thinking... WTF! I going to the front! Once I got there, I decided to sit behind Lagat. Now that I look back, I should have taken the lead to make the race honest. Felt good, but overall I need to work on my strength. I felt good till the last couple of laps, which of course I had no kick due to not having enough strength to carry through. I ended up 8th (All American...lol).

The way the race ended up for me helped me realize what needs to be done for outdoor season. So I have upped my game and I am taking all this seriously! I have just been "out of sync" this Indoors. So from now on I'M DOING ME.

I am determined to create greatness for myself.
This is what I'm gonna do till it's over.... but it's far from over.
Until next time!


Click on this link to check out the race...
http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index

Running can be such a tough sport--up one minute down the next and I can only blame my own body! Back in 1998 (I know a LONG time ago), I hurt my hamstring during a long run in Dallas, TX. I was a freshman in college at Baylor and had met my dad there for the weekend. We did a long run in the pouring rain Sunday morning before we both headed back to our respective homes. I don’t remember specifically hurting it during that run, but the next day my hamstring hurt and did chronically for the next 6+ years. The injury was so bad that my hamstring was visibly atrophied on one side. I saw countless doctors and physical therapists yet could find nothing that would help alleviate the pain. UNTIL I met Brad Ott. Brad is a physical therapist who was different than the rest. He has done some weird things, but the funny thing is they all work. Who would have thought that by flicking my eyebrow my right hip flexor would start working?? Well, maybe it isn't quite as magical as that, but he is AMAZING. I have been working with Brad since 2004, I believe, and after years of dealing with injury after injury I could finally train at the level I wanted relatively injury-free (there is really no such thing as injury-free in running). He uses many different approaches but his main philosophy is not to just treat the symptom (upper hamstring pain) but to find the cause and correct that and while addressing the symptom. For some reason none of the other PTs would do that, instead that would use ultrasound and ice and maybe show me some strengthening exercises for my hamstring (which would actually make it worse).

However, my body is only as healthy as my follow through! All that seemed to be required was doing some exercises daily for maintenance (they take a total of like 5 minutes) and I would be good. But I am human (shocking I know); I would get lazy and not do them all the time. Consequently, I would take a fall or slip on some ice and would take several steps back. So, this past Sunday when I tripped and stumbled about 10 feet during a cool down after a long run with a tempo element in it I knew I was in for it! BUT this time was different; since October I have been going in to Brad's office at 7:00 AM twice a week for circuit work to really teach my body to stabilize with the right muscles and change my controlled fall (as Brad would call my running) to a really strong, efficient gait (after all I did compensate with the hamstring injury for over 6 years so I needed to retrain some of my muscles). I had been working hard and for the first time in years had been really consistent with the exercises and I could tell a HUGE difference when running up hills and fast. I felt in control! So, while I am dealing with some muscle soreness, this is the first time my pelvis did not go completely out of alignment and my hamstring isn't really even the issue this time. I did have to pull back on running this week, pull out of my race on Sunday to make sure I get back in control but I am not worried about the rest of my scheduled races or my marathon. So, I owe a huge thanks to Brad for his continued patience with me and for all of his hard work in keeping me healthy over the past 6+ years. As I read somewhere recently my body is my investment with running, so I greatly appreciate everyone who helps me take care of it!

Yay...I have bursitis!

So I know that this sounds weird but I am so excited to finally know what is wrong with my leg that I actually cheered when the doctor told me it was bursitis. I have been hurt for 9 months now and it took 3 medical opinions, 2 MRI's and a lecture in orthopedics to diagnose bursitis. I am truly amazed that with all the medical expertise out there, they still can't correctly diagnose bursitis. I have to tell you a little bit about the journey just because its slightly ridiculous.

I finally broke down and went to a fancy sports ortho clinic. The doc saw me for about 6 minutes (I know cause I timed it) and recommended an MRI. Got the MRI done. They called me back several days later because they needed a second MRI because my joint space was small(?) Cool, I have small joints. Anyway, the 2 MRI's showed nothing and the doc told me it was normal but we could inject the joint space "just in case" it was a meniscus tear. Hmmm...scary but I had nothing else to go on and scheduled the procedure. The day of the procedure I was in an surgical orthopedic rotation at The Children's Hospital and was telling my doc about the shot. He told me he thought it wasn't the greatest call and consulted a friend of his in sports medicine who agreed that it didn't make much sense (bad doctor) and I promptly called and canceled. Disappointed, I called another clinic for a second opinion. Long story short, this doc looked at the MRI, saw bursitis (good doc) , scheduled me for a ultrasound-guided cortisone shot and here I am, pain-free for the last 3 weeks! (good so far)

I have started back super slow but was able to run every day this week. I'm trying not to get my hopes real high, but I hope I can get some good mileage in the next month and start doing workouts soon. Can't wait!

It's not that cold anymore.

It's been kinda quiet lately on the running front, but it's also been a bit more quiet than usual on the BRC blogging front lately too though so I'll try do my part to help keep things lively.

Training-wise things have been semi-somewhat-so-so for about the last three weeks since US cross. I had a pretty good workout with former-UCCS'er Aldofo Carillo last week. We did 12 mins. hard followed by 6 mins. easy, 8 hard and 4 easy, 4 hard and 2 easy, 2 hard and 1 easy, then a couple of 45 seconds fast and 75 seconds easy. For an old dude Aldofo still has his wheels for sure. He claimed to be going off of my pace, however he was about five steps ahead the whole time and I was chasing him soooo.....not sure how that works. Kinda nice to have a "pacer" of sorts though. I felt like that was probably the best workout I've had lately. As an aside, later on when I took off my watch, I had the Running Watch Tan Line. That's right! AND I'm down to running in about 4 layers instead of 8. Spring has sprung! Well hopefully. Then the last few days I had a kind of jacked-up hamstring which effectively reduced most runs for the last several days to a slightly sub-9:30 minute mile pace granny shuffle. Basically a step above power-walking. Awesome. So a couple runs as well as the long run in the subsequent days were a wee bit sub-par. So then I got on the elliptical for 70-ish minutes after those runs, just to get the heart rate up, I have no idea how I stayed on that long--I hate all things stationary and/or cross training. However, Larry came to the rescue (again) with his magical healing touch and vanquished that problem. If I ever win some really cool race or something and get on TV, I'm going to look into the camera after crossing the line, throw gatorade in my face, give two-thumbs up, and say "Thanks Larry!" That'll look awesome.

Okay, getting back on track. The Jacksonville 15k is on March 13th and I'm running it with Tera, Adrian, and Nicole. I'm kinda nervous given that I have never raced over a 10k, and the last time I did that was almost two years ago. But sometimes the best stuff happens when you're not necessarily trying to make it happen, so we'll see.

Oh, and lastly I have to give a shout-out to the UCCS men's 4x400 team for winning the RMAC Indoor Champs--way to do work guys :)

That's all I got.

Yesterday was an awesome day. Russ, Cass, Jay, Adrian and I ran in the Snowman Stampede in Littleton. Its a great race with a 5 and 10 mile option and I really encourage everyone to sign up next year. There are also several other races in the series...check out coloradorunnermag.com for more info.
It was a nice day but unfortunately the course was pretty icy in spots. I'm a huge wimp on ice (just ask amanda after our run today) so parts of it were pretty slow. But I felt great and still got in a pretty decent workout. I also saw my friend John from Nebraska. I had no idea he was going to be there and it was really nice to catch up. He's one of those amazingly positive people that are always looking on the bright side. I like hanging out with him because it reminds me how good my life is and that I should appreciate it more.
My plantar doesn't hurt today and thats a huge relief. I've made some changes and things seem to be working out really well.
I'm a happy girl and my eye hasn't twitched in a long time :)

Training Update

Well the climb back into top fitness is well underway. I have been adding 5 miles a week for a while and have now started to get to the meat of this training cycle that will really set me up for this spring. I have had a major focus on doing all the little things that add up to make a big difference this training cycle. Although I haven't been perfect with my plan to do core strength twice, arm lift with core twice, and leg body weight lifting twice a week I can already tell that what I have been able to do is working. This week I ran two workouts, including hills and a long fartlek of 7654321 on 1 rest. I was very pleased with how the fartlek went as all of it was 5:20 pace or faster and the last 3 were really ripping. My long runs have been climbing like my mileage and I look forward to continuing to climb to 2hrs in a couple of weeks. Looking ahead to racing, the St. Patty's day 5k in Colorado Springs will be my spring opener. I don't expect big things from that 1st effort as I have no intention of backing off my training as my overall focus right now lies in Grand Rapids on May 8 for the 25k.